The fox hunting laws were debated long and hard in the Commons, it was the Lords who rejected it. In that case I think the Gov were ok to force it through as they had a mandate to do so, whereas the Lords might be seen as being non-democratic and many with vested interests? However, the bill/act are fairly widely consider to be badly drawn up - I think that much is clear, whichever side of the hunting ban you are on.
GWM - not that often - the article states four times since 1949.