Ban is not new Poll tax

Hunting with hounds will become illegal, sooner or later, and it will do no one any good to defy the law when that happens.

The progress of the Hunting Bill through Parliament has been one of the least glorious chapters in recent political history, we do not dispute that. Neither side can claim the moral high ground as the Queen's pen hovers at last over this legislation.

The constituents of Labour MPs who made it such a point of principal to defy the Government on the welfare of the humble fox are entitled to ask why a similar show of strength evaporated over Iraq or tuition fees.

But countryside campaigners who believe they have some sort of popular mandate to indulge in civil disobedience or even to carry on regardless and risk arrest should think again.

Public sympathy dried up very quickly the day Otis Ferry and friends stormed the Commons chamber. The British people understand the concept of dissent, but place much higher store in the rule of law, once the law has been decided.

The hunting ban will hit some rural families and communities very hard, it is true.

It will also cause division in a countryside still psychologically scarred by foot-and-mouth and distressed by the slow decline of the farming industry.

We illustrate today how the ban will split villages, even families, down the middle.

But hunting is not going to become a new Poll Tax for this Government, as some campaigners are attempting to suggest. There is no massive groundswell of sympathy, let alone active support, outside the countryside.

Even supporters of the hunting fraternity should stop short of claiming a moral dimension to this argument.

Those who disobey the law will find themselves increasingly isolated and marginalised. They will also damage any chances there are of repealing this law.

The countryside needs new ideas to offset the economic impact a ban might have. It needs people to pull together, and to move on.

This debate has set town against country, and the sad fact is people making their living in rural areas will suffer the most if they burn the fragile bridges that connect the two.

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Pennies must count

To a taxpayer every penny counts - so it would be nice to feel the people who spend our public pennies treat them with the same respect.

That is why many readers will find the saga of Durham City Council's hunt for new executive officers so infuriating.

The local authority was searching for a new head of culture and leisure services. It happens to own a very large cultural venture - the ill-starred Gala Theatre - with the kind of conference facilities suitable for interviews to take place in.

Perfect, you might think. It can use its own facilities cheaply and even get the chance to ask candidates: "So, what do you think? What would you do to get this place working properly?"

Instead the council rented space in a hotel. We imagine this was more mistake than conspiracy, but it sums up the arrogance and complacency that stalk the corridors of our civic buildings.

No wonder the assembly vote proved a huge motion of censure against our political classes.

It may not have cost much to rent the hotel space but it shouldn't have cost anything, because every penny does count.

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