The Parliamentary Bill to ban hunting with Dogs in England and Wales has been a contentious issue over the lifetime of almost two parliaments. With any luck (largely dependent upon an outbreak of sense in the House of Lords; something which should never be taken for granted) the Bill will have been passed by the House of Commons and pushed through the Lords via the little-used Parliament Act by the time you read this article.

I support the ban – its premise is sound and its objectives are laudable. Most people I know, including many people involved in farming and agricultural industries also support the ban. The opinion of my farming friends is and was important to me – we are after all one community. More importantly, their opinions demolish the claims that the fox-hunting issue is an undercover class-war being waged by an urban political party against an oppressed countryside community.

If anything the opposite is true. Since 1997 a number of similar, highly organised politically motivated groups have attempted to create a fissure between the town and country which simply doesn’t exist. These groups claim that their way of life is under threat and that they are victimised by the urban masses. All too often these baseless, trumped-up claims give way to threats aimed against not only the government but the general public. This month the Countryside Alliance said of the Hunting Bill, "The government has chosen the path of prejudice and spite – the reaction it unleashes will be entirely its own responsibility."

So when pro-hunt protestors attempted to sabotage electricity pylons near Carlisle, the whole of North Cumbria was threatened. Industry could survive some time without electricity (although the bills would be horrendous) but public services couldn’t. How do special baby care units, intensive care wars and operating theatres operate without electricity? What about traffic control? It would appear that these concerns do not trouble the pro-hunt militants.

The bilious comments of the Countryside Alliance were echoed by the Tory MP for Penrith and the Borders, David Maclean when he accused Labour of "class prejudice"(News & Star 14/09/04). Mr Maclean finished his ill advised diatribe with a call to arms, "It is time for the countryside and the whole country to roar. In every town, every village, every meeting…you must fight as you have never fought before."

Lest we forget Maclean was a key member of the last Tory government which brought us unemployment approaching 4 million, decrepit public services, crumbling schools and hospitals, and the Poll Tax – possibly the most prejudicial and regressive tax ever seen in this country. Nor should we forget that Michael Howard was the architect of this pernicious policy which not only targeted the poorest in our society (in town and country) but made the Poor poorer and the Rich richer.

Ordinary people in the town and the country are not fooled by the hysterical rantings of Maclean and his like minded right wing friends, nor will they ever accept lessons on prejudice from the Tories.