| 1 | Hedgehog Conservation Motion made , and Question proposed , That this House do now adjourn . [speaker=-] |
| 2 | -- ( Kris Hopkins . ) [speaker=-] |
| 3 | 19:12:00 Oliver Colvile ( Plymouth , Sutton and Devonport ) ( Con ) [speaker=-] |
| 4 | Thank you , Madam Deputy Speaker , for giving me an Adjournment debate on hedgehog habitats and the need to protect the species . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 5 | Before I go any further , I draw the attention of the House to my entry in the Register of Members ' Financial Interests . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 6 | I still retain an interest in a small public relations company that gives advice to developers , although I am not sure they will want to talk to me after this . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 7 | I thank the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People 's Trust for Endangered Species , and especially Henry Johnson , who has spoken to me about the importance of hedgehog conservation . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 8 | An article in The Guardian in July 2013 pointed out that hedgehogs are prickly in character , have a voracious appetite and a passion for gardens , and have a noisy sex life . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 9 | I leave it to you , Madam Deputy Speaker , to decide which of those traits I share . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 10 | In a BBC wildlife poll , hedgehogs were chosen as the best natural emblem for the British nation , beating the charismatic badger and the sturdy oak . [speaker=Colvile;2015-11-10] |
| 11 | The victory for the ultimate underdog came about with 42 <percnt> and more than 9,000 votes cast for the hedgehog . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 12 | I know what it is like to be an underdog , because that is how I felt in the run - up to the last general election , when I placed a bet on myself with Paddy Power at 4:1 against . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 13 | In short , the British people have taken hedgehogs to their hearts . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 14 | Even though we are a nation of animal lovers and have played a key role in the emergence of the modern conservation movement in the western world , Britain does not have a designated national species , unlike many other countries , including Russia , Australia and South Africa . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 15 | That is why I am calling on my hon. Friend the Minister to hold a national campaign to identify which animal should be our designated national species . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 16 | Needless to say , I will be launching a petition after this debate to name the hedgehog as our designated national species . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 17 | Jim Shannon ( Strangford ) ( DUP ) [speaker=-] |
| 18 | I was interested to hear the hon. Gentleman set the scene for us , but there are more than 100 priority species across the UK , many of which reside within my constituency . [speaker=Shannon] |
| 19 | Does he agree we need a strategy for all those species , including the hedgehog ? [speaker=Shannon] |
| 20 | Oliver Colvile [speaker=-] |
| 21 | Yes , I am happy to agree , but I am talking about , and campaigning for , the hedgehog . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 22 | Perhaps the BBC might like to run a competition similar to one to find the greatest Briton , with a series of people arguing the case for their preferred animal over a series of weeks . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 23 | I would be willing to do the job on behalf of the hedgehog . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 24 | Martin John Docherty ( West Dunbartonshire ) ( SNP ) [speaker=-] |
| 25 | Does the hon. Gentleman agree that hedgehogs are a devolved issue to be decided on by the Scottish Government ? [speaker=Docherty] |
| 26 | Oliver Colvile [speaker=-] |
| 27 | I am told that in the western isles , there are no hedgehogs at all . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 28 | My relationship with the hedgehog goes back to my own childhood in suburban Woking , when I was read by my actress mother Beatrix Potter 's “ The Tale of Mrs Tiggy - Winkle ” -- hon. Members will not be surprised to learn that this is not the only Mrs T who has been important in my life . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 29 | I was therefore deeply shocked to discover that in the last 10 years , hedgehog numbers have declined by about one third nationally . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 30 | According to the House of Commons Library , the principal reason for this prickly animal 's decline is the loss of habitats . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 31 | Likely factors in the hedgehog 's demise are the loss of permanent grasslands , larger field sizes , the use of pesticides and herbicides and a reduction in hedgerow quality . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 32 | I understand that badgers are a natural predator of hedgehogs and that consequently they avoid sites where badgers are present . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 33 | Gavin Williamson ( South Staffordshire ) ( Con ) [speaker=-] |
| 34 | Does my hon. Friend recognise the importance of using our gardens as a vital habitat for hedgehogs ? [speaker=Williamson] |
