Hunting all a waste of our time

I was interested to read a recent letter in your pages regarding David Cameron's pledge to allow a free vote on the repeal of the ill-contrived Hunting Act.

In it, the writer questioned the ability of Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard to support a bill to protect wildlife while endorsing the Tory leader's views.

In fact, Mr Pritchard is entirely sincere in promoting animal welfare issues at the same time as supporting hunting. Most people admit the need to control foxes, for instance, but there is a real risk of merely wounding when other methods are employed.

The Hunting Act, as it now stands, has definitely not done the quarry species any favours, and is now widely recognised to be deeply flawed legislation. However, your correspondent's letter seems to be less motivated by concern for foxes than a case of sour grapes following the defeat of Peter Bradley at the last election, who famously admitted that the long drawn-out battle leading to the Hunting Bill was more of a class war issue.

The whole sorry business wasted hours of parliamentary time and millions of pounds of taxpayers' money.

B R Lewis, Shrewsbury