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Mostly agreeing…except that I still do not think Bush is calling the shots and that remember it was our security services that much of the CIA’s info was based on. They are seriously crap….they are cowboys and do not know what is going on.<br>What motivated Blair to lie?<br>Why is the only person who could tell us that dead?
Belezebub himself IS waiting….the prospect of the Tides Foundation ruling the world is terrifying, and even more closely allied to Blair than the Republicans.
We have to stop using the idea of left and right…they do not exist any more. Except in Venezuela and Nepal.
Sailing Shoes….You will not find any of the things I have said in the Daily Mail…they SUPPORTED the Chechen and Afghan rebels remember? And as I remember they also got pretty fired up about Madonna wearing Karakul.
This left and right thing is as false as al Quaeda. We have a Labour party who is so right wing they are almost fascist, yet propogate the politik of envy. Then you have a right wing America who instead of being liberallly conservative, are religiously bigoted. It is all mixed up because things have changed.
But check out the Tides Foundation for the alternative to Bush. Better the devil you know:
Vera Heinz is Kerry’s wife. I cannot think of a more global industry than Heinz, or one who has done more damage through encouraging intensive agriculture and mass cheap marketing of food. If we had them in power ….well…I suggest you watch Soylent Green. More social engineers. California Uber Alles.
No…give me the cowboy any time. <br>Just stop him listening to the Preacher.<br>
I would not suggest otherwise.
I think your view of Bush as an evil tryrant is just as naive. <br>Blair has an agenda in all this that is purely to do with his own ego, and the system of morality of his ideology<br>being enforced the world over. <br>I have no distatse for the French..whatever gave you that idea? You are reading something into my post that is not there.<br>Democracy can PRODUCE dictatorships…Hitler came from one of the best democracies the world has seen…the Wiemar republic.
The Arabs…or people in Africa etc…will never accept democracy…because it means that the largest group will opress the smaller ones.
They will also wonder why the West wont let them grow poppies, forwns on karakul and will go to war to stop them having nuclear power.<br>If we try to understand the other point of view and realise why there are problems then we can get to grips with them. Blair does have the influence to do that with the USA….because otherwise they are alone.
Al Queada are very real. Do not understimate that or the vast amount of moslems that will fight for a cause that pretends to support them. ÂÂÂ
Iraq must be divided or return to dictatorship. It is that simple. The best alternative is for it to be an ally of Iran.
Sometimes you cannot rule the world with good intentions especially when these are misunderstood .<br>Bush is frightened of something he genuinely believes is evil…but his actions have made the threat more real, and the moddle East a time bomb. If you think it is bad now just wait and see how worse it gets if we do not change the policy. We are seen as Crusaders and easy to see why….our being there diverts attention from the real problems in those countries , and makes our troops sitting ducks. A military force will always fail to keep the peace. It does not work to fight a war with one hand tied behind your back by politicians. <br>What was unbeleivably naive is that Blair and Bush thought the war was over when the statues of Saddam came down.
You can never negotiate with terrorists was what I meant.
I agree with your statement that  special interest groups are controlling democracy. That is why fundamantal Christians are corrupting republicanism in the US and animal rights are corrupting Labour. I also agree that the vast majority of us let it happen.
Yes I agree that our foreign policy has been wrong. That is what I am saying. But it is one…us and the US…that is encouraged to make a world wide market place for economic trade in things that we want. The Moslem world fear it. We have to stop exporting a thin veil of moral codes we think should be common to all yet produce situations like Somalia and Iraq and Afghanistan.
The thought of Bush being removed from office is frightening if it means The Kerry/Heinz form of Democrats, who have a very shadowy agenda of moral and economic imperialism themselves.
Putin is an opportunist and realist and has no ideological agenda. Therefore I trust him. We must talk to Syria…and so must the Isrealis which is the stumbling block. The two of them plus Egypt are stabilising influences, and no great natural allies of Iran.<br>Syria and other Arab nations must talk to Iran , but at the moment Moslems the world over just think…why is it okay for the west and Isreal to have nuclear energy but not us? Answer that.<br>And how simple would that be for Blair to explain to Bush? I agree he may not take any notice, but it must be pur and Blair makes no attempt to do that.
