STAY calm and we will win - that was the message from a leading pro-hunting lobbyist to angry protesters at a meeting in Thirsk.

Richard Burge, head of the Countryside Alliance, told a meeting of the group's North Yorkshire branch that now was not the time for direct, physical action.

He addressed about 100 members packed into a function room at the Golden Fleece Hotel. "It is time now to be bloody determined that we are going to win," he said. "We are dealing with a political process and a world which, frankly, couldn't give a damn about hunting."

He said there would be no negotiation over which sections of the blood sport could go. "If we even consider sacrificing one form because we feel that if we let it go, then they will ease off the rest of us, that is the most immoral position we can hold. We are here to defend all of it properly and legitimately."

Hunting must become more open, but that did not mean a watchdog body that would run it into the ground, he said. "A regulatory regime that demonstrates transparency and accountability, not a regime that immediately bans one or another form of hunting, or a regime that can be used to regulate something to death."

He said the best strategy was to have an alliance presence wherever and whenever Defra ministers appeared in public, but said in order to keep the press and the public on side, the protesters must not come across as threatening. "People will only support us if they see that what is happening is an attack on the civil rights of ordinary people like you."

Despite a lengthy speech pleading for restraint, the message from his audience was that they were ready to take to the streets.

A woman in the crowd summed up the mood. "We are very patient people and we are about to break rank," she said. "We follow a field marshal and do as we are told all the time, but what we need now is a strong leader at the front."

One man asked when they could start throwing eggs. Mr Burge said it would be better publicity to be seen offering Government ministers the chance to negotiate. "We'll talk to them, then give 'em the eggs," was the reply.

Another questioned whether the softly, softly approach would really work when Scotland had already voted for a hunting ban. "You cannot get away from the fact that we have lost in Scotland," he said.

"If you were a Roman general, then you would have been executed. Using all legal options is accepting the possibility of defeat. Your argument is making us a hostage to fortune."

Mr Burge closed with a reminder that physical action could alienate voters and politicians. "We want to protest in such a way that the ordinary public stay on side."