Animal Welfare Bill

: I will be brief—I know that many other hon. Members want to take part in this short debate—and I start by drawing the attention of the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Interests, which is relevant to the debate. The hon. Member for Sherwood (Paddy Tipping) made an extremely good case for the exemption for gun dogs. I think he is playing it wise in deciding how to vote on this. Sadly, I cannot agree with him, as I shall oppose the new clause and the Minister’s amendments, which he does not agree with, because I believe that we should retain the status quo. My particular reason for thinking that way is that I dislike bans. Parliament is increasingly getting into the habit of telling people what to do and not allowing individuals to make up their own mind on important issues. We did that with the Hunting Bill quite recently, and just the other day Parliament was telling pub owners, club owners and restaurateurs whether they would be allowed to have smokers or non-smokers in their establishments. Today, we are once again producing a ban. In relation to anything to do with animals, reason often seems to flee the Chamber. I wonder what some of the people from history who sat on these Benches and debated matters of huge importance would think about the House spending two hours talking about whether a third of a puppy’s tail should be removed. Perhaps this shows that ours is becoming a very nannyish state.