Ass licker or master , Blair has been the problem….not Bush. The anlogy of calming down an angry friend is not a bad one.<br>Time and time again Bush uses us as a justification of the war on terror as "allies". His assesment of the situation is naive but well intentioned. Blair MUST know its wrong but elevates his standing to go along with it…and I think encourage it.
We have to start questioning the validity of democracy in other nations.
An Afghan farmer with a poppy crop , and his neighnour with a thousand dead lamb pelts doesn’t give a f*** about the government and neither do the warlords who have come to power on defending…and indeed exploiting… them. They can grow poppies and rear sheep with high infant mortality. They have nothing else.<br>We have to buy their produce again as we always did when the region was famed for it …indeed we fought over it. But no no no that is unacceptable now.
An Iranian who sees a rich and corrupt west with real WMDs at their disposal who has bombed and invaded his neighbour will support anyone who will stand up for them too.
And the whole moslem world will resist if we continue with the Crusade for democratic values which they do not see as important.
And we need to stop analysing world affairs with the model that we have.<br>Remember when people here…press especially…supported the Chechen rebels and the Afghan rebels aginst the Russians? The Russians told us we were bonkers. They were right. But no we had to see them as freedom fighters. We brought all this on ourselves.<br>The majority of Chechens want to stay with Russia now, and we supported a terror which we assumed to be fighting communism when it was doing nothing of the sort. We begat al quada and the Taleban and that is just as much our fault as Bush’s. Greater because we should have known better…the US has no experience in these areas. Russia and France work with these nations, and the threat of an overland oil pipeleine system was just as much a threat to our island economy as the US. Stop trying to pretend we are not willing partners in this, and that makes us worse because we ought to know better.
<br>(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 9:26 pm on Sep. 5, 2006)<br>
(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 9:35 pm on Sep. 5, 2006)
Wait and see..Blair has HAD to change his view on the Lebanon…and my feeling is that Bush will listen.
What is significant though was Blair only listened to his<br>ambassador at the last minute. ÂÂÂ
Only Blair can prevent Bush strihing at Iran in the future too. <br>The one thing is…Blair CAN do it if he wants. OMG the thought of Gordon Brown in that situation….
It is like being in a pub and there is a bit of kerfuffle. You have a big strong mate who is not very bright but is honest and ready to give some bad gut a whacking. <br>Blair would be the one saying:<br>"go on, go on…do it…whack him."
For a moment the weak spineless coward has control of the whole pub, because his mate trusts him.
The French would be saying "eh mes amies…non non  non, q’est ce que c’est, le problem?"
Putin is the one that watches and waits then finally comes up with the overview that may not be morally right but is realistic….he talks to the friends of the people causing the trouble.<br>His comments to Bush and Blair about democracy in Iraq /Russia were priceless.
One thing for sure is we must NEVER talk to al queada,<br>as is being suggested by labour backbenchers and media luvvies. ÂÂÂ
But we must talk to Syria. They are the key ….Putin is the man who can bring peace to the whole region, and Blair could have told Bush that from day one. The bathists there may not be the nicest of people…but they have an uncanny ability to bring stability. I posted on another forum that there would be war in the Lebanon and Isreal within a year of Syria puling out…and yet the idiots in the western media and democracies encouraged it.
Democracy will only lead to more conflict , and the chaos that al quaeda and warlords seek, and inevitably fundamentalism.
Democracy is a washed up concept. It is for us…not the rest of the world.  And even then when it threatens minotities (smokers, rural people, moslems) with prejudiced law it undermines itself.
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for lunch. It may work.<br>But do not try to invite the cougar the bear and the horse and the rhino to the same dinner party because they will not have it;  and never even talk to the bot fly …but you must let the horses tail swat him.<br>
Waht we have here is a situation in the 80’s and 90’s where Pipe bought in new horses from France who had and edge, and prepared all his horses with regime for athletes.<br>He was therefore able to clean up, and got immediate results. However other trainers have now caught up with their training methods, buying horses from other sources (many Nicholls horses like Azertyuiop came from France too) and things are now more competitive.
