WAKE up, Mr M Lewis, Referendum needed on public's hunt views, Points of view, May 18.

When IPSOS Mori did the poll on cruelty on hunting, 70 per cent were against hunting and 59 per cent of Conservatives were also against hunting because of its cruelty to wild animals.

Animals hunt and kill for feed. Only man hunts and kills for fun including shooting.

The issues we face with regard to the hunting ban are much the same.

The public view is that it is cruel and barbaric and also a crime. There is not one law for hunters and a different one for the rest of the population.

Imagine what the public are going to think of a party or a politician whose priority is to turn the clock back to the cruelty of hare coursing, stag hunting, terrier work and fox hunting, while there are millions unemployed.

Just consider what the unemployed are going to think of a bunch of hunters chasing and killing for fun while they try to keep a roof over their heads and enough food to eat.

The UK is a modern and tolerant society but there will come a point when, if the hunters use Parliament to look after themselves and their bloodsports while the poor get poorer and their benefits are cut and the services on which they rely are scaled back, the people's fury will know no bounds.

Kathy Moyle

East Budleigh

(by post)