serves you right for messing with tory shop keepers sir jOhn - sainsburys for me every time.

I think we have to mark the card of our American friends here.

This is really nothing to do with anti-hunting per se. Over in England this is class warfare.

Okay there are some people who dislike hunting because it it is a bloody disgraceful thing to chase the fox in that way. If you've ever been to a bull fight and you see that frozen second as the bull enters the ring , hears the crowd and the poor creature thinks what the Fuck is going on here and it pees itself in terror. Its feels horrible for most people, the idea of planning to do that to a sentient creature.

However over in England . this issue is class warfare. The nobs(the rich folk - maybe not all rich but most of them) ride to hounds.

This is payback time for a lot of people. For 18 years we had a right wing government who closed down a lot of the industry in the poor parts of England, and then got up on soapboxes and insulted the people who were out of work. Eighteen years with no sign of deliverance, and these rich guys were the ones voting for this.

Now the riders to hounds have NO idea. None whatsoever of how deeply they are hated.

A few years ago I went one afternoon to a gig out in the country to see a favourite folksinger, and I took a couple of friends who had been miners of course who had lost their jobs.

When we got there the room was full of people in their pinks (as they call their red hunting jackets). The violence of the reaction in my friends took my breath away. They were quite simply ready to kill. One of them declared himself feeling physically sick. We left.

For many people this is a well aimed kick in the goolies to an entire class. Hunt supporters are indeed deluding themselves. There was a feeling that if the recent invaders of the House of commons had been muslim youths rather than hooray henrys, they wouldn't be back on their estates mouthing off to the BBC the next day - they would be detained under the prevention of terrorist act.

I think if they keep on chancing their arm they will get it bitten off eventually.