Supporters of fox hunting stormed Britain's parliament Wednesday and clashed with police in the streets, but failed to stop lawmakers from voting by an overwhelming margin to ban the blood sport.
Debate was suspended for 30 minutes after five pro-hunt protesters, in the first incident of its kind in modern times, burst into the House of Commons chamber -- the second dramatic security breach in London in three days.
"Clearly the intrusion was a carefully planned operation," said Commons speaker Michael Martin, adding that parliament was asking police to carry out a full investigation.
The five, wearing T-shirts depicting Prime Minister Tony Blair with devil's horns, were arrested -- while outside, riot police with batons and tear gas kept back 10,000 furious pro-hunt demonstrators hurling bottles and fireworks.
At least 19 people were injured in the melee, including a police officer, while a total of seven people were arrested, the Metropolitan Police said.
In a late-night statement, police said the five intruders, plus three others who failed to enter the Commons chamber, all aged 21 to 42, had been charged with violent disorder, burglary with intent to commit criminal damage, and "suspicion of uttering a forged instrument."
Despite the protests and after an afternoon of debate, MPs voted 356 to 166 in favor of legislation to ban fox hunting with dogs in England and Wales. The blood sport has been banned in Scotland since 2002.
They then went on to vote 342-15 for the ban to take effect in July 2006, enabling countryside dwellers whose livelihoods depend on fox hunting to find other means to make a living.
The legislation goes Thursday to the House of Lords, which has stalled previous attempts at banning fox hunting.
This time around, however, Blair's government has pledged to use special laws to overrule the unelected upper house to put the ban in place after years of controversy. But Wednesday was certain to be remembered as the first time that "strangers," to use a quaint parliamentary phrase, have invaded the Commons floor in modern times, and possibly since Charles I invaded parliament in 1642.
It occurred four months after Blair was hit by a condom full of purple-colored flour thrown from the public gallery, and two days after a protester dressed as Batman climbed onto a ledge at the front of Buckingham Palace, the official residence of Queen Elizabeth II.
Both stunts were the work of a fathers' rights group, but observers inevitably wondered what could have happened if hardened terrorists had been the perpetrators.
One of the five protesters was Otis Ferry, 21, Britain's youngest hunt master, news media reported. Ferry is the son of rock crooner Bryan Ferry, of the 1970s band Roxy Music.
Another, Luke Tomlinson, 27, is an Eton-educated top polo player and long-standing friend of Prince William and Prince Harry, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.
Martin, the Commons speaker, said a total of eight men gained access from parliament's main public entrance, St Stephen's Gate, using a forged letter inviting them to a meeting in a committee corridor.
Once inside, they were led to a stairway, "probably" by someone with a parliamentary pass, whipped off their jackets, then rushed doorkeepers who managed to stop only three of them.
Blair was not in the Commons at the time, nor did he vote on the ban.
Banning fox hunting has been simmering since the Labour Party took power in 1997, and came to a boil in September last year when more than 400,000 hunt supporters bore down on London for an unprecedented march.
Supporters insist the practice is an inalienable right in rural Britain, unappreciated by city dwellers, and a rural tradition which helps control countryside pests and provides thousands of jobs.
Opponents say it is both elitist and barbaric, with a pack of dogs tracking a live animal and then tearing it apart. Opinion polls suggest that a majority of Britons favor a ban.
The Commons has overwhelmingly adopted legislation to ban fox hunting before, most recently in June 2003, only to see it blocked in the Lords, which has deep roots in the land-owning aristocracy.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
RSS