YOUR correspondent Alan Cook (Your Letters, June 28) made remarks which I feel need answering.

He asks "if so many people are against fox hunting why do 2,000 people turn out to see the Ledbury Hunt meet?" I would suggest most of the onlookers are there to see the spectacle of so many horses and dogs in one place and I can't help thinking that were an unsuspecting fox to happen along the street and the blood and fur started to fly the majority of those spectators would disappear at a great rate of knots!

Does Mr Cook know, I wonder, that the hunting fraternity is made up of just 0.4 per cent of the population, hardly a highly popular pastime - he goes on to state that "only a few bigoted MPs voted to ban hunting with dogs" when actually an overwhelming majority of MPs of all parties voted for a ban.

Mr Cook also seems to think that people who live in the country are treated as "second class citizens by our government." He is either too young to know or he has a bad memory - it was actually Margaret Thatcher who, in a speech nearly 20 years ago, told farmers they must be prepared to diversify and use their land for other purposes. It was she too, who presided over the closure of small schools and not just in the country either. It was the same excuse of 'non-viability' that was used to close small local sub-post offices in readiness for privatisation and bus services went the same way.

All of these things were happening before the present government came to power Mr Cook so you really can't blame it for all your ills but please don't feel like a second class citizen - you might end up with a chip on your shoulder!

MRS J E GREEN, Pickersleigh Road, Malvern.