"It fills me with horror to think about what some say was the reason why Tony Blair let his backbenchers use the Parliament Act on the Hunting Bill. It was to get them to endorse the war in Iraq".

I hope even the AR folk realise that is true, and unjustifiable. In terms of the suffering caused in Iraq (to humans and all other animals) while the Hunting Bill was never really going to be more than a whitewashing of the issue, for the most part uninforced.

Generations of my family have hunted with dogs, some of them still do for rabbits. If someone wants to explain why rabbits aren't classified as mammals under English and Scots law then I'm all ears, forgive the pun, but I couldn't care less. The only rabbit I've killed was a mercy killing but I'm glad to know how to catch a rabbit and I'm happy that some of my meat-eating relatives never pay for domesticated meat.

I think Clarissa is a nyuk, unworthy of the attention she draws on herself. She is obviously not as scared of animal rights folk as she pretends to be, or else she'd hardly repeatedly mention in newspaper interviews that she lives in a coach house in a village that isn't exactly over run with coach-houses. That is simply a media pose, from a media poseur, and I certainlydisagree with this pronouncement of hers -

"There is, of course, little humour in the animal liberation movement".

What is a "nyuk"? Never heard that one.

Do people like Clarissa Dickson Wright really believe the kind of bullshit printed in their articles, or is it deliberate misinformation? e.g. the cop who said "they were afraid of [antis] because the antis knew where they lived and would cause trouble at their homes." Either this is totally made up or the cop was winding the person up.

In my old aunts' patois, a nyuk is slightly worse than a nyaff. My aunts have no clear recollection of either definition but in usage over the years I'd judge a nyaff to be an insignificant, untrustworthy fool and a nyuck is a slightly more grandiose, more ridiculous nyaff. I'd assume that is the definition given given the location in the article.

Nyuks seem to also refer to thieves from Newry, which presumably was applied to everyone in Newry by people who lived elsewhere, like 'Scousers' are all theives.

Just because this vernacular is before our generation doesn't mean it is traditional, both phrases could have evolved from hollywood films eg 'The Three Stooges', perhaps in combination with earlier local insults such as nyaff.

Insults have to evolve as people learn to accept any label as acceptable, but the most damning thing anyone ever said to me was 'that is a bit English of you' when I was being slightly over-competitive, slightly superior. That one still stings...