However, we must also look at the fact that Irish horses finished 1 2 3 in the Gold Cup and a similar story in the National.
They have kept their best horses largely due to Government help, and have used the point to point scene to bring on horses instead of flat rejects. It reinforces my belief that national Hunt racing syill depends in part for it strength on hunting. Nicholls has strength in depth because he has that. Evan Williams etc. have come through the local popint to point/hunting scene here in Wales and riders like Christian Williams and his brother Nick and Robert Stephens etc. and before Emily Jones (ladies champion)<br>Remember to date Paul Nicholls Gold Cup winner has coem direct from the Hunting and point to point scene: <br>See More Business. Then Alner had "Cool Dawn" . "Best Mate" came from the Irish point to point scene.
The best horses for the best races will come from the hunting field.
The sooner people accept that then we can get back on track. We cannot take on the Irish with ex flat racers ar rop level,  even though over hurdles there will always be Istabraqs. But chasing is a different matter. It still needs stores at top level, and a different training regime which includes hunting, dressage etc.
My feeling is that David Pipe will be looking at quality and not quantity and looking to produce horses like Lord Atterbury as potential stars.
Of course, you must leave no stone untruned in the search for horses , so there will still be the ex flat horses and European imports.
But if you write off Pipe and Johnson you will be very unwise.
My prediction is that the Irish will continue to dominate for now, with the West country hunting scene providing the basis for the stringth there. Nicholls Pipe and Hobbs ,Evan Williams and Peter Bowen , and the borders trainers, will continue to dominate. We have a healthy p2p scene, because of hunting..and that  is where the strength in depth comes from . <br>Waht was Venetia’s Williams best horse? Teeton Mill. Where did you first see him? In a thrilling race at foxhunters evening with Double Thriller. Look at Nicholls success in the foxhunters with horses like Earthmover, and Pipe with Lord Atterbury.
(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 2:45 pm on Sep. 5, 2006)
I think that Bush has a naive way of looking at world affairs and beleives the USA to be doing the right thing for the middle east. <br>Blair however has a far more sophisticated understanding<br>so why did he go along with it?
Mind you, not that sophisticated…. much informed opinion advised that it was a no win situtaion.
It is like Afganhistan now. They have produced a record poppy harvest, and the British Army do not want to engage in that. If they do it will be disastrous.
The solution is simple but requires a realistic not moralistic assesment. The west must BUY the whole crop. Every year. It is NOT the Afghan peoples fault that <br>poppies cause problems re heroin. It is our fault; and our fault that they grow them in the first place.
The crop could be used for pharmacutical use, and the rest destroyed. End if heroin problem in the west.
We should also encourage and help them re their second major export…which we also condemn with our simplistic morality….Karakul. The AR movement and idiot media have interfered with a major part of the Afgahan economy again with stupid ideas. Significant however that about 60 fashion designers have used it in collections this year. <br>To the Afghans they couldn’t give a damn about democracy as long as they can sell their stuff. They were better off under the Russians because at least they bought Karakul, is the current view, and we are sitting on a time bomb there.
This attitude that people must adapt to change is moral imperialism and nearly EVERY change away from traditional economies have been ecologically disastrous.<br>It is rooted in Thatherism admitedly; the idea that people are economic units and must adapt to change when their product is not required any more. Well it was wrong …and even more wrong to apply it to poor nations.
Again to apply morality to the situation is misguided.
Back to the Blair Bush thing……why do you say it is a tosh assesment?
Do you really think that 9/11 wasn’t going to result in reprisals? It is an eintirely understandable gut reaction from the worlds most powerful military power. Blair has Bush’s ear. But instead tried to ride on his back for his ego and own agenda on the world affairs stage.
That is not someone who is doing something for the right reasons.
So what I am saying is that I can understand Bush but not Blair.
