Fox hunting (From Durham Times)

Fox hunting

2:46pm Friday 4th February 2011 in Letters

Sir, – I’m afraid that George Schlesinger has misunderstood my reference to his point regarding factory farming. I clearly said that it was not a matter of either hunting or factory farming.

In that sense, his claim was irrelevant. Both are evils and both required legislation to end them, not just one of the two.

I would also add that I, and many others, did not feel particularly happy about the hunting ban; it was seriously weakened by Blair and allowed hunting to continue in a supposedly emasculated way. Because of this, hounds still pursue foxes, leading to 37 prosecutions of hunt officials last year for overstepping the mark. It should have been much tougher.

I can also tell him with absolute certainty that the ban did not in any way alter my belief that New Labour failed miserably on the issues he lists and many others.

Nor did it do so for the large number of people I know on the left, a very large number of whom resigned from the party in disgust, along with so many others nationwide, as the huge drop in membership that took place during their period in office showed.

JOHN SEVERS Durham City