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The house may like to know that I am pressing my fellow neighbours at the | :11:02. | :11:08. | |
Royal naval hospital in Plymouth to ensure that we can create a hedgehog | :11:09. | :11:13. | |
friendly community and increase the number of hedgehogs in my | :11:14. | :11:21. | |
constituency. I congratulate him on having this debate. On the British | :11:22. | :11:37. | |
Hedgehog Conservation sites, we have hedgehog Day coming up. Everyone has | :11:38. | :11:44. | |
noticed my speech before I and -- ended up making it. Through | :11:45. | :11:51. | |
inappropriate management of the grasslands, they are major issues on | :11:52. | :11:56. | |
which we can take action. Hedgehog friendly action when installing a | :11:57. | :12:02. | |
new hedge, people should have a small hole so hedgehogs do not get | :12:03. | :12:09. | |
trapped in a garden. Many people are campaigning to create hedgehog | :12:10. | :12:16. | |
friendly neighbourhoods and I have volunteered to be one. Indeed, I am | :12:17. | :12:23. | |
the 150th hedgehog champion from Plymouth to sign up to this | :12:24. | :12:28. | |
excellent scheme. Madam Deputy Speaker, I am sure you were, like | :12:29. | :12:33. | |
me, will know we can do things. You can sign up to be a hedgehog | :12:34. | :12:39. | |
champion and the -- on the hedgehog Street website. You can report | :12:40. | :12:43. | |
sightings of hedgehog on the hedgehog map. Although this is not a | :12:44. | :12:47. | |
scientific survey, it is an excellent way to engage the public | :12:48. | :12:51. | |
on this issue and I would challenge as many honourable members to sign | :12:52. | :12:57. | |
up to this cause. I am delighted to report that later this month, on | :12:58. | :13:05. | |
Saturday 21st of November, it is the day of the hedgehog. Hundreds of | :13:06. | :13:09. | |
people are expected to descend on the international centre in my | :13:10. | :13:17. | |
honourable friend, Telford's constituency. I will set up an APPG | :13:18. | :13:25. | |
comes a we can advance the cause of these prickly characters. If any | :13:26. | :13:29. | |
honourable or right honourable friend wishes to join with me, I | :13:30. | :13:33. | |
will be delighted if they will contact me. On this day, the next | :13:34. | :13:44. | |
report reviewing the surveys covering hedgehogs in urban and | :13:45. | :13:48. | |
rural areas will be released. It must be remembered that hedgehog | :13:49. | :13:52. | |
numbers are a good indicator of the state of the natural environment. It | :13:53. | :13:57. | |
is why these creatures are some important to the UK's ecology. | :13:58. | :14:00. | |
There's more to be done and that why I suggested to the chairman of the | :14:01. | :14:08. | |
DEFRA Select Committee, that they might hold an enquiry into how we | :14:09. | :14:14. | |
can save hedgehogs. I hope I have set out the case for hedgehogs and | :14:15. | :14:18. | |
you will become a hedgehog supporter. Now is the time to | :14:19. | :14:21. | |
increase the public's awareness of this plight for these prickly | :14:22. | :14:34. | |
characters. I hope you will be delighted we are taking up this | :14:35. | :14:44. | |
cause. Of course, I will. Minister, Rory Stewart. | :14:45. | :15:06. | |
HE SPEAKS LATIN. I urge him to follow that example as well. I am | :15:07. | :15:24. | |
very grateful for this intervention. He refers to the Asian variety of | :15:25. | :15:30. | |
the hedgehog rather than their Western variety. The fox knows many | :15:31. | :15:36. | |
things but the hedgehog knows one big thing. I am extremely pleased to | :15:37. | :15:44. | |
be here and have the opportunity to respond to the honourable member for | :15:45. | :15:49. | |
Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport, who has introduced this to the house | :15:50. | :15:54. | |
that the first time. Hedgehogs have been discussed since 1566, Madam | :15:55. | :16:00. | |
Deputy Speaker, where hedgehogs were famously raised in relation to the | :16:01. | :16:04. | |
