I completely agree with the point made that the ban on hunting foxes with hounds cannot work.
The law is poorly written, badly thought out and basically unworkable. It is about as enforceable as the law on speeding and using your mobile while driving.
This law is typical of laws written by legislators who don't know enough about their subject to block all the loopholes.
For example, drag hunts will not be prosecuted if they "accidentally" kill a fox.
The hunting ban is similar to the gun law changes. Has it reduced illegal guns? No. Will it stop hunting? No. There are too many determined people whose lives revolve around hunting. These people will find a way around the law. Also the police do not have dedicated resources for hunting.
Therefore how do you expect police forces to spare time and manpower to police millions of acres of farm land just in case someone might commit the crime of allowing a dog to kill vermin, when they can't even keep urban areas clear of crime? They can't arrest half the British aristocracy.
It is true that a key issue is, in fact, freedom of choice. We are being forced to live in a society where we can only do what the most easily-offended person thinks is acceptable.
The ban on hunting is profoundly illiberal and will mean ruin for many working class individuals. It is these people who should have more say rather than the suburban majority.
The debate really appears to be about class prejudice rather than animal rights. It's obvious that this law was passed for the simple reasons of jealousy and class animosity.
From: David S Boyes, Rodley Lane, Bramley, Leeds.
BEFORE the fox hunting ban was introduced, I asked my MP why the Government would wish to ban this sport, when at the same time it continued to allow "ritual slaughter" by minority religions, where animals have their throats cut without first being stunned as the animal welfare rules in this country usually require.
To his credit, I quickly had a reply from the Department of the Minister concerned, which advised that the Government position was that in this matter, "religious freedoms" took precedence over anything else.
Perhaps this is where the fox hunters have gone wrong? If their activities were called a "religion" they might have been able to carry on regardless.
From: Mrs Elizabeth Waterhouse, Weston Crescent, Otley.
I WATCHED TV the other day where it showed jeering "countryside lovers" about to set their dogs on to hares at the Waterloo Cup. The "countryside event" culminated in two dead hares been further mutilated by the "countryside lovers", and their carcasses thrown at the anti-hunt protesters.
Looking at the shaven-headed youngsters in khaki jackets and military camouflage, I was reminded of other similar "countryside lovers" who live nearby. They ply themselves with strong alcohol and take themselves off into the countryside, complete with badger-digging spades and hunting dogs. They would no doubt give the now-so-commonly chanted rebuke: "You don't know the ways of the countryside."
Well if this is so, it really is time the ban was enforced.

Small is beautiful for innovation
From: Dr. David Hill, Chief Executive, World Innovation Foundation, Huddersfield.
ACCORDING to Yorkshire Forward, its "industrial research and development award for large companies", (the first in the UK), is helping companies develop new products and processes to increase their competitiveness in global market places – but why for "large companies" only?
This is where their fixed mindset gets it all wrong from the very start. For the history of science and technology tells us that 75 to 80 per cent of all the major inventions that have made what the modern world is today stemmed not from big business, but from small organisations, independent inventors, amateur scientists and innovators.
Yorkshire Forward's 'Strategic Role', and I quote, is "to be the driving force behind the economic regeneration of the region, delivering a programme of change that will make a positive difference to our people, our business and our environment".
Unfortunately, this statement will come to nothing unless the true innovators are brought into the picture. All that will happen will be the expenditure of a great amount of the taxpayers' money, while the dynamic Asian economies, with a full appreciation of the power of innovation (through the exploitation of science and technology), will have put the last nails into the UK's industrial coffin.
Unless the regional development agencies, like Yorkshire Forward, grasp the need to promote and support innovation where it is most likely to be found, they will not enhance our long-term economic fortunes one iota.
Carnage on the roads
From: Allan Ramsay, Ashcombe Drive, Radcliffe.
RACIST Simon Johnston was jailed for six years this month for smashing up gravestones of Holocaust survivors.
Drivers who race on public roads, are uninsured or under the influence of drink or drugs, and smash up people's bodies, more often than not get no more than a fine.
Isn't there something seriously wrong with the law and our values?
World War II was fought for freedom and liberty, and people who abuse that position and smash the life out of innocent people into the bargain, whether intentional or not, should surely be going to jail for longer than a person who simply smashes a few gravestones.
Racists hate a certain type of people; drivers who race on public roads, hate a certain type of law, and neither group has any respect for the lives of their fellow human beings.
It took the best part of 50 years before the civilised world fully recognised the Holocaust for the crime against humanity that it was. How long will it take the civilised world to recognise auto-carnage for the crime against humanity that it is?
One group of victims were sacrificed in an attempt to create an ideal world for a certain type of people; the other group of victims are being sacrificed in an attempt to create an ideal world for a certain type of machine – automobiles.
A question of quality
From: Michael Laycock, Wheatlands Road East, Harrogate.
LAST year, while the Deputy Prime Minister was demanding that more countryside should be set aside for housing development, the then Home Secretary was saying that we need more immigration.
It is time to question the proposition that large numbers of immigrants are needed to perform the jobs that the native population are unwilling to do.
However happy to do those jobs the newcomers may be, we cannot expect most of their children to be equally content with them. A further wave of immigrants will then be recruited to do those jobs.
If, on the contrary, immigrants are not available, the rewards and working conditions for those jobs will have to be improved to make them more attractive.
The notion, that all immigration is beneficial to this country, and the notion that all immigration is harmful to this country, are both equally absurd. It is the scale and quality of the immigration that matters.
Health tests for migrants
From: Mrs S Bore, Draycott Avenue, Hornsea.
THE health screening of immigrants has never been done in the UK, so far as I am aware, and recent suggestions that it should be implemented have caused predictable controversy. However, it is nothing new elsewhere in the world, where it is rightly regarded as a common-sense precaution to protect the health of a country's entire population, and also to ensure that immigrants are not a financial burden on that country's health service.
One of several countries that rigorously enforced a health screening policy was New Zealand. How this policy operates today I do not know, but in the 1950s it applied to every immigrant and every visitor planning a prolonged stay in New Zealand. I emphasise my indication that I fully endorsed the New Zealand government's precautions.
In my own case, I was refused entry into New Zealand as an immigrant on the basis of a thorough medical examination made here in the UK by New Zealand authorities. The grounds for refusal were that I suffered bouts of tonsillitis. The NZ authorities insisted on a tonsillectomy, and when this had been done, they permitted me to sail for New Zealand.
I wonder what the reaction would be in the UK today if any prospective immigrant was refused entry here on those grounds?

