Letter: No to hunting ban

IT IS surely odd to suggest, as "one backbencher" did ("Labour backs away from Blair pledge to ban hunting", 31 October), that if the Labour Party does not deliver a ban on hunting before the next election, it will be sending "comrades out naked into the dawn when it comes to canvassing for votes". Who will care? Probably very few, if Labour backbenchers stop making a fuss. In fact in many constituencies with a significant rural element, a continued vendetta against hunting's rural supporters is likely to backfire, as it did in the virtually suburban by-election at Winsford.

A commitment to ban hunting as a centrepiece in the next election will simply ensure a surfeit of canvassers for whichever party is most likely to defeat the Labour candidate in any and every marginal, and endless reminders that the party accepted a gift of pounds 1m from the anti-hunting lobby - no strings attached, of course.

RICHARD OVENSTONE

Kidderminster, Worcestershire