attribution of a bounty of tuppence for the collection of the hedgehog. | :16:05. | :16:13. | |
It is extremely important to take on board that the hedgehog has gone | :16:14. | :16:21. | |
through an extraordinary evolution. 1566 seems something recent but the | :16:22. | :16:26. | |
hedgehog was around before 1566. It was around before this Parliament. | :16:27. | :16:31. | |
The hedgehog and his ancestor narrowly missed being crushed under | :16:32. | :16:37. | |
the foot of Tyrannosaurus rex. The hedgehog was around long before the | :16:38. | :16:42. | |
human species. 56 million years ago, the hedgehog existed. It tells us a | :16:43. | :16:46. | |
great deal about British civilisation, that the honourable | :16:47. | :16:49. | |
member should raise the hedgehog in front of us. The hedgehog is a | :16:50. | :16:54. | |
magical creature. It is a creature that appears on cylinder seals in | :16:55. | :17:00. | |
the bent backwards on the prowl of Egyptian ships. The hedgehog is a | :17:01. | :17:09. | |
medicinal task taken by the Romany people for baldness and it | :17:10. | :17:12. | |
represents a symbol of the Resurrection found throughout | :17:13. | :17:14. | |
Christian Europe. It tells us something about Britain today. That | :17:15. | :17:20. | |
this strange animal, known in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, | :17:21. | :17:29. | |
originally that horrid creature of the hedgehog celebrated by | :17:30. | :17:36. | |
Shakespeare, be not seen, come not near our Faerie Queene. That great | :17:37. | :17:41. | |
moment where Gloucester is referred to as a hedgehog. Represents a | :17:42. | :17:48. | |
strange decline in hedgehog civilisation from this notion of | :17:49. | :17:51. | |
this mystical terrifying creature to where it is today. I refer, of | :17:52. | :17:59. | |
course, to my own constituent, the famous cleanliness is representative | :18:00. | :18:05. | |
of Penrith, Mrs Tiggy Winkle. I want to be serious for a moment. The | :18:06. | :18:11. | |
hedgehog is an important environmental indicator. Its ability | :18:12. | :18:17. | |
to occupy 30 hectares of land, its relationship to the Highbury Naki | :18:18. | :18:21. | |
Lum, by which I mean the hedgehog's ability to go amongst animals in the | :18:22. | :18:28. | |
UK into a state of genuine hibernation. They goes from 240 | :18:29. | :18:33. | |
hobbies a minute to only two heartbeats minute the six months a | :18:34. | :18:40. | |
year and it is particular -- is particular diet, is focus on grubs | :18:41. | :18:47. | |
and beetles and the street hedgehog is a reminder that by cutting holes | :18:48. | :18:53. | |
in the bottom of our hedges, we can create an opportunity for hedgehogs | :18:54. | :18:59. | |
to move. It is also a bigger lesson for us in our environment. A bigger | :19:00. | :19:06. | |
lesson in scientific humility. The hedgehog has been studied for over | :19:07. | :19:11. | |
2000 years. The first reference to the hedgehog is with Aristotle. He | :19:12. | :19:18. | |
is picked up by Isadora Saville in the eighth century and by another in | :19:19. | :19:25. | |
the 18th century. It is a reminder of how we get hedgehog is wrong. | :19:26. | :19:29. | |
Aristotle points out that the hedgehog carries battles on his | :19:30. | :19:36. | |
spine into his nest. Isadora Saville argues the hedgehog travels with | :19:37. | :19:42. | |
grapes and embedded on his spine. The other believes these things | :19:43. | :19:45. | |
might have been food for the winter, but as we know today the hedgehog, | :19:46. | :19:50. | |
hibernating as he does, is not a creature that requires to take food | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
into his nest for the winter. Again, our belief in Britain is that the | :19:55. | :20:00. | |
five teeth of the hedgehog represents the reaction of the | :20:01. | :20:05. | |
sinful man to God, the five excuses that the sinful man makes to God. It | :20:06. | :20:12. | |
is subverted by our understanding that the hedgehog does not have five | :20:13. | :20:16. | |