(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 2:09 pm on Sep. 5, 2006)
Well don’t say I don’t give good tips!!! I siad watch out for the Czech horses abroad.
Czech horses DOMINATED in Europe this weekend with wins in FOUR other countries:
Serge won at Baden Baden in Germany with Decent Fellow third<br>Vernar won at Merano in Italy<br>Kolorado and Moon Blade gave Paddy Aspell a double in Slovakia<br>Le Vent won in Austria.
That is pretty good going with a horse pool far far smaller than ours.
The sad news howvere is that Registana’s injury does after all rule her out of the Velka and is now reired to be covered probably by a German stallion.
<br>
I hope you are right.<br>What disturbs me most…is that the media and most observers have this wrong re the international scene.<br>It isn’y Blair kissing Bush’s butt….it is vice versa.<br>Bush thinks he is doing the right thing; I cannot get angry with him. It is hardly surprising after 9/11 ….but Blair could have stopped it. Instead he encouraged it.
Bush is a cowboy in a white hat and he could have been reined in by Blair easily. He was let loose by a man hell bent on giving himself power on the world stage by having a superpower under his influence. That is the only reason that Parliamnet was lied to re the WMDs.
And do not expect Brown to be any different. He is of the same Scottish " mafia ", and his methodism will ensure even more moral and social engineering.
Old Labour are corrupted . Finished. In any case they were always better biting at the heels of Tory excess in Parliamentary debate. They have turned a blind eye to these fascists to go along with having power when in truth they have less influence than when in opposition.
If you want the old Labour back I suggest you vote Tory next time….or we will be stuck with a party of social engineers financed by the AR movement , with fundamntal British liberties compromised, with ideas of forcing their values on the whole world by force if necessary. <br>The Moslem world will never accept that; and we have created an atmosphere of division in our own country that the rest of us are going to have to work hard for the rest of our lives to overcome.
The government and media have created division eveywhere and legitimised viloence and prejudice everywhere. It is now conseidered fair play to say that moslems should integrate more; to give abuse to anybody wearing a fur or foxhunting, to harras Jewish people (it is white people doing this not moslems) because of the situation in the Lebanon and Palestine;<br>to  criticise people from Eastern Europe ;to demonise and vilfy smokers; to attack anybody who doesn’t conform, looks or act different. The Police even TELL you that it is your own fault if you are attacked because you stand out too much…they have victim liason officers who ask you what you were wearing…crazy. Booze fuelled hatred is on the streets every night and when you have a Government and media giving people an excuse to turn on minorities, it is very dangerous. That is how things kick off in totalitarian states.
We have a lowest common denominator media , which cannot question because they are idle, ignorant, or controlled by the groups with most advertising power…how the hell do PETA and the RSPCA get quoted on everything when they kill so many animals ? <br>It is sick. The supermarkets dominate the food industry to the detriment of farmers and real conservation issues like them buying fish from illegal foreign fleets to keep fish prices artificailly low get igmored…yet NO newspaper will have a go at them for it because of their advertising budget.<br>The pop world have become the hypocritical priesthood <br>of morality with McCartney lecturing the Inuit and Geldof telling us the answers to African poverty when I wouldn’t even let him run an allotment. Meanwhile the wilderness gets raped for non renewable resources, far more marine mammlas die form oil spills to fuel our greed<br>than any hunting, and intensive crops like palm oil are wiping out species like wildfire. Pharmacutical giants and the medical profession blame everything on smoking so they can make fortunes from anti smoking products, and try to abdicate responsibility for health care and cure despite the fact that the tax balance is £6 billion in profit from smoking v smoking related disease.
But everything is okay say old Labour backbenchers because we have banned foxhunting.
