27/09/04

Admittedly, the protestors who burst into the House of Commons did the protest no favours, and I was dismayed at the sights of violence and bloodshed outside.

At a guess, maybe 75 per cent of the protestors that day were working class, the very people Mr Smith accuses the "hunters" of trying to suppress. The protest was not solely about foxhunting, but about the banning of hunting with dogs, including legitimate pest control with terriers and lurchers.

Mr Smith calls fox hunting "one of the most cruel practices known to man". Does he think then, that it is normal practice to be pummelled and jabbed about the head and throat, with extendible metal batons, as the protestors were by the police outside the Commons? - Pat Blewitt, Darlington.

I AM sick of all the fuss this Government and the animal rights people have caused.

The biggest percentage of them are townspeople who have no education of the glorious countryside we live in. The way I see things, and the more I read their letters in The Northern Echo, this Bill is not about hunting but about a class war.

If people want to do some good for animals why don't they ban export of all live animals to foreign countries?

You have horses, sheep and the like packed like sardines in transporters. How many are dead or injured before they arrive at their destination?

How are they killed? Most end up with their throats cut. These animals have no escape - but the fox has, and most get away.

Ban hunting and racing will go as well.

I am an animal lover, but I have seen the devastation caused by the fox. They are beautiful animals but they have to be controlled. - H Smith, Darlington.

HEAR All Sides (Sept 16 and 20) posed the question: "Was the invasion of the Commons by pro-hunt campaigners justified?"

Ann Widdecombe MP gave part of the answer last year when she summarised the attitudes of modern society through their belief that during the 1970s people could do anything and in the 1980s they could have everything.

A majority of the population who were educated during that period are now demonstrating against one section of the populace forcing its views on another minority. It is the case of the superior versus the inferior.

The excuse is that it is the Government's revenge for the Conservative Government's attitude to the miners during the 1984 strike, but I think it is related to an episode which happened many years previously.

I remember a film entitled The Lantern Man, which told the story of The Tolpuddle Martyrs seen through the eyes of a man of that period travelling around the country villages giving lantern slide in country barns.

The film was a first class production but I realised that when Labour Party left wing members saw it one day they could cause a revolution. Now it appears to have happened.

On the BBC's Any Questions (Sept 17), Tony Benn's reply about the demonstration included a reference to the Tolpuddle Martyrs. - Thomas Conlon, Spennymoor.

IT isn't absolutely necessary to end a hunt with the tearing apart of a fox.

When the coalmines closed, the miners weren't all taken out and shot.

Hounds will not die if they don't have a fox to chase, just as horses will not need to be put down if they can't be used to chase a fox.

To quote a Wensleydale farmer some years ago: "If I have problems with a fox, I'll get my shotgun out. If I have problems with horses galloping through my fields, I'll get my shotgun out."

After a ban, the pro-hunters will still be able ride their horses and run their hounds across the fields if they must; they'll still have exactly the same nice day out. Everyone will keep their jobs, no precious hounds will be destroyed, and all you're missing is a fox's tail - but I'm sure, if you ask nicely, any farmer who shot one will keep the brush and mask and give it to you if you ask nicely enough.

Change with the times as the rest of the world has had to, and instead of whining on about "losing a way of life" seek a progressive way of maintaining it. - Paul Dobson, Bishop Auckland.

WHY can't the hunting fraternity carry out their sport as drag hunting?

This would mean all jobs, hounds and horses would be preserved, plus an extra job of trail laying.

It has been said that the hounds may not adapt to this but they were diverted by false trails laid by hunt saboteurs. Recently some hounds, bred for hunting, were exported to take part in drag hunts.

Let us keep the colourful spectacle of the hunt without the cruelty. The hounds could be rewarded with a tasty meal at the end of the trail. - J McDonell, Darlington.

ANIMAL rights activists are now breaking the law if they gather in groups to intimidate scientists.

So how come pro hunters can gather, get away with trying to blackmail Tony Blair into letting them continue with their sport, get away with stopping certain MPs from going about their business and threaten to waste our stretched police resources by breaking the law when the hunting ban is passed? - R Laycock, Shildon.

Hartlepool

I WRITE as a Quaker, and as a member of the Labour Party in Hartlepool campaigning for Labour's candidate Iain Wright in the by-election. I agree with his stand on issues directly affecting us.

However, the successful candidate must also play their part in international politics.

In March 2003, Quakers recorded our belief that the invasion of Iraq would undermine relations between Muslims and the West. And so events proved. Violence begets violence.

Now, over 21,000 people have been killed, with uncounted Iraqi casualties, all human beings whose lives we value equally with ours. The cycle of violence increases.

Measures to support and rebuild Iraq politically and economically were neglected, and the adoption of Saddam Hussein-like brutality and torture negates the invaders' humanitarian claims. We are ashamed and grieved by the abasement of the standards claimed by the West.

The purported aim to eliminate weapons of mass destruction rings hollow while we retain such weapons ourselves. We hope, therefore, just as it has done by increasing international aid, that our Government will demonstrate constructive leadership at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Conference next year.

International trust, damaged by the war, must be rebuilt and can hardly be achieved without an internationally supported solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict. Global insecurity presents difficult dilemmas and we realise that we do not have all the answers. We hope that all candidates in the by-election will respond to the Quakers' Statement on Iraq issued in 2004, and we pray that political leaders on all sides will learn for the future. - Tony Marsh, Hartlepool.