teeth. The legislation introduced in this house, to my great despair that | :20:17. | :20:23. | |
legislation introduced in 1566, which led to the bounty of tuppence | :20:24. | :20:28. | |
on a hedgehog, was based on a misunderstanding. The idea that the | :20:29. | :20:33. | |
hedgehog fed on the teats of a recumbent cow in able to -- to | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
enable itself to itself on milk. It led to the death of 2 million | :20:38. | :20:44. | |
hedgehogs over the period between 1566 and 1800, a subject that John | :20:45. | :20:48. | |
Fleck takes forward in a poem which led, my own department, the ministry | :20:49. | :20:54. | |
of agriculture in 1908, to issue a formal notice to farmers encouraging | :20:55. | :20:58. | |
them not to believe that hedgehogs take milk from the teats of the | :20:59. | :21:04. | |
recumbent cow. The hedgehogs -- hedgehog's map is too small to be | :21:05. | :21:08. | |
able to perform this function. Before we mark our ancestors, this | :21:09. | :21:13. | |
is a lesson for ourselves. These scientific mistakes we made in the | :21:14. | :21:17. | |
past mistakes that we too may be mocked for in future. We barely | :21:18. | :21:23. | |
understand this extraordinary Keech -- creature. You will see a hedgehog | :21:24. | :21:30. | |
produce an enormous amount of saliva and throw it over is back. We don't | :21:31. | :21:35. | |
understand why does it. We don't understand its habit of eating | :21:36. | :21:43. | |
nation which is to say that the hedgehog hibernates during the | :21:44. | :21:46. | |
summer as well as the winter. We don't understand this concept of | :21:47. | :21:55. | |
eating nation. The hedgehog represents the important subject of | :21:56. | :21:58. | |
conflict in habitats. The habitat that suits the hedgehog, as we hear, | :21:59. | :22:06. | |
is edge land, it is hedgerow, dry land. It isn't an animal that | :22:07. | :22:10. | |
flourishes in many of our nature reserves. It doesn't do well in | :22:11. | :22:16. | |
peatland or dense, heavy, native woodland. The things that prey on | :22:17. | :22:20. | |
the hedgehogs are something that we treasure. The honourable member | :22:21. | :22:28. | |
raised the issue of the badger. Will the Minister agree with me that the | :22:29. | :22:35. | |
success and survival of our hedgehog population is a reflection of how | :22:36. | :22:40. | |
healthy our environment is and how sustainable it is? It is important | :22:41. | :22:43. | |
that we look after the environment so the knock-on effect is that the | :22:44. | :22:50. | |
hedgehog population will be looked after? This is an important point. | :22:51. | :22:58. | |
We haven't paid much attention to this species. We have been good on | :22:59. | :23:08. | |
looking at redshank. The hedgehog is a more challenging species to take | :23:09. | :23:17. | |
on board. It is an indicator of a particularly good habitat. Very good | :23:18. | :23:23. | |
as indicated for a hedgerow habitat. There are some important | :23:24. | :23:24. | |
environmental questions raised by the hedgehog. One is the conflict | :23:25. | :23:30. | |
with the badger. The other is the question raised by the honourable | :23:31. | :23:36. | |
member, which is about the West top -- hedgehog in the western isles. It | :23:37. | :23:42. | |
relates to the eggs of the Arctic turn. I give way. 1-macro I was | :23:43. | :23:46. | |
going to raise the issue of the hedgehog in the Western Isles. | :23:47. | :23:50. | |
Hedgehogs are a devolved matter and the honourable member isn't with us. | :23:51. | :23:57. | |
It will be interesting to hear the comments. Scottish National Heritage | :23:58. | :24:02. | |
are doing careful work to remove hedgehogs from the Hebrides and it | :24:03. | :24:06. | |
will be interesting to see if the UK Government is going to support that. | :24:07. | :24:13. | |
Things that matter to our civilisation and society, like a | :24:14. | :24:19. | |
hedgehog, have to be in the right place. Hedgehogs in New Zealand are | :24:20. | :24:23. | |
an extremely dangerous invasive species that have to be removed for | :24:24. | :24:27. | |
