FOX hunters have promised they'll be back for next year's traditional Boxing Day meet, and it's a promise they won't find hard to keep. According to a recent poll, the public at large still wants the February 18 ban on hunting to be enforced, but, sadly for it, the public does not have the backing of the government which, less than a couple of weeks ago made it clear it would not be opposing a legal challenge to its own Bill from the Countryside Alliance. Such a decision by a government not to resist moves to scupper one of its its own recently-passed acts is almost certainly unprecedented, dubiously constitutional, and proves what a poorly-drafted and ill-thought-through law it would be. The injunction sought by the Countryside Alliance is, however, a godsend to Number 10 which otherwise would have to plan for a general election against a backdrop of mass civil disobedience. In any event, courts in Scotland have already shown that enforcing the law as it stands is well-nigh impossible. Hence yesterday's meets, which would otherwise have been the last of their kind, legally, at this time of year, will be able to continue until the legal wrangling is resolved, or a new Bill drafted, or a new government elected. And, even if the legal challenge fails, huntsmen will still be able to meet to "exercise" their hounds which may just happen to scent a fox and give chase. The ban, as drafted, is thus one of the most farcical ever devised for the statute books: impossible to define or interpret, impossible therefore to police, and so woolly as to be worthless as the basis for a successful prosecution - unless we hark back to the Middle Ages when animals themselves were put on trial. Worse still - for the foxes - if the challenge is thrown out, they will find themselves being legally shot and quite possibly not killed outright, or illegally shot, snared or poisoned. At the end of a disastrous year for the government's credibility, the Parliament Act had to be invoked for only the fourth time in over 50 years, quite possibly undemocratically inasmuch as it did not apply in this case, to bring in law which the government did not even really want. Small wonder the roads are currently littered with the corpses of foxes. One can only presume they are hurling themselves under the wheels of cars and lorries in despair. | 