| 35 | I recently built a hedgehog house in my garden . [speaker=Williamson] |
| 36 | Sadly , as yet I have no residents in it , but I hope it will encourage diversity and a growth in hedgehog numbers in South Staffordshire . [speaker=Williamson] |
| 37 | Oliver Colvile [speaker=-] |
| 38 | I will be making a similar point in a moment . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 39 | Hedgehogs seem to thrive in urban and suburban areas , but the move to tidy , sterile gardens -- I am sure the garden of my right hon. Friend the Member for South Staffordshire ( Gavin Williamson ) is not sterile -- has also contributed to their demise . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 40 | However , these suburban habitats are broken up by fences and roads , pushing hedgehogs into unsuitably small areas . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 41 | Rebecca Pow ( Taunton Deane ) ( Con ) [speaker=-] |
| 42 | Another fascinating fact about hedgehogs , which my hon. Friend might be aware of , is that they run up to 1.2 km a night , but they have to find a mate . [speaker=Pow] |
| 43 | Thinking about wildlife gardening , I wonder if he might make a hole in his garden fence so that the hedgehogs can run through to find a mate ? [speaker=Pow] |
| 44 | This is essential . [speaker=Pow] |
| 45 | Oliver Colvile [speaker=-] |
| 46 | My hon. Friend has been reading my speech or has had prior notice of it . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 47 | Hedgehogs need to move a surprising distance to search for food , mates and nesting sites , so we need to make it easier for them to move between gardens , perhaps by making holes in fences . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 48 | During a visit to Plymouth 's hedgehog rehabilitation and care centre this autumn , in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth Moor View , ( Johnny Mercer ) , I learned that the way to tackle this problem is to stop habitat loss . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 49 | I was also rather surprised to learn that we should not leave milk and bread out for hedgehogs . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 50 | Additionally , slug pellets are a great danger that can be fatally harmful to them . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 51 | Julian Knight ( Solihull ) ( Con ) [speaker=-] |
| 52 | I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate . [speaker=Knight] |
| 53 | Does he agree that the advent of specific hedgehog conservation areas , such as the one in Elmdon in my Solihull constituency , can play a major part in arresting the alarming decline in the numbers of the great British hedgehog ? [speaker=Knight] |
| 54 | Oliver Colvile [speaker=-] |
| 55 | I am delighted to hear about the area in my hon. Friend 's constituency , and I think it important to continue with the theme of ensuring how we can look after the hedgehog . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 56 | I was also told that elastic bands , which postmen discard when delivering letters , are also detrimental to hedgehog survivals . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 57 | There is no robust evidence on this point , but it is one of many concerns that have been raised with me about the pitfalls that hedgehogs must dodge . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 58 | Not only do we need hedgehog - friendly gardens , but I also want my hon. Friends and the Government to give local authorities advice on ensuring that hedgehogs do not get caught up in bonfires . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 59 | Last week , we celebrated bonfire night and I raised my concerns about hedgehogs making nests in the bonfires before they were set alight . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 60 | One of my hon. Friends suggested that this might be a Catholic plot to ensure that attention was taken away from Guy Fawkes -- but I rather dismissed that . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 61 | Although it is not thought that badgers are the principal culprit in the demise of hedgehogs , they can not be totally blame free . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 62 | In a major DEFRA study , which assessed the ecological consequences of badger removal during the randomised badger culling trial lasting from 1998 to 2006 , it was found that removing badgers from a habitat had a number of consequences for other species . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 63 | The report said that hedgehogs rarely encountered badgers in rural sites , but were found relatively frequently in amenity areas . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 64 | Population density increased by over 100 <percnt> over the course of the randomised badger culling trial in amenity sites in proactive cull areas , while declining slightly in no - cull control sites . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 65 | No similar increases were detected in rural sites . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 66 | The report also found that there is strong evidence that badger predation restricts hedgehog populations and that amenity areas in villages act as a spatial refuge for hedgehogs . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 67 | In 2011 , a further report on the state of British hedgehogs concluded that , while badgers are a natural predator of hedgehogs , where there are good foraging opportunities for worms and beetles , badgers and hedgehogs can coexist . