Boos, wine and tax cuts at the Channel 4 political awards

Simon

Hain toast - another victory for the great Clegg no doubt!

Northernhousewife

Does Alistair Campbell have any redeeming features? I must apologise on behalf of all northerners. Not because he is typical of us but rather because my guess is that he was bullied remorsely at school for being such a jerk.

Alex R

Fraser, Don't think you want to compare yourself to Iowa. Iowa hasn't picked a president since Carter and it doesn't look like bucking that trend this time around (anyone still remember Mick Huckabee?). New Hampshire is the real trend setter.

Kevyn Bodman

I like Mr. Hague as a politician, I'm glad he was cheered. But I'm surprised and shocked that that there would be booing for Ann Mallalieu accepting the award for the Countryside Alliance. First of all because the Countryside Alliance has done a good job campaigning for freedom; but even more so because, although some members of the audience might have preferred a different winner, it's a very disappointing display of bad manners. There is a disconnect between the political class and the rest of the country. We see evidence of this nearly every day.So Peter Oborne's book must have some merit because it charts this, even though the book may not be an all-time great.

Manfredo Felice

There is no "Iowa primary"--it is a caucus. And, as noted by "Alex R", it very rarely predicts winners. Although Mr. R is incorrect about the last time it did happen--GWB won both the Iowa caucuses and the presidency in 2000 (in fact both eventual nominees--Bush and Gore--won Iowa that year).

CS

What's the difference between a primary and a caucus then? I've never understood.

Dave B

Jonathan Isaby names one of the 'boors' as "Sandra Gidley, the Liberal Democrat MP for Romsey".

Nicholas Millman

Booing the Countryside Alliance? I wonder if Caroline of this blog was present to add her socialist din to the display of boorish rudeness? One has to expect such behaviour from upstart serfs.

David McEwan Hill

Odd that Alex Salmond's ranking as the highest placed politician is completely ignored.

TGF UKIP

Nice one Nicholas Millman! Fraser, this piece does say an awful lot about the riff raff you consort with.

Giles Bradshaw

It's about time the Countryside Alliance realised that the vast majority of decent civilised people abhor hunting and other forms of animal abuse.

Caroline

Nicholas M. I found this report about the Channel 4 Awards on the Paul Flynn MP website. It gives more detail of the contenders for the award, and explains why the noble Baroness (and Ms. Hoey?) were booed. I think most of us, now knowing the who the candidates are, would have been surprised at the CA winning. The incredulity of the audience was because CA had won only because the vote was rigged. An un-named, unknown panel short-listed the hunting fanatics of the Countryside Alliance for the award. The full shortlist was Tony Blair: Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness: Ken Livingstone: Alex Salmond: The Countryside Alliance and Anti-Iraq war protesters: There was campaign for mass voting for the animal abusers and –surprise-surprise- the CA won. It’s hard to believe that the non-achievements of the CA could compete among reasonable people with any of the other nominees. What have they done? Lost a campaign against the Hunting Act and lost a fortune in appeals to courts against the Act ? All the other nominees have changed the course of history. The CA will not merit a footnote to a footnote when the history of the decade is written. There is no check on multiple voting. This even after the string of recent scandals on rigged telephone ballots. The result is meaningless and the audience should be congratulated for greeting it with contempt. The awards and Channel Four are demeaned.

Giles Bradshaw (the real one)

BTW the above comment is not from me! Just some sad idiot pretending to be me.

CARREG

When the audience jeered Ms Mallalieu they were showing their contempt for people who get their kicks out of abusing animals.

Frankie James

What on earth is the merit in winning a vote that has no regulation to control vote rigging. The whole thing is a non event as far as I can see and panders to a rather sad group of people who seem to want kudos even when it is worthless as this award obviously is. Anyone can win if they can organise a multiple voting network. Perhaps the award could be for the best scam. That would work.

