Letter: Countryside fury

Sir: What rural fury, asks Ms Penny Little (letter, 10 August). Fell farmers having to pay pounds 1 a sheep for shearing, with a Herdwick fleece worth 26 pence, hunt followers feeling under threat from terribly tiresome Tuscan Tony, fishermen being threatened by the local water board's need to extract more water from local rivers, shooting folk looking at increased costs with the imminent ban on lead shot and a proposed change in the law to limit the number of weapons held legally.

If Ms Little comes up to Cumbria during the hunting season she will see real countryfolk, not "comers in" playing at a rural idyll.

These real folk are seething: seething that their way of life is threatened and harassed at every turn by ignorant urbanites seeking cheap plaudits from those as ignorant as themselves.

Whether Ms Little likes it or not, the continued conservation of the countryside is in the hands of the county folk, who gain their hard-earned recreation from country sports that are an essential for the sound management of wildlife.

So go back to your pub, Ms Little, and instead of talking to the chatters playing at countryfolk, talk to those doing it for real. But they probably don't have time to get to the pub, or the income to spend there.

A G FOSTER

Carlisle,

Cumbria