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 68 | However , when there is no safe refuge , and badgers and hedgehogs compete for these scarce resources , hedgehogs may be in serious trouble . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 69 | A more recent study in 2014 found that in areas of preferred habitat , counts did not change where there was no badger culling . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 70 | An analysis of the original badger culling experiments , published in April 2014 , shows that while at some sites hedgehog numbers did increase , following a reduction in the number of badgers , it was thought that some of the sample sizes might have been too small . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 71 | I must point out that there have been widespread calls for more research into the effects of the badger , and I welcome this . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 72 | As I explained earlier , badgers are not the sole cause of the decline in the hedgehog population , but I believe that there is a real danger that if more research is not put into the badger cull , hedgehog numbers will continue to decline . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 73 | I hope that the Minister will take note of that . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 74 | There is a pressing need to support hedgehogs in urban areas . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 75 | It is very important to focus on the barriers created by walls and impermeable garden fences and the consequent fragmentation of the hedgehog population . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 76 | The House may like to know that I am pressing my fellow neighbours at the Royal Naval hospital in Plymouth to ensure that we can create a hedgehog - friendly community and increase the number of hedgehogs in this part of my inner - city constituency . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 77 | Dr Lisa Cameron ( East Kilbride , Strathaven and Lesmahagow ) ( SNP ) [speaker=-] |
| 78 | I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing this debate . [speaker=Cameron] |
| 79 | I am just reading on the British Hedgehog Preservation Society site that Saturday 21 November is hedgehog day , so I wish to congratulate the hon. Gentleman on one of the timeliest debates on this issue . [speaker=Cameron] |
| 80 | Oliver Colvile [speaker=-] |
| 81 | Everybody else seems to have had notice of my speech before I ended up making it . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 82 | The progressive loss of suitable feeding areas through intensive gardening or inappropriate management of amenity grasslands are also major issues about which we can take action . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 83 | When new garden fences are installed there are “ hedgehog - friendly ” options , such as a small hole so that hedgehogs do not become trapped in gardens , and I urge people to consider those in future . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 84 | More than 36,500 hedgehog champions are campaigning to create hedgehog - friendly neighbourhoods . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 85 | I have now volunteered to be one , and I am the 150th hedgehog champion from Plymouth to sign up to this excellent scheme . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 86 | I am sure , Madam Deputy Speaker , that you will want to know what you can do . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 87 | Like me , you can sign up to be a hedgehog champion on the “ Hedgehog Street ” ' website , where you can report sightings of hedgehogs on the “ big hedgehog map ” . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 88 | Although it is not a scientific survey , it is an excellent way in which to engage the public , and I challenge as many right hon. and hon. Members as possible to sign up to the cause . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 89 | I am delighted to report that Saturday 21 November is the day of the hedgehog , and that hundreds of people are expected to descend on the International Centre , in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Telford ( Lucy Allan ) . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 90 | I myself will be attempting to set up an all - party parliamentary group for hedgehogs , so that we can advance the cause of those prickly characters . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 91 | If any Members are interested , I should be delighted if they contacted me on oliver.colvile.mp@parliament.uk . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 92 | On the same day , the next report reviewing the four main surveys covering hedgehogs in rural and urban areas will be released . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 93 | It must be remembered that hedgehog numbers are a good indicator of the state of the natural environment , which is why these creatures are so important to the United Kingdom 's ecology . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 94 | I think that there is more to be done , and I have therefore suggested to the Chairman of the Environment , Food and Rural Affairs Committee , my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Honiton ( Neil Parish ) , that it should hold an inquiry into how we can save hedgehogs . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 95 | I hope that I have set out the case for hedgehogs clearly , Madam Deputy Speaker , and that you too will become a hedgehog supporter . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 96 | Now is the time to increase the public 's awareness of the plight of these plucky characters . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 97 | I trust that the aforementioned Mrs T would be delighted that someone is taking up this important cause . [speaker=Colvile] |