Liam Thom ("Becky")

It's an sbsolute scandal that the nasty Countryside Alliance won this award. By rights it should have gone to one of the Lesbian, Gay and Transexual organisations to which I devote so much of my spare time as a volunteer.

alan hughes

what else can i say but idiots attract idiots

Giles Bradshaw (the real one) and Charles Henry

Yes we really do abhor hunters and as for Fraser Nelson saying in the text above 'full marks to Channel 4 for honouring the CA' well all I can say is get a conscience. Why should we honour a mob of law breakers who broke in to the house of commons, fought with the police when they protested in Parliament and frequently abuse and assault perfectly legal hunt monitors ? And where are the CA when it comes to real issue about the countryside, Countyside Alliance my foot, mob of blood thirsty animal abusers more like, don't see them marching about other rural issues do we! Who in their right mind would vote for this mob except themselves!

Nicholas Millman

Ah, now I understand. This is really just about fox hunting. It arouses such passion. Caroline - that's not much of a list is it? A thoroughly discredited, war-mongering ex-PM, the two sides of Northern Ireland extremism, the London GDR Gauleiter, the man who wants to break up Britain and a load of duffel-coated and dog-collared lefties who have nothing to do now Greenham Common is closed. Inspiring political figure? Against that lot I can see why the CA begins to look attractive. Surprised David Cameron wasn't nominated - his speech at the Tory Conference was inspiring (David Lindsay & TGF UKIP no need to respond re last comment).

B Wright

The CA are animal abusers. This is a farce awarding them anything but jail time!

Tom_Faggus (Exmoor)

I agree with Becky: a gay and lesbian organisation should have got this award. It's tough being a gay man in Exmoor but I'm out and proud. At the same time, I totally despise the awful animal-abusing degenerates who torment deer for fun.

margaret hackney

Why have the C & A been given this award ? The openly flout the law by hunting with hounds. They have a booklet out for its members to help them to break the law every time they go out for the hunt. They openly support members who assault both male and female hunt monitors. The Countryside Alliance have no respect for our wildlife or the countryside. They care nothing for the suffering they cause or the fact that many of thier members and supporters are involved in the illegal hunting and killing of animals, not just foxes, but also deer, hares, rabbits, and badgers. Why channel four have given them this award beggars belief and should be explained. My family and I will boycott channel 4 and I am sure most of my friends will. I am thoroughly disgusted.

L Flanagan

I am thoroughly nauseated by this, the CA know nothing but cruelty, brutality and savagery, but am pleased to see that this was recognised by the audience. That award should have gone to a deserving cause. This beggars belief in what is considered a civilised society.

Nicholas Millman

I see the baying anti-hunt lobby are wise to this thread and have sent in their trolls! They must be really disappointed that the law that attempted to ban 1,000 years of rural English tradition turned out to be such an ass. Meanwhile real animal abuse continues everywhere across the globe with not a single sniff from this wonderful government.

Caroline

Nicholas M. Really - if only anti-hunt supporters, otherwise known as 'trolls' were as organised as the CA this thread would be totally overwhelmed with comments. Sorry - you want GB to (wait for it) 'waste taxpayers money' prodnosing into world wide animal abuse? Perhaps be better to ring Simon Hart first to obtain an explanation of cubbing before criticising anyone else. Get over yourself Nicholas. Ms. Hoey couldn't crack a smile collecting the award and looked really uncomfortable, and the usual holier than thou, poor hard done to speech from the Baroness was hardly appreciated. At least Alastair was polite enough to clap though. Good chap. .

Mary Mitchell

I can only hold the Channel 4 panel who voted for these animal abusing law breakers , in the same contempt that I hold for the CA. Protesters have every right to boo and hiss their displeasure when the CA have far more grievious harm on the animals and hunt monitors. I look forward to the day they go the way of the defenders of the slave trade.

Ed

What a odd statement by Kevyn Bodman; the CA "has done a good job campaigning for freedom". The freedom to oppress prehaps? The CA represent nothing about the countryside that their misleading name suggests.

