Why is Fox Hunting still an issue in the UK?

[Samof94]

Despite being illegal outside of Northern Ireland, it is still a hot button issue. Why do people think this is a tradition worth preserving? It is cruel and barbaric, and does nothing to deal with foxes as an actual pest.  It feels like the Gun Control of the United Kingdom. While they easily resolved the gun issue, fox hunting is a tad more difficult.

[If my soul was made of stone]

Reactionary elitists of the sort that worship the monarchy think that its blatant cruelty is justified because it's a rural uppercrust tradition and foxes are allegedly pests that need their population tightly controlled. Old caste systems die hard.

To me, foxes are beautiful and sacred creatures that deserve far better than bougie bastards having them indiscriminately ripped apart, and modern hunting in general is a terrifyingly vacant and commodified pursuit that has none of the personal engagement or respect for the animal that made it so revered in the hunter-gatherer days.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Please spare us from "noble savage" reveries such as the above.

That said, there is a strong class element in the controversy, but even the Tories have abandoned repealing the ban, tho apparently getting it enforced is a separate issue.

[Torrain]

Your 'elites' want tax breaks, deregulation of fossil fuels, and the right to sell opioids to the masses -ours want to hunt foxes.

It's pandering to party donors, plain and simple.

Yes it's cartoonishly cruel, but is it really any worse then leaving the pharmaceutical industry unregulated, in a way that allowed the Sacklers to get a nation hooked on fentanyl? Or any of the other countless examples of the barmy policies that GOP politicans have done to please their backers?

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That being said, I spent a few years in East Anglia as a kid, in a small rural village. We'd occasionally encounter a fox hunt while driving. Those pricks are just as arrogant as you'd imagine. My mum nearly got into an car accident, with three children onboard, because a bunch of toffs on horseback went charging across a country road with zero warning

[Alcibiades]

Considering that 84% of Brits think it should be illegal (including 75% of Conservative voters) according to the latest YouGov poll, it really shouldn’t be. The only reason it is still somewhat contentious in political discourse is because its supporters are massively overrepresented among Tory MPs, whose disproportionately provincial elite backgrounds are reflective of neither the electorate at large, nor their own voters.

[Progressive Pessimist]

It's basically their version of the gun control debate here.