This is about dumbing people down, making them conform, making them model citizens who do not question…. and eradicating difference and dissent through witch hunts if necessary. It is about keeping the maases dumb with poor education and even poorer entertainment: it is the age of Big Brother except we watch it as those in control smugly control us in a far more subtle and dangerous way.It is about everyone being employed by the state or in the service industries <br>and small entrepreneurs crushed by unfair competition because they are not major employers. Look at every high street in the UK…they are cloned….just like the people who fill them zombie like accepting poorer and poorer quality to satisfy a need for shareholders to have increased return on investments that masks a lie of cultural , social and commercial decay propped up by absurdly high property prices and supporting a bureaucratic, political, and global grey suited elite and the Lords Of The New Church the popular culture aristocracy. The rich have got richer (especially the New Labour politicians and  business supporters and media luvvies)<br>and the poor are hocked up to their eye balls in credit card debt just to pay utility bills from companies that any real socialist would have renationalised….they are the only things the state SHOULD interfere with.<br>If you have seen George Romero’s latest zombie movie you will realise that it is a parody of this. The zombies have changed…they wander around mimicking what they used to do as human beings.
<br>Emperor Blair is wearing no clothes and neither are any of his supporters.
The fundamental difference between Labour and Tory is a question of how much power the state has over people. The Government should fear people; not vice versa.<br>Get over Thatcher; the enemy is now not 30 years ago.
I may be repetitive, and yes I exagerate to make humour<br>…but I am no demagagogue…I do not want power over anyone…and I haven’t got all the answers…but I sure know the kind of questions we should ALL be asking.
What gets me is that the same people are happy to use the horses as a betting medium, without any love or real contact with them. <br>Nobody feels the loss of a horse more than the jockey, stable girl, and owner and trainer. The fact that the jumps game is not commercially motivated, and often uses the enthusiasm of horses bored by the flat, demonstrates for me it is about passion and real horse savvy.
If you had the choice Jamey to ride at top level at jumps or flat, honestly, which would it be?
I can only imagine never having ridden in a race the enormous trust and bond between a horse and rider…each trusting each other with their life when both are adrenalin pumped…it must be amazing. I think unique in the animal kingdom.
Can you describe how that feels, and about any special horses that you have had that bond with? Can you take us through the last stages of a race which was memorable for you?
(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 12:34 am on Sep. 4, 2006)
You don’t like Joe Tizzard Mr. Johnson?
I think he is a very underated jockey and looks after a horse well. Yes he isn’y the strongest in a finish….but is often there at the finish on horses that needed to be nursed there. He rode some lovely races on Green Green Desert for example, who loved him.
Any particular reason you don’t like Joe?
By the way…what has happened to that other rascal Montreal. I like him.
Reign of Fire is my all time favourite. I like the idea of dragons wiping out the planet; the Americans coming to save it (not) and the skydiving scenes  were incredible.<br>A truly great and underated movie that will gain cult recognition in future.
The Thriteenth warrior. Incredible movie. The Arab horse is wonderful. But the fear of the unknown keeps you glued to your seat. You are drawn in to believe the monster exists. The truth is even more monstrous.
Mildred Pierce. A classic of cinema in terms of style performance and story.Joan Crawford is superb. So many elements of fundamental human concern: loyalty, betrayal, ambition, love, jealousy…it has the lot….thrown in with great fashions, lighting…a forerunner of film noir.
Atarnarjuat the Fast runner. Awesome modern Inuit movie. Leaves you thinking for the rest of your life. Breathtaking.
Champions and Phar Lap were good too.
(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 12:15 am on Sep. 4, 2006)
our jumps jocks ride all year round now; so fitness is not ususallya problem; though a worry is their dedication..particularly with people like AP Mccoy. <br>When some jumps jocks retire though they pile on the weight; to the extent often where some are hard to imagine as ever having been jockeys.
So what is your fitness programme like , and what do you do off season? What weight to you have to ride at, what diet etc?
Also, is there a similar camaraderie in the weighing room that there is here?
Good posts.
Thank goodness Tony Benn has spoken up…who’d have thought he and I would ever agree on something…but surprisingly I often do.
Yes I agree that the thread did go off topic as it were, but I was pushed to defend a comment or two I made….which admittedly needed supporting.