Giles Bradshaw

I see the hunting trolls have come out from their holes to spout their usual rubbish. If you want to dress up in silly costumes go ahead but why abuse animals in the process?

David

Congratulations to the CA. The very ungracious speech by Campbell and the reaction by some of the audience to the CA win tell us all we need to know about the left.

Heywood Yerbloemie

Mary Mitchell: Yes, people do have 'the right' to boo and hiss. But maybe it is a mark of one's dignity and maturity that one would refrain from exercising that right, particularly on a social occasion. Yes, some people resent the way in which the pro-CA votes were mobilised; but the anti-CA elements would have served their cause far better by reflecting that it was only an awards ceremony, and not a particularly significant one, and enduring the event with grace. Sadly, even though the anti-hunting lobby has had its way in parliament, their legislation is in force, and they are acknowledged as the 'victors', they and their supporters still persist in behaving as though they are the victim of injustice. This is a common trait among the eternally paranoid, nannying, bullying left. And such poor behaviour is now characteristic of left-liberal discourse. (Indeed, in a recent survey of various US blogs, it was observed that 'left'(ish) sites resort to profanity and personal abuse more frequently than the 'right'(ish) by a factor of seventeen.) I'm not saying there aren't nasty and unpleasant people on 'the right' - I'd happily trade you Richard Littlejohn for Kevin Maguire. But, had Mr Livingstone won, I doubt Charles Moore or Dominic Lawson would have been heckling.

Nicholas Millman

"it was observed that 'left'(ish) sites resort to profanity and personal abuse more frequently than the 'right'(ish) by a factor of seventeen."

Interesting. Thanks for that and confirming something I had long suspected.

And just for Giles: Don't hunt, can't hunt, won't hunt. Don't even follow the pack. Try not to follow any packs.

George

Great! Good to hear that people in the audience were good enough to see sense. If I was there I would have booed myself senseless, those hunt scum deserve all the disrespect and abuse they get for killing and maiming innocent foxes, campaign for freedom? Yeah right, open your eyes! The peace activists should have won.

Giles Bradshaw

Millman, it's about time you suburban types realised that real country people don't want the ghastly pantomime of fox and deer hunting any more. Go back to Surbiton or whichever pikey metropolitan place you inhabit and leave the countryside to people who know and understand it.

Robert Roach

I'm not a "leftie", I was brought up in the countryside and I am pleased to hear that the "freedom fighters" of the CA were booed! They really see themselves (looking down from their 4x4's) as an "oppressed minority"! I'm forming the Campaign for the freedom to Dogfight and I'm going to win it next year!

Nicholas Millman

bradshaw, I think you may be confusing yourself with someone else who is infinitely more rude and disagreeable!

Actually, old boy, I do not inhabit a suburb, Surbiton or other "pikey metropolitan place" (and isn't that a non sequitor - "pikey" being a pejorative for "gypsy"). I live in the country, was brought up in the country and dare say I may know a bit more about it even than you.

Kevyn Bodman

If you don't like hunting, don't go hunting. But I can't see why you should stop hunters. Animal 'rights' are not equal to human rights, and that's the nub of this matter. I don't hunt, don't want to hunt and find the idea of killing foxes slightly unpleasant. So what? Other people might find it grossly offensive. So what?

Johnson

I cannot understand why Channel 4 has given this award to a tiny minority of (for the most part) overprivileged people who revel in cruelty and sadism. My sister in law was assaulted by the hunt when they invaded her property (a very common feature of hunting). I am disgusted by Channel 4's decision. Mr. Bodman, you may turn a blind eye to unspeakable cruelty to animals and the violation of human and property rights in the process, fortunately the vast majority of people in this country don't. And judging by your turn of phrase Mr. Millman, I can only assume that you are a member of the BNP, who as everyone knows support foxhunting

Giles Bradshaw

Millman, just because your missis buys organic milk from the local Tesco that doesn't make you a countryman. I've lived in the country all my life and at best the hunt is considered a pain in the backside: full of arrogant, self-emportant townies dressed like pantomime extras. Leave the country to people who understand it.

