Political party conferences typically bring out the disgruntled, but the gaggle of freaks lining up to heckle Tony Blair at the Labour Conference is extraordinary.

The first exhibit is the ubiquitous anti-war crowd. No real surprise there. Agitator (and delegate) Hector Christie shouted, "You've got blood on your hands!" The Prime Minister acknowledged Christie, responding, "That's fine, sir. You can make your protest. Just thank goodness we live in a democracy and you can."

Blair went on to add, as part of his speech about Iraq, "I can apologize for the information that turned out to be wrong, but I can't, sincerely at least, apologize for removing Saddam. The world is a better place with Saddam in prison not in power," adding, "[we must] unite in our determination to stand by the Iraqi people until the job is done."

Twenty minutes after the Saddam apologist interrupted Blair's speech, the second exhibit of loonies made itself heard. Replying to pro-fox hunting heckles, Blair coolly asked, "Excuse me, but if there's any more of you, do you mind standing up now?"

Blair has tried for the third time since achieving the top office in 1997 to enact an anti-fox hunting bill, which succeeded in passing, and though the House of Lords is expected to reject it, Labour plans to hammer the legislation home via the Parliament Act. Outside the Labour Conference headquarters in the seaside city of Brighton, 8,000 pro-hunting protestors gathered outside. Disgustingly, the hunting brigade dumped a dead horse, cow and two calves in the street and pelted the conference site with eggs. Nearly fifteen "bunny girls," practically naked, ran into the cold water of the English Channel in support of blood sports.

Although a majority support a ban on fox hunting, a vocal minority is raising hell over their right to tear foxes to bloody pieces. It's gotten so ridiculous that Lucy Ferry, former wife of Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry, says that the fox hunters will topple the Blair government over the issue of hunts. Her son, Otis Ferry, was among the five hunt supporters that ran into the House of Commons on the day of the fox-hunt ban vote.

"What happened to the middle way in all this?" Ferry asked. "I think hunting people are quite happy to be licensed and if Tony Blair uses the Parliament Act on this, he is going to be the laughing stock of Europe and America and anyone who has any intelligence."

Middle way? Laughing stock? Sneaking into—or recruiting a sympathizer to gain entry into—the House of Commons to disrupt a vote and nearly assaulting the Rural Affairs Minister—that sounds like extremism, not intelligence, to me. It certainly didn't gain the pro-hunting crowd any sympathy. The democractic way is not enforced by breaking the law or breaching security.