| 98 | Madam Deputy Speaker ( Mrs Eleanor Laing ) [speaker=-] |
| 99 | I think I had better confirm , lest my customary silence be taken as negative , that I will of course do so . [speaker=Laing] |
| 100 | 19:27:00 The Parliamentary Under - Secretary of State for Environment , Food and Rural Affairs ( Rory Stewart ) [speaker=-] |
| 101 | Multa novit vulpes , verum echinus unum magnum , Madam Deputy Speaker . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 102 | Tom Tugendhat ( Tonbridge and Malling ) ( Con ) [speaker=-] |
| 103 | In every happy home is a hedgehog , as the Pashtuns would say . [speaker=Tugendhat] |
| 104 | I urge my hon. Friend to encourage our Pashtun community in this country to follow that example . [speaker=Tugendhat] |
| 105 | Rory Stewart [speaker=-] |
| 106 | I am very grateful for that Pushtun intervention , but my hon. Friend refers , of course , to the Asian variety of the hedgehog rather than the western hedgehog , which is the subject of our discussion today . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 107 | The fox knows many things , but the hedgehog knows one big thing . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 108 | I am extremely pleased to have the opportunity to respond to my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth , Sutton and Devonport ( Oliver Colvile ) . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 109 | I believe that this is the first time that Parliament has discussed hedgehogs since 1566 , when the subject was famously raised in relation to the attribution of a bounty of tuppence for the collection of the hedgehog throughout the United Kingdom . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 110 | The hedgehog has undergone an extraordinary evolution . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 111 | The year 1566 seems very recent , but the hedgehog was around before then . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 112 | It was around before this Parliament . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 113 | The hedgehog , and its ancestor , narrowly missed being crushed under the foot of Tyrannosaurus rex . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 114 | The hedgehog was around long before the human species : it existed 56 million years ago . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 115 | It tells us a great deal about British civilisation that my hon. Friend has raised the subject , because the hedgehog is a magical creature . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 116 | It is a creature that appears on cylinder seals in Sumeria , bent backwards on the prows of Egyptian ships . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 117 | The hedgehog has of course a famous medicinal quality taken by the Romany people for baldness and it represents a symbol of the resurrection found throughout Christian Europe . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 118 | This strange animal was known , of course , in Scotland , Wales and Ireland originally in Gaelic as that demonic creature , that horrid creature , and is the hedgehog celebrated by Shakespeare : “ Thorny hedgehogs , be not seen ... Come not near our faerie queen ” , and famously of course in “ Richard III ” there is that great moment when Gloucester is referred to as a hedgehog . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 119 | It tells us something about Britain today ; it represents a strange decline in British civilisation from a notion of this magical , mystical , terrifying creature to where it is today , and I refer of course to my own constituent , the famous cleanliness representative of Penrith and The Border , Mrs Tiggy - Winkle . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 120 | I want to be serious for a moment . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 121 | The hedgehog is of course an important environmental indicator , with its habitat , its ability to occupy 30 hectares of land , and its particular relationship to the hibernaculum , by which I mean the hedgehog 's ability , almost uniquely among animals in the United Kingdom , to go into a state of genuine hibernation . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 122 | Its heartbeat goes from 240 a minute to only two a minute for six months a year . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 123 | It has a particular diet -- a focus on grubs and beetles . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 124 | The street hedgehog initiative , which my hon. Friend has brought forward , reminds us that , by cutting holes in the bottom of our hedges , we can create again an opportunity for hedgehogs to move . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 125 | The hedgehog provides a bigger lesson for us in our environment -- first , a lesson in scientific humility . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 126 | The hedgehog has of course been studied for over 2,000 years . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 127 | The first scientific reference to the hedgehog is in Aristotle ; he is picked up again by Isidore of Seville in the 8th century and again by Buffon in the 18th century , and these are reminders of the ways in which we get hedgehogs wrong . