Where else would you expect to find Farage, the personification of affable blokeish racism, on Boxing Day? The UKIP leader took the trip down south to a meet of the Old Surrey and Burstow foxhounds. It plays well in the Tory shires, this kind of thing. Traditional, innit: all redcoats, horses and the squirearchy out to play. No doubt Nigel hopes to rustle away a few Conservative voters.
He's all over the press shaking hands with one Mark Bycroft, the huntsman of the Burstow. In one image Nigel manages to tells us what it'll be like if he gets his wish to turn the clocks back to the 1930s.
Just a fortnight previously (14/12/13), at Fordcombe in Kent, Mark Bycroft launched a pre-meditated attack on a young anti-hunt protester. Notice how he looks left and right to see who's watching (or filming) before throwing the punch. Unluckily for him he doesn't spot the camera mounted inside a nearby vehicle.
Hunt monitors and saboteurs are used to having their complaints of assault dismissed by police. In deference to local hierarchy the constabulary are usually slow to act. Unless, of course, the allegations come from above, in which case the hapless anti's feet will be lucky to touch the floor. In the case of this assault the cops attending the meet literally had to be chased along country roads before they would take a complaint.
This time round, once the evidence was forced on them it proved so blatant that they were forced to act. Bycroft was arrested on Friday 20th but by some legal sleight of hand only received a caution. Bear in mind that this is a man with previous convictions for assault, then think about how an average suspect might have been treated, and marvel at how the aristocracy protect their own.
So there he is on Boxing Day, mounted and ready to set his dogs on local wildlife, shaking hands with the racist politician du jour. The buddy-buddy pic's a horrible premonition of what lies ahead should Farage ever get in the saddle.