Allow me to put forward my last arguments regarding why voters should vote 'Yes' in the referendum on 11 April.

1. Hunting is not like any other pastime or hobby. It cannot be practised at any time one chooses throughout the whole year. Nowadays it is an extremely regulated pastime and the penalties one faces if regulations are disobeyed are very harsh indeed!

2. Those who base their argument on illegal hunting, as SHout are doing, should be reminded that no one would even think of prohibiting the use of knives just because there are individuals who abuse knives and use them as a weapon to kill humans, not birds. Neither should we ban cars from our roads just because there are drivers who abuse driving regulations and end up killing people instead of birds.

3. This referendum is actually not about spring hunting, as such, but about Malta's right to use a derogation so that the Maltese government will retain the right to decide whether or not to open the hunting season in the spring, or close it - if necessary. This is one of the few rights which the Maltese government, irrespective of whether it is PL or PN, still has. Do we want to give this right to the EU to decide as well? Those who will be voting 'No' will be saying that they do not want their own representatives in parliament to decide, but are willing to let foreign bureaucrats decide for us.

This is why I will be voting 'Yes' - even though I am not a hunter - and also because I strongly believe that the pastimes of minorities should be protected by the majority, not denied.

Eddy Privitera

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