Geraldine Butler-Sloss

The worst thing to happen to hunting has been the ban: not because it's stopped us hunting, but because all sort of awful types who'd never even thought of hunting now turn up. We're talking about used-car salesmen. If they want to support us why don't they simply send some of their pots of money to the hunt and not bother turning up in their brand-new hunting pinks.

Nicholas Millman

Johnson: Never assume anything - I am not a member of the BNP and do not support hunting!

d gath

The fact that the countryside alliance won an award is not representative of the public attitude towards hunting and killing animals for fun. The vote is representative of a group of people who have nothing better to do with their time than sit about or kill animals. The rest of us go to work and take pleasure in activities which do not involve torturing innocent creatures.

George

Kevyn Bodman; even if animals do not have equal rights to humans (which in fact, I happen to believe that, as sentient beings, they do; where these can be lived out) they are still living things with the ability to feel fear and pain and deserve to live a peaceful life as we do. They are not something to leave helplessly in the balance of an "I like it, you don't" debate. I see no reason why they should be dragged in to the sick, barbaric hobbies of some rather screwed up so called "human-beings" they should be stopped in their tracks; just as murderers (which quite frankly they are).

ECS

Dear George, The barbarism comes from your side: ie: the fox's they are one of the few animals that kill "for fun". So in a certain way, they are like us. So perhaps we shouldn't hunt them - just give them a life sentence.

Mrs P Crane

More anthropomorphic nonsense from the hunting brigade, ECS. The countryside isn't a Disney cartoon, my dear fellow, with "good" animals and "bad" ones. Foxes are foxes: that's how nature's made them. But if foxes are so evil why do hunts encourage them to breed? Why did the chairman of the MFHA write to all hunt masters some years ago urging them to persuade landowners to encourage more foxes to breed because there was a "problem" with the shortage? Hypocrites!

DaveyB

I really wish the rabid anti-hunt trolls would just admit their prejudices.

They pretend to hate hunting because it is "torturing animals". What utter tosh, what they really object to are people they percieve (wrongly) to be hoorays on horseback enjoying themselves.

Their objections have nothing at all to do with animal welfare and everything to do with spite and class envy.

Foxes are rural vermin that have to be controlled, if they are not allowed to be hunted with hounds then they will have to be shot or poisoned.

This means that the abolition of hunting has lead to much more "cruelty" to the poor foxes as they die in agony from gunshot wounds or poison rather than being swiftly dispatched by the hounds or a huntsman.

But don't let actual facts get in the way of your prejudices.

PS to George:

Are abbatoir workers who take satisfaction in their work "murderers"? Is the crime the dispatch of the animals or the state of mind of the one doing the dispatching? I would be fascinated to hear your thoughts.

Simon Hart

I really wish the pro-hunt trolls would admit their prejudices. If foxes really are "vermin", why do hunters encourage them to breed? Don't take my word for it - ask Lord Daresbury, Chairman of the MFHA, who wanted landowners to do more to encourage the "vermin" foxes to reproduce on their land because there weren't enough to hunt.

Caroline

ECS. Mrs. Crane is quite right, foxes are wild creatures acting on their instincts. It's very silly to attribute human characteristics to them. And DaveyB - do get over yourself . Anti hunters don't give a tuppenny damn who you are or what you wear, their only interest is what you do to our wildlife. Btw - tell me about cubbing.

Pat Mear

I was appalled at the award to Countryside Alliance. I just couldn't believe it. The fox hunting ban was carefully not mentioned, but nevertheless it was obvious to everybody that this was what it was all about. Who voted for them is what I would like to know. Most people abhor their actions in respect of their support for a cruel sport

Mel

get over yourselfs people. the country side isnt like bambi, leave it to the people who know what their doing for the best of our wildlife- the hunters, shoots and gamekeepers.