However they ARE linked. This government believes they can MOULD people into perfect citizens, all sharing the same culture and morality whatever their colour etc. That is dangerous. So having a eugenics policy, banning smoking and hunting, and telling Moslems they must be more "westernised" if they live in Britain is all part of the same ideology. And; indeed it is IDENTICAL to the ideology of the Nazis; that is you cab "create" the perfect society by state interference and correcting deviant behaviour (including hunting and smoking!)
Watch out fat people; you are next.
This is all very very dangerous, and the way in which the Government has actually brought laws in "in the interests of public morality" (banning mink farming) which has never been used as a precedent in the UK before…and could be used as an excuse for any excessive government action….it needs repealling and declaring an illiegal Act); used the Parliament Act in banning hunting (against the spirit of constitution in times of non emergency); and watch EVERY financial transaction over £1000; monitor movements of every citizen and evesdrop constantly; threaten us with ID cards…….and use things like terrorism as an excuse. These are frightening things…I cannot beliecve nobody is concerned about the direction in which they are moving.<br>It is so akin to the principles of National Socialism especially when combined with alliance with big business. <br>Oh; you may say…they aren’t going to be able to have death squads like real fascists. Tell the Brazilian’s mother that. <br>And who kills themselves by slashing ONE wrist?<br>Big Blair is watching you
"Minority Report" around the corner……good job Art can warn you about stuff like this in advance eh:biggrin:
(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 7:43 pm on Sep. 3, 2006)
Look up the references on my myspace, tap in "Incentive Conservation" to your browser, look at the results the big game reseerves are having, and the way in which people like the Navajo have excellent results. Canada too. Hunters and biologists and conservationists work hand in hand.
The principle is exactly the same ….if you need to hunt…for recreation, subsistence or pest control….you have to manage the hunted population at sustainable numbers and protect their habitat.
It is very common for example to find people in the Hunt rearing fox cubs whose mothers have been killed by careless urban drivers. Coverts and hedgerows are protected, and worked hard on by members of the hunts voluntarily often.
Even Greenpeace are coming around to the idea that at lest traditional indigenous hunting…even the Sami fur trade…protects habitats.
The WWF and Greenpeace will change their tune publically on all forms of hunting (as distinct from poaching) soon…they will have to. Here is one example why:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3622108.htm
Now this is unacceptable. This area once made its income form the fur trade. Reared chinchilla and hunted nutria.<br>These traditional things protected habitats. Ironic actually that they turned to gm soya as the market for fur collapsed anticipating world wide vegetarianism. Now 70% of the production goes into EEC animal feed<br>because nobody will eat it, and it has made the market hard for both free range animal farmers and legitimate soya prices.
The ONLY areas not affected by this disgrace is where the few chicngilla farms and native people who insist on protecting their hunting lands are.
So again we see that the animal rights movement has contributed to extinctions of animals.
If you have no incentive, no need , for animlas….then you take their habitat. That is how it works all over the planet.
The Rip Declaration on the Environment styates clearly taht indeigenous peoples have the right to manage their own habitats using "traditiona methods and practices" Article 21 I think it is; can’t remember offhand.
That means HUNTING and FUR TRADE.
That was produced by all the top Canservationists in the world.
It is easy to see that the same principle applies to habitat protection in the UK.
So less of the hmmmm please.
Wait till you hear what the Inuit and others have to say during next years International Year of the Arctic. Expect a damning criticism of what we are doing to the planet and an affrimantion of their rights to hunt and sell fur including seal pelts (as their only sustaninable resource) to the world.
You won’t find a conservationist not right behind them.
Yet STILL the ignorant Westminster politicans and their animal rights paymasters scream for seal furs to be banned. Still you have idiots like Anne Widdecombe (a Tory) wanting to ban the Guards from buying bearskins form Canada that come from sustainible hunting of a species that are at huge numbers, done WITH the supervisison of conservationists in the field.
(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 3:52 pm on Sep. 3, 2006)
True but it would allow a great showcase. I am a big supporter of mixed meetings anyway as they have in Ireland.
Jamey….the purses sound quite high to us! our point to point scene has purses of only $300 !
Is any US jumps racing televised? How about general press coverage? I was stunned that the death of one of our top jumps trainers was reported in the US press a fair bit online.