the same reasons in Scotland that people are having to think about the | :24:28. | :24:32. | |
control of the hedgehogs. It is no -- it doesn't matter whether you are | :24:33. | :24:35. | |
talking about a hedgehog or an Arctic turn. More positively, what | :24:36. | :24:43. | |
the hedgehog represents for us is an incredible symbol of citizen | :24:44. | :24:46. | |
science. The energy which the honourable member has brought to | :24:47. | :24:49. | |
this debate is a great example of British or English eccentricity. It | :24:50. | :24:57. | |
is Ahmed basis of this that our habitat has been preserved. Gilbert | :24:58. | :25:02. | |
White, the great naturalist was an immense eccentric. Most famously, | :25:03. | :25:12. | |
she Warwick, the great inspiration of the British hedgehog preservation | :25:13. | :25:15. | |
Society, a man who has written no less than three books on the | :25:16. | :25:18. | |
hedgehog, man who represents somebody who talks in moving terms | :25:19. | :25:24. | |
about staring into the eyes of the hedgehog, getting a sense of the | :25:25. | :25:27. | |
wildness of the hedgehog from its case. Reminds us that these | :25:28. | :25:32. | |
enthusiasts not only connect the public to nature can sustain our 25 | :25:33. | :25:38. | |
year environment programme but contribute to a scientific | :25:39. | :25:42. | |
understanding of these animals. This is true in relation to bees, | :25:43. | :25:48. | |
beavers, and in relation to Hugh Warwick's work on the hedgehog. I am | :25:49. | :25:55. | |
pleased we raised the National Hedgehog Day in an intervention. We | :25:56. | :25:59. | |
need to understand the hedgehog is a very prickly issue. | :26:00. | :26:07. | |
The reason is that the member macro has raised the question of the | :26:08. | :26:15. | |
hedgehog as a national symbol. -- the honourable member. In 1992 the | :26:16. | :26:22. | |
hedgehog was used as an advertising campaign for the Conservative Party | :26:23. | :26:26. | |
in the election, so we should pay tribute to the hedgehog's direct | :26:27. | :26:32. | |
contribution to that victory. But I would challenge the honourable | :26:33. | :26:35. | |
member's assertion that it should become our national symbol. I ask | :26:36. | :26:39. | |
both sides of this House, because this is not a question that concerns | :26:40. | :26:46. | |
only one party but all of us, do we want to have as our national symbol | :26:47. | :26:49. | |
and animal which when confronted with danger rolls over into a little | :26:50. | :26:55. | |
ball and puts its bikes up, do we want to have as our national symbol | :26:56. | :27:01. | |
in -- and animal but sleeps for six months of the year. -- puts its | :27:02. | :27:08. | |
spikes up. All we rather return to the lion. -- would we. Digest it, | :27:09. | :27:17. | |
courageous, proud. -- Majestic. If I can finish with a little testimony | :27:18. | :27:22. | |
to the honourable member and those innocent creatures who are | :27:23. | :27:26. | |
hedgehogs, perhaps I can reach back not to their symbol for our nation | :27:27. | :27:30. | |
but personable of innocence, to Thomas Hardy, he says" when the | :27:31. | :27:38. | |
hedgehog travels furtively over the lawn, one may say, he strove that | :27:39. | :27:43. | |
such innocent creatures should come to no harm. That he could do little | :27:44. | :27:49. | |
for him, -- them, and there he is gone. If when hearing that they | :27:50. | :27:57. | |
stand at the door watching, the full is that heaven that winter seas, | :27:58. | :28:01. | |
will this thought rise on those who will meet my face no more, he was | :28:02. | :28:07. | |
one who had an eye for these -- such mysteries?" . | :28:08. | :28:18. | |
I was encouraging some more positive noises for the Minister... Who has | :28:19. | :28:29. | |
just made one of the best speeches I have ever heard in this House. The | :28:30. | :28:35. | |
question is, that this House to now adjourned. Vote-macro the ayes have | :28:36. | :28:45. | |
it. Order! Order! | :28:46. | :28:51. |