Fox hunting ban consequences

[RJ]

When a farmer says "I don't much feel like co-operating with you lot after the way we have been treated over the fox hunting ban.... and anyway I will have sheep and lambs in that field at that time."

So, no car parking field! What do you think? Sign of the times. The future!?!

[ryeland of doom]

Well there is no reasoning with idiots......


What on earth has orienteering got to do with fox hunting? for or against?

[gross2006]

Well there is no reasoning with idiots......


What on earth has orienteering got to do with fox hunting? for or against?

Not much.... but you can't park cars in a field full of sheep & lambs....

[CHS]

Had he already agreed to have a field avaliable for parking?

[RJ]

Field has been available previously. Fortunately that was the opening gambit, and the problem was solved amicably.

I used the exchange to illustrate how sensitive our relationship is with the people whose co-operation we seek. Approaching someone for the first time might not have had that outcome.

[awk]

What on earth has orienteering got to do with fox hunting? for or against?

Nothing, but orienteers are often perceived as townies, and townies are perceived as the driving force behind the ban. Not logical, not always the case, but when were stereotypical perceptions ever otherwise? Just as the other day I was lambased for being a cyclist, because 'cyclists are dangerous because they never have lights and always ignore the rules of the road'.

I had a long and interesting chat with a farmer up in Cumbria a couple of months ago whilst out walking (we were watching the hounds hunt back of Skiddaw), and the sense of the 'outside' world being against rural population is very strong. And orienteers are on the whole 'outsiders'.

[rob f]

orienteers are often perceived as townies

what the hell

[J.Tullster]

awk wrote:
orienteers are often perceived as townies


what the hell

...Cos most of them probably live in the town! Also just because you run in the countryside doesn't mean you know much about farming. Also if a farmer says he's going to have sheep and lambs in the field, then that's probably fair enough.

[Bilson]

Awk is right.

We probably ought not to turn this into some kind of crazy political debate, but I think there's a growing dissatisfaction in the countryside. Many farmers, and much of the rural population in general - especially in areas which are pretty much ignored (like Cumbria) - do feel very victimised about many, many issues - and issues which have been around for a long time. Foxhunting is just one of them.

Hence we have the Countryside Alliance (which, of course, is one of the most ridiculously reductive and ultimately counterproductive organisations the world has ever seen). By the way, not all farmers, nor all country people, are in favour of bloodsports. People in the country feel so dissatisfied by a city-centric politics and media, that they would rather show solidarity with their neighbours - even if they do not wholely agree with them.

We all know how invalid stereotypes are - but the farmer is often stereotyped as being miserable and grumpy. If farmers and country folk are miserable and grumpy (and I'll grant you, many of them are) then its because they feel their way of life is under threat. Townies are disliked mainly because of their percieved ignorance and indifference towards this countryside culture.

Orienteers, runners, walkers, whatever are not held to be townies as such necessarily - but they are still often thought of as an imposition. They are outsiders to a group of people who perceive themselves to be under threat - and hence are bound to be viewed with suspicion.

Many farmers have little time or inclination for sport - their work being their life. So I suppose there's also a bit of incomprehension in there, too: "Those daft buggers in the bright clothes want to come and run about the fells again". As townies are all daft buggers, daft buggers are often assumed to be townies. Either way, none of them are local.



Anyway, it strikes me now that I've just re-hashed what Awk had to say. But, as I was brought up on a farm, I guess this goes some way to proving that he's right.

[ryeland of doom]

Precious few local folk in the country now.....

We are all in the towns looking for work and affordable housing.


I hate the stereotyping of agricultural workers... Oh the days when a rainstorm on a june morning meant we could not make hay or shear/defootrot/dip sheep - so I could bugger off orienteering....

Daft folk in pyjamas in the country too ( or there were once) .

No hunting, but we did have SinS campers every other year.......