Ban on fox hunting won't last, says Prince of Wales

He told a guest at the opening of the British Museum’s Enlightenment Gallery last night that the tradition of fox hunting will never go away.

Donna Rosen, an American Friend of the British Museum, said: "I chatted to him about fox hunting. I asked what was going to happen to the British tradition of fox hunting if it goes away.

"He said to me that it hadn’t gone away yet and if it does he said that it would come back. He didn’t say why, but we were talking about the importance of tradition. He was trying to say that fox hunting is such an important tradition, and I think he’s right.

"All these things are what makes each culture its own."

The Commons voted overwhelmingly in June for an outright ban on hunting with hounds, but the measure failed to get through Parliament before the end of the session last month due to opposition from the Lords.

It is now expected that the government will bring forward a bill to outlaw the sport and will use the Parliament Act to force it through the upper house by the end of 2004.

Supporters of a ban were disappointed that there was no government bill to impose a ban in the Queen’s Speech on November 26.

But they were privately assured by ministers that the bill would be one of the unspecified "other measures" announced in the speech - something that appeared to be confirmed when the prime minister told the Commons: "We will resolve this issue in this Parliament."

The prince regularly rides out in hunts, and has been joined in the past by his sons. He spoke to guests at the opening of the British Museum’s Enlightenment Gallery two nights ago, marking the institution’s 250th anniversary. The Grade I listed neo-classical interior housed the library of King George III but the rooms now contain nearly 5,000 objects which draw on the theme of Enlightenment in Britain.

The Prince spent two hours touring the new permanent exhibition Enlightenment: Discovering the World in the 18th Century, which opened yesterday following three years of intensive restoration work.