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 128 | Aristotle points out that the hedgehog carries apples on his spine into his nest . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 129 | Isidore of Seville argues that the hedgehog travels with grapes embedded on his spine . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 130 | Buffon believes these things might have been food for the winter , but as we know today the hedgehog , hibernating as he does , is not a creature that needs to take food into his nest for the winter . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 131 | Again , our belief in Britain that the five teeth of the hedgehog represent the reaction of the sinful man to God -- the five excuses that the sinful man makes to God -- is subverted by our understanding that the hedgehog does not have five teeth . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 132 | Finally , the legislation introduced in this House , to my great despair , in 1566 which led to the bounty of a tuppence on a hedgehog was based on a misunderstanding : the idea that the hedgehog fed on the teats of a recumbent cow in order to feed itself on milk . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 133 | This led to the death of between of # half a million and 2 million hedgehogs between 1566 and 1800 , a subject John Clare takes forward in a poem of 1805 and which led my own Department , the Ministry of Agriculture , in 1908 to issue a formal notice to farmers encouraging them not to believe that hedgehogs take milk from the teats of a recumbent cow , because of course the hedgehog 's mouth is too small to be able to perform this function . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 134 | But before we mock our ancestors , we must understand this is a lesson for us . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 135 | The scientific mistakes we made in the past about the hedgehog are mistakes that we , too , may be mocked for in the future . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 136 | We barely understand this extraordinary creature . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 137 | We barely understand for example its habit of self - anointing ; we will see a hedgehog produce an enormous amount of saliva and throw it over its back . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 138 | We do not understand why it does that . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 139 | We do not really understand its habit of aestivation , which is to say the hedgehog which my hon. Friend referred to -- the Pushto version of the hedgehog -- hibernates in the summer as well as the winter . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 140 | We do not understand that concept of aestivation . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 141 | For those of us interested in environmental management , the hedgehog also represents the important subject of conflict in habitats . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 142 | The habitat that suits the hedgehog is liminal land : it is edge land , hedgerows and dry land . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 143 | The hedgehog is not an animal that flourishes in many of our nature reserves . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 144 | It does not do well in peatland or in dense , heavy native woodland . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 145 | The things that prey on the hedgehog are sometimes things that we treasure . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 146 | My hon. Friend mentioned badgers . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 147 | Rebecca Pow [speaker=-] |
| 148 | Does the Minister agree that the successful survival of our hedgehog population is a direct reflection of how healthy and sustainable our environment is ? [speaker=Pow] |
| 149 | It is important that we should look after the environment , because the knock - on effect of that will be that our hedgehog population will be looked after . [speaker=Pow] |
| 150 | Rory Stewart [speaker=-] |
| 151 | That is an important point . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 152 | The hedgehog is a generalist species , and traditionally we have not paid much attention to such species . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 153 | We have been very good at focusing on specialist species , such as the redshank , which requires a particular kind of wet habitat . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 154 | The hedgehog is a more challenging species for us to take on board . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 155 | As I was saying , the hedgehog is a good indicator for hedgerow habitat , although it is not much use for peatland or wetland . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 156 | The hedgehog raises some important environmental questions . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 157 | One is the question of conflict with the badger . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 158 | Another is the question of the hedgehog in the western isles , which relates to the issue of the hedgehog 's potential predation on the eggs of the Arctic tern . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 159 | Patrick Grady ( Glasgow North ) ( SNP ) [speaker=-] |
| 160 | On the point about the hedgehog in the western isles , we have established that hedgehogs are a devolved matter . [speaker=Grady] |
