Hedgehogs House of Commons


Hedgehogs

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The house may like to know that I am pressing my fellow neighbours at the

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Royal naval hospital in Plymouth to ensure that we can create a hedgehog

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friendly community and increase the number of hedgehogs in my

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constituency. I congratulate him on having this debate. On the British

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Hedgehog Conservation sites, we have hedgehog Day coming up. Everyone has

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noticed my speech before I and -- ended up making it. Through

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inappropriate management of the grasslands, they are major issues on

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which we can take action. Hedgehog friendly action when installing a

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new hedge, people should have a small hole so hedgehogs do not get

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trapped in a garden. Many people are campaigning to create hedgehog

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friendly neighbourhoods and I have volunteered to be one. Indeed, I am

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the 150th hedgehog champion from Plymouth to sign up to this

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excellent scheme. Madam Deputy Speaker, I am sure you were, like

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me, will know we can do things. You can sign up to be a hedgehog

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champion and the -- on the hedgehog Street website. You can report

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sightings of hedgehog on the hedgehog map. Although this is not a

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scientific survey, it is an excellent way to engage the public

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on this issue and I would challenge as many honourable members to sign

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up to this cause. I am delighted to report that later this month, on

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Saturday 21st of November, it is the day of the hedgehog. Hundreds of

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people are expected to descend on the international centre in my

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honourable friend, Telford's constituency. I will set up an APPG

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comes a we can advance the cause of these prickly characters. If any

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honourable or right honourable friend wishes to join with me, I

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will be delighted if they will contact me. On this day, the next

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report reviewing the surveys covering hedgehogs in urban and

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rural areas will be released. It must be remembered that hedgehog

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numbers are a good indicator of the state of the natural environment. It

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is why these creatures are some important to the UK's ecology.

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There's more to be done and that why I suggested to the chairman of the

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DEFRA Select Committee, that they might hold an enquiry into how we

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can save hedgehogs. I hope I have set out the case for hedgehogs and

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you will become a hedgehog supporter. Now is the time to

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increase the public's awareness of this plight for these prickly

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characters. I hope you will be delighted we are taking up this

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cause. Of course, I will. Minister, Rory Stewart.

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HE SPEAKS LATIN. I urge him to follow that example as well. I am

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very grateful for this intervention. He refers to the Asian variety of

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the hedgehog rather than their Western variety. The fox knows many

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things but the hedgehog knows one big thing. I am extremely pleased to

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be here and have the opportunity to respond to the honourable member for

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Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport, who has introduced this to the house

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that the first time. Hedgehogs have been discussed since 1566, Madam

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Deputy Speaker, where hedgehogs were famously raised in relation to the

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attribution of a bounty of tuppence for the collection of the hedgehog.

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It is extremely important to take on board that the hedgehog has gone

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through an extraordinary evolution. 1566 seems something recent but the

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hedgehog was around before 1566. It was around before this Parliament.

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The hedgehog and his ancestor narrowly missed being crushed under

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the foot of Tyrannosaurus rex. The hedgehog was around long before the

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human species. 56 million years ago, the hedgehog existed. It tells us a

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great deal about British civilisation, that the honourable

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member should raise the hedgehog in front of us. The hedgehog is a

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magical creature. It is a creature that appears on cylinder seals in

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the bent backwards on the prowl of Egyptian ships. The hedgehog is a

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medicinal task taken by the Romany people for baldness and it

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represents a symbol of the Resurrection found throughout

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Christian Europe. It tells us something about Britain today. That

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this strange animal, known in Scotland, Wales and Ireland,

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originally that horrid creature of the hedgehog celebrated by

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Shakespeare, be not seen, come not near our Faerie Queene. That great

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moment where Gloucester is referred to as a hedgehog. Represents a

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strange decline in hedgehog civilisation from this notion of

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this mystical terrifying creature to where it is today. I refer, of

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course, to my own constituent, the famous cleanliness is representative

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of Penrith, Mrs Tiggy Winkle. I want to be serious for a moment. The

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hedgehog is an important environmental indicator. Its ability

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to occupy 30 hectares of land, its relationship to the Highbury Naki

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Lum, by which I mean the hedgehog's ability to go amongst animals in the

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UK into a state of genuine hibernation. They goes from 240

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hobbies a minute to only two heartbeats minute the six months a

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year and it is particular -- is particular diet, is focus on grubs

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and beetles and the street hedgehog is a reminder that by cutting holes

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in the bottom of our hedges, we can create an opportunity for hedgehogs

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to move. It is also a bigger lesson for us in our environment. A bigger

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lesson in scientific humility. The hedgehog has been studied for over

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2000 years. The first reference to the hedgehog is with Aristotle. He

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is picked up by Isadora Saville in the eighth century and by another in

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the 18th century. It is a reminder of how we get hedgehog is wrong.

