Foxhunting

The ban on hunting with hounds will go ahead, reports the BBC.

The law will now come into force on Friday although it is unclear whether prosecutions and arrests will follow. The attorney general has ruled out a "blanket policy of non-enforcement", which the Countryside Alliance wanted to be put in place until all its legal avenues were exhausted.

In a statement, his office said: "The attorney general will, however consider with the director of public prosecutions and police what approach to take in relation to such prosecutions, and will be holding a meeting in the near future for that purpose."

I find it amazing that the government's senior lawyer can suggest, even obliquely, that a newly introduced law will not be enforced to the letter. What is the point of putting a law in place in the first place if the first thing you do when it's on the statute book is to hint loudly that a blind eye will be turned to its flouting. The effect is to reduce English Law to being a branch of the public relations industry, and for a barrister like Mr Blair to bring that state of affairs about would be a sorry epitaph.