This Boxing Day, according to the BBC we had some quarter of a million people out participating in hunts across some three hundred locations in the UK.

Labour's 1997 election manifesto promised a free vote in parliament on banning fox hunting, something that we carried out. Unfortunately thanks to the influence of Tory MPs and the House of Lords a ban on fox hunting had to be watered down, and made in my opinion ineffective. We clearly see the same old stuff going on, only now within the law, the hounds - so the huntsmen and women claim no longer kill the foxes.

The larger issue is untouched by the ban. As a society, we have decided that people chasing after and killing animals is immoral, especially when done in the way these hunts are carried out, viewed as entertainment! A jolly good day out! Population management, as these people claim they're doing shouldn't be a good day's entertainment.

Things have been looking up for the pro-hunt crowd over the last couple of years since the ban, it energised those in favour of fox hunting, while those opposed thinking they had won almost went into hibernation. It is starting to show, the Countryside Alliance is so bold enough to claim "With growing support from MPs and candidates of all political parties the hunting ban is on borrowed time."

I believe we should push for a new ban, a ban that doesn't give way to the Tory MPs and the House of Lords. We should go all the way and get a total ban on this barbaric practice.