The real destroyers of British industry
From: H Marjorie Gill, Clarence Drive, Menston, Ilkley.
MR JW Moorfoot asserted (Letters, February 22) that the Thatcher government killed British industry; nothing could be further from the truth. It was strikes, working to rule and outmoded working practices such as refusing to do job-sharing, which made British goods uncompetitive and closed our manufacturing industries (the docks were only saved by non-union labour practices at Felixstowe).
Flying pickets and secondary picketing were indeed outlawed by the Thatcher government to the benefit of all hard-working loyal employees. The police have been castigated for using brutal force during the miners' strike, but those of us around at the time had reason to know that many of the flying pickets were bully-boys who wanted nothing more than to hurt and main the policemen protecting the property and livelihood of those who didn't want to strike. And there were quite a lot.
As for her poll tax, it is fashionable to deride it, although many single householders living on fixed incomes welcomed it, and after all, what is it but another name for Local Income Tax which is what the Liberal Democrats are proposing?
It would appear to be uncontroversial that where more than one wage-earner lives in a property, they should pay more than a family with only one wage-earner in a similar valued property.

Give us the facts on Europe and let us decide
From: Gordon Hague, Bawtry Road, Doncaster.
IN the debate leading up to the vote on the European Constitution next year, Mike Dodds (February 19) wrote: "The referendum has nothing to do with whether or not the UK eventually joins the euro".
At present I am neither a Euroseptic nor a Europhile; I am merely looking to be supplied with the details of the issues involved so that I am able to make a balanced judgement when the time arrives to vote.
May I, therefore, just ask this question: if the vote approves the constitution, is it not a certainty that the UK will adopt the euro at some stage thereafter?
In that event surely, adopting the euro will have everything to do with the referendum.
It is absolutely essential, therefore, that voters are told of the financial implications involved. After all, it may well be that waverers might be persuaded to vote 'Yes' if they know for sure their financial well-being will be improved at some near stage in the future.
Conversely, other voters may be put off voting 'Yes' if they foresee a dramatic downturn in their financial circumstances.
These are intensely personal issues and of great importance to people, and the sooner they know the details, the better. It is not acceptable to be told that the UK will be much better off if it delivers a "yes" majority, and that the alternative is Peter Mandelson's "Black Hole" if we do not.
It just will not do. Give us the facts, warts and all, and we, the great British public, will decide, one way or the other.

Points
Food's cocktail of chemicals
From: Mrs ML Cook, Parkside Close, Cottingham, East Yorkshire.
THE Food Standards Agency says it is working with the food industry to remove foods contaminated with Sudan 1 from the shelves in the shops. The risk of this substance causing cancer is considered to be very small.
Hydrogenated vegetable oil, present in an endless variety of foods, is also a possible carcinogen, especially when combined with the ever increasing non-food chemicals that are added to our food.
The number of cancer cases in our hospitals could surely be
linked to the carcinogenic substances now present in our diet.
Surely the time has come for FSA to give us information on the safety of this chemical cocktail now added to so much of what we eat.
We all need to know how safe it is.
Beckham baptism
From: Liz Balding, Ellar Carr Road, Cullingworth, Bradford.
PERHAPS the news that the Beckhams have decided to saddle their newest son with a girl's name isn't so surprising when you consider that when asked on a chat show some years ago whether they would have their son Brooklyn christened, David Beckham replied: "Yes, but we don't know in which religion yet."
Stuck without a dentist
From: B Robinson, Midland Terrace, Hellifield, near Skipton, North Yorkshire.
IT would appear to be almost impossible to get on the
books of a NHS dentist in this area.
I contributed to the system for 51 years, yet neither my wife nor I can find a NHS. dentist. When I broke my top plate, I had to revert to DIY and repair it with superglue.
Concessions to terror
From: Jim Beck, Lindrick Grove, Tickhill, Doncaster.
BRAVE words recently from Tony Blair, along with Charlie Clarke, but he is a trifle selective in his fight against terrorism.
He has made concession after concession to the IRA and received nothing whatsoever in return.
God help the monarchy
From: Mick Snowden, Amotherby, Malton.
WE read that the Church has been commanded by the Queen to pray for Camilla.
Understandable. If Charles becomes King, with Camilla as his consort, God help the monarchy.