Are there ine or two big sponsor there who really supports jumps racing? If so who?
Most Hunts have already this season been banned from riding across a small minority of fearful of prosecution farmers land. This means no riding on their land full stop. <br>It also means the complete eradication of foxes in these areas (as happened in Nazi occupied Czechoslaovakia) through poison and snaring and gun.
It this spreads , there will be nowhere to ride apart form crappy bridleways. Horses (and their riders) will die of boredom. people will no longer want retired racehorses. I would NOT TOUCH ONE without the knowledge that if they got bored I could take them hunting. A bored throughbred is not a nice animal.
So what are you hoing to do with all the retired racehorses?
The 90% figure (conservationists) was anecdotal; and also based on the academis references on the net; but I have encountered at least a 100 in my wildlife work, and only come across ONE who was anti hunting, and he has since changed his mind.<br>Check out the references on my website.
http://www.myspace.com/davedent
Do it. You will find everything at the bottom in my profile just about leads to hunting and conservation. <br>Waht is happeneing in the countryside at the moment is awful; and why many hunts have now turned from guns to birds of prey to kill tyhe fox once flushed…which gives him a far better chance of escape. When again, CONSERVATIONISTS warned, and also suggested,  that this would , and could, be done, Labour politicians laughed. They should have realised that such birds are used to hunt WOLF in Mongolia. It is urban prejudice and unbelievable ignorance of hunting in all its manifestations yet again. An Eagle, a large falcon or owl, can take out fox . It isn’t as pretty as when the hounds do it though…the bird  takes longer about it.
But for the moment it offers a lifeline to the fox thankfully.
When are you townies going to do something about real animal welfare and the millions of mammals and birds killed in the most gruesome manner in cities with poison? I am sick to death of picking up dead cats with burst stomachs, owls too, because of rat poison (they eat the slow dying rat) and I find it far more distressing to see than the Hunt. What is that about? <br>If you have a problem with rats, get the gypsies in with their terriers. A problem with pigeons get the Hawk man in. And maybe it would be a little kinder to use hounds on the urban fox …met councils kill far more than hunts every year. Ring the GLC and ask if you don’t believe me.
When the WWF , the only true conservation charity, are making Big Game hunting reserves in Africa, and sable hunting reserves in Siberia you have to respect that new perspective. It is the ONLY long term effective method of conservation. Ask David Bellamy.
It is called Incentive conservation and you will struggle to find a REAL Conservationist professional who does not now support that.
If you want to see foxes in the future, and preserve the chaarcter of our countryside, and not have horses thrown on the scrapheap after racing, then you should get behind the fiight to save it.
I appreciate you have discussed this before; but it must remain in the cosciousness because you will NOT find many racing professionals who are not estremely worried by it.
Flat racing unaffected? Waht happens to all the poorer quality, and gelded horses then? There are tens of thousands of these animals enjoying a life after racing by hunting. I even a know former hunt sab who now goes hunting since he has had a horse.
Flat racing in its present form is unacceptable to me ethically but we do not want to do our dirty washing in public.<br>Jumps racing is beyond reproach in terms of after care for the vast majority of horses THANKS to hunting.  Also in its gentle nursing of young animals so they are fully formed when beginning. Let us not firget that; you know what I am talking about.
If the flat racing world does not back us on the issue, (and actually the vasy majority of professionals do)then Flat racing will come under far more intense scrutiny by the AR brigade. And it will be banned too eventually. Please remember PETA will never stop until the Thoroughbred is completely eliminated as a breed. And when we have a Government whose biggest contributor independent is the AR lobby look out. Both should be opposed by anyone who cares about horses, or conservation.
Back to the main point.<br>When you want to produce a society which conforms to the moral code of the people in Government, it undermines democracy itself. That is why the Arabs will never accept it; because one lot will use it as a mandate to opress another.
Blair believes that fiture "menace to society" can be stopped by early state intervention. That is the same as the fascist view. It is social engineering, and it stinks. <br>It is not disimilar to the absurd failure of compensatory education (which they also support), and preventataive measures rather than cure in health. It leads us up the garden path and is ethically without foundation.
