The debates on fox hunting have become very theoretical - about whether hunting is cruel and whether the fox is an attractive part of the wildlife scene. There are some key practical issues that need to be understood:

1. Democracy does not entitle anyone to make key decisions on matters about which they have an adequate understanding. Sentiment is not enough.

2. There are severe practical problems caused by the fox as vermin. They are significant carriers of toxicara canis - the child blinding disease - and have a very damaging impact on other wildlife, farmed poultry and animals and domestic pets like cats. In short they kill them.

3. Hunting has been a key driver in and reason for the development of beautiful Britain. Field sportsmen maintain habitats in close concert with landowners and rural communities. They have done so for many years. The rural community spends hundreds of times more money and resource on the environment than the Government and all environmental groups put together - figures found in the Economist recently, if I remember aright. No one can be sure what the impact of removing a key element in the rural fabric might be. Is it likely that the rural community will continue in that same tradition or would some new Government quango have to step in to halt the decline? Who would end up paying for the countryside then? The tax-payer of course.

Yours aye

Patrick S.