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Aristotle points out that the hedgehog carries battles on his

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spine into his nest. Isadora Saville argues the hedgehog travels with

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grapes and embedded on his spine. The other believes these things

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might have been food for the winter, but as we know today the hedgehog,

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hibernating as he does, is not a creature that requires to take food

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into his nest for the winter. Again, our belief in Britain is that the

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five teeth of the hedgehog represents the reaction of the

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sinful man to God, the five excuses that the sinful man makes to God. It

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is subverted by our understanding that the hedgehog does not have five

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teeth. The legislation introduced in this house, to my great despair that

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legislation introduced in 1566, which led to the bounty of tuppence

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on a hedgehog, was based on a misunderstanding. The idea that the

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hedgehog fed on the teats of a recumbent cow in able to -- to

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enable itself to itself on milk. It led to the death of 2 million

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hedgehogs over the period between 1566 and 1800, a subject that John

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Fleck takes forward in a poem which led, my own department, the ministry

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of agriculture in 1908, to issue a formal notice to farmers encouraging

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them not to believe that hedgehogs take milk from the teats of the

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recumbent cow. The hedgehogs -- hedgehog's map is too small to be

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able to perform this function. Before we mark our ancestors, this

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is a lesson for ourselves. These scientific mistakes we made in the

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past mistakes that we too may be mocked for in future. We barely

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understand this extraordinary Keech -- creature. You will see a hedgehog

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produce an enormous amount of saliva and throw it over is back. We don't

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understand why does it. We don't understand its habit of eating

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nation which is to say that the hedgehog hibernates during the

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summer as well as the winter. We don't understand this concept of

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eating nation. The hedgehog represents the important subject of

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conflict in habitats. The habitat that suits the hedgehog, as we hear,

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is edge land, it is hedgerow, dry land. It isn't an animal that

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flourishes in many of our nature reserves. It doesn't do well in

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peatland or dense, heavy, native woodland. The things that prey on

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the hedgehogs are something that we treasure. The honourable member

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raised the issue of the badger. Will the Minister agree with me that the

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success and survival of our hedgehog population is a reflection of how

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healthy our environment is and how sustainable it is? It is important

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that we look after the environment so the knock-on effect is that the

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hedgehog population will be looked after? This is an important point.

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We haven't paid much attention to this species. We have been good on

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looking at redshank. The hedgehog is a more challenging species to take

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on board. It is an indicator of a particularly good habitat. Very good

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as indicated for a hedgerow habitat. There are some important

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environmental questions raised by the hedgehog. One is the conflict

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with the badger. The other is the question raised by the honourable

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member, which is about the West top -- hedgehog in the western isles. It

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relates to the eggs of the Arctic turn. I give way. 1-macro I was

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going to raise the issue of the hedgehog in the Western Isles.

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Hedgehogs are a devolved matter and the honourable member isn't with us.

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It will be interesting to hear the comments. Scottish National Heritage

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are doing careful work to remove hedgehogs from the Hebrides and it

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will be interesting to see if the UK Government is going to support that.

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Things that matter to our civilisation and society, like a

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hedgehog, have to be in the right place. Hedgehogs in New Zealand are

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an extremely dangerous invasive species that have to be removed for

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the same reasons in Scotland that people are having to think about the

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control of the hedgehogs. It is no -- it doesn't matter whether you are

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talking about a hedgehog or an Arctic turn. More positively, what

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the hedgehog represents for us is an incredible symbol of citizen

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science. The energy which the honourable member has brought to

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this debate is a great example of British or English eccentricity. It

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is Ahmed basis of this that our habitat has been preserved. Gilbert

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White, the great naturalist was an immense eccentric. Most famously,

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she Warwick, the great inspiration of the British hedgehog preservation

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Society, a man who has written no less than three books on the

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hedgehog, man who represents somebody who talks in moving terms

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about staring into the eyes of the hedgehog, getting a sense of the

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wildness of the hedgehog from its case. Reminds us that these

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enthusiasts not only connect the public to nature can sustain our 25

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year environment programme but contribute to a scientific

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understanding of these animals. This is true in relation to bees,

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beavers, and in relation to Hugh Warwick's work on the hedgehog. I am

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pleased we raised the National Hedgehog Day in an intervention. We

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need to understand the hedgehog is a very prickly issue.

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The reason is that the member macro has raised the question of the

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hedgehog as a national symbol. -- the honourable member. In 1992 the

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hedgehog was used as an advertising campaign for the Conservative Party

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in the election, so we should pay tribute to the hedgehog's direct

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contribution to that victory. But I would challenge the honourable

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member's assertion that it should become our national symbol. I ask

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both sides of this House, because this is not a question that concerns

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only one party but all of us, do we want to have as our national symbol

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and animal which when confronted with danger rolls over into a little

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ball and puts its bikes up, do we want to have as our national symbol

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in -- and animal but sleeps for six months of the year. -- puts its

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spikes up. All we rather return to the lion. -- would we. Digest it,

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courageous, proud. -- Majestic. If I can finish with a little testimony

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to the honourable member and those innocent creatures who are

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hedgehogs, perhaps I can reach back not to their symbol for our nation

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but personable of innocence, to Thomas Hardy, he says" when the

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hedgehog travels furtively over the lawn, one may say, he strove that

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such innocent creatures should come to no harm. That he could do little

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for him, -- them, and there he is gone. If when hearing that they

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stand at the door watching, the full is that heaven that winter seas,

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will this thought rise on those who will meet my face no more, he was

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one who had an eye for these -- such mysteries?" .

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I was encouraging some more positive noises for the Minister... Who has

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just made one of the best speeches I have ever heard in this House. The

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question is, that this House to now adjourned. Vote-macro the ayes have

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it. Order! Order!

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