| 161 | My hon. Friend the Member for Na h - Eileanan an Iar ( Mr MacNeil ) is not in the Chamber at the moment . [speaker=Grady] |
| 162 | Scottish Natural Heritage is doing careful work to humanely remove hedgehogs from the Hebrides , and it would be interesting to hear how the UK Government intend to support that work . [speaker=Grady] |
| 163 | Rory Stewart [speaker=-] |
| 164 | This is an important reminder that things that matter enormously to our civilisation , our society and our hearts -- such as the hedgehog -- have to be in the right place . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 165 | In New Zealand , hedgehogs are considered an extremely dangerous invasive species that has to be removed for the same reasons that people in Scotland are having to think about controlling them there . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 166 | It does not matter whether we are talking about badgers , hedgehogs or Arctic terns -- it is a question of what place they should occupy . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 167 | Finally -- and , I think , more positively -- what the hedgehog really represents for us is an incredible symbol of citizen science . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 168 | The energy that my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth , Sutton and Devonport has brought to the debate is a great example of British , or perhaps English , eccentricity , and it is on the basis of English eccentricity that our habitat has been preserved . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 169 | Gilbert White , the great 18th century naturalist , was himself an immense eccentric . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 170 | It has been preserved thanks to eccentrics such as my hon. Friend and , perhaps most famously of all , Hugh Warwick , the great inspiration behind the British Hedgehog Preservation Society . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 171 | He has written no fewer than three books on the hedgehog , and he talks very movingly about staring into the eyes of a hedgehog and getting a sense of its wildness from its gaze . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 172 | These enthusiasts connect the public to nature , sustain our 25 - year environment programme and contribute enormously to our scientific understanding of these animals . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 173 | This is true in relation to bees , to beavers and in particular to Hugh Warwick 's work on hedgehogs . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 174 | I am also pleased that the hon. Member for East Kilbride , Strathaven and Lesmahagow ( Dr Cameron ) mentioned national hedgehog day in an earlier intervention . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 175 | Ultimately , we need to understand that the hedgehog is a very prickly issue . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 176 | The reason for that is that my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth , Sutton and Devonport has raised the question of adopting the hedgehog as our national symbol . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 177 | Some hon. Members will remember that the hedgehog was used by Saatchi <amp> Saatchi in an advertising campaign for the Conservative party in 1992 general election . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 178 | We should therefore pay tribute to the hedgehog 's direct contribution to our election victory in that year . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 179 | But I would like to challenge my hon. Friend 's assertion that the hedgehog should become our national symbol . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 180 | I ask you , Madam Deputy Speaker , as I ask those on both sides of this House , because this question concerns not only one party , but all of us : do we want to have as our national symbol an animal which when confronted with danger rolls over into a little ball and puts its spikes up ? [speaker=Stewart] |
| 181 | Do we want to have as our national symbol an animal that sleeps for six months of the year ? [speaker=Stewart] |
| 182 | Or would we rather return to the animal that is already our national symbol ? [speaker=Stewart] |
| 183 | I refer , of course , to the lion , which is majestic , courageous and proud . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 184 | If I may finish with a little testimony to my hon. Friend and to those innocent creatures which are hedgehogs , perhaps I can reach back to them not as a symbol for our nation but as a symbol of innocence to Thomas Hardy . [speaker=Stewart] |
| 185 | He says : “ When the hedgehog travels furtively over the lawn , One may say , ‘ He strove that such innocent creatures should come to no harm , But he could do little for them ; and now he is gone . ’ If , when hearing that I have been stilled at last , they stand at the door , Watching the full - starred heavens that winter sees , Will this thought rise on those who will meet my face no more , ‘ He was one who had an eye for such mysteries ' ? [speaker=Stewart] |
| 186 | Madam Deputy Speaker ( Mrs Eleanor Laing ) [speaker=-] |
| 187 | I paused because I wanted to encourage some more positive noises for the Minister , who has just made one of the best speeches I have ever heard in this House . [speaker=Laing] |
| 188 | Question put and agreed to . [speaker=Laing] |
| 189 | 19:41:00 House adjourned . [speaker=-] |