The Westminster Eight – 18 years on – FieldsportsChannel podcast, episode 66

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In September 2004, eight campaigners burst in to the chamber of the House of Commons to protest against Tony Blair’s ban on hunting with hounds. Blair was ignoring the largest ever peacetime march, more than 400,000 people, who marched on Westminster in 2002 protesting against the same law. Blair’s ban, which came into force in 2005, has achieved the opposite of what blair hoped. It has damaged animal welfare and hunting is more popular than ever.

At the 2022 Game Fair, six members of the Westminster Eight come to the Carter Jonas Game Fair Theatre to relive that day, and to explain how Tony Blair’s ban has failed. They tell Charlie Jacoby the story of what happened and the repercussions.

Folk heroes: fundraiser print sold after the event to pay for the Westminster Eight's court case
Five members of the Westminster Eight released by police after they stormed the House of Commons (left-right): Luke Tomlinson, Robert Thame, Nick Wood, Otis Ferry and John Holliday (credit: Alamy)
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