You cannot prevent cervical cancer by stopping people smoking; though it was widely believed by the medical profession that you could. The nature of the evidence was no different to that which links lung cancer to smoking. If they concentrate on cure they would find things like Helicobactor and human papiloma far sooner. <br>I will like to make a small bet that they will find a viral link to lung cancer within five years. Anyone want to take me up?
Likewise you cannot prevent antisocial behaviour by state interference. Weren’t any of you guys brought up on "A Clockwork Orange?"
I remember my brother had some of that crap when he was young. Cild psychoatrists watching hos every move, and my mother’s head being filled with crap. He went off the rails because he realised that we had a crap life, and looked for am immediate solution to it. He was in the bookies at the age of 12 and in bed with  posh birds <br>a couple of years later and did speed. He was sent to be examined by psychiatrists by social workers. He ended up forcing the square pegs in the round holes. Roll on Ludwig Van.
Leave people alone and give them a helping hand when they ask for it instead of getting in their way. Give them an education that is academic and can enable them to reach lofty goals, instead of condening them to vicational education for jobs that often aren’t there; and even when they are they have no idea why they are doing them and it causes alienation…the true root of most social problems.
And if they do turn bad; then enforce the law.
The only way to "cure" the menace to society is to lock him up and have zero tolerance. That works. It deters.
REWARD those who try to start their own fledgling businesses; instead of blocking their every move with red tape.
Yesterday I took some real free range eggs to my local banghladeshi restaurant. They thanked me and said they would share them out and take them home. They are not allowed to use such eggs because of health and safety. Yet they are allowed to use supermarket eggs. I wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole, yet thay are allowed. That is just one little way in which government red tape is absurd.
I want a Tory government to lift every damn one of the 4000 laws and regulations introduced by new Labour;<br>and a commitment NOT to interfere with people’s lives<br> to engineer a Borg Hive.
<br>(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 8:54 pm on Sep. 2, 2006)<br>
(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 8:58 pm on Sep. 2, 2006)
Thanks Jamey; some illuminating answers.
Last year the first International steeplechasing convention was held and Edward Gillespie of Cheltenham has been brilliant in supporting an international dimension to steelplechasing.
We have had one or two American horses run at Cheltenham a few years ago; but these examples are few and far between.
Do you think that the profile of American jumps racing will be encouraged by this, or do you think that the distance and cost would be offputting for raiders in either direction?<br>How could it be viewed by the jumps racing fraternity that Dai Williams sends a horse for example, next month? It is a useful horse by the way. I know Jimmy Frost when he rode Champion Hurdle Morley Street there in the US was quite surprised by the media attention he got….he was even on a chat show!
I think it is great that you have attracted so many girls to your myspace and are doing a great PR job for jumps racing. I would think that the British and Irish jumps boys will soon be on there when they see the following you have among the girls!!!
Do you think you will ever come to the UK for a stint?
ps by the way, Jocks comment about the Grand National…it is on BBC thankfully!!! ITV is dross and doesn’t cover racing at all any more!!!
(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 7:48 pm on Sep. 2, 2006)
Hi Jamie and welcome. One thing I have noticed from myspace is that the US jumps scene seems quite vibrant….quite a few people on there who are quite passionate about it. I was amazed to read on your excellent myspace that George Washington was once an amateur steeplechase jockey!!! <br> Sadly we do not hear a lot about US jumps here, apart from when Morley Street ran there; though Dai Williams sends a runner next month.<br>My questions would be:<br>Here we notice a definite difference in terms of more enthusiasm and atmosphere in jumps racing next to flat. In your region is it the same? Also is it confined to the East ? And what sort of crowds do you get..are they knowledgeable and supportive? Our jumps jockeys get a real buzz from the entusiasm of our crowds in sometimes horrendous weather, and wondered if it is the same there.<br>The Timber races seem to get big crowds…have you ridden in them?
(Edited by GreenGreenDesert at 5:35 am on Sep. 2, 2006)
