In reply to Stan Francis's letter, Majority ignored (Oxford Mail, June 27), surely it is not only Tories and their supporters who are withholding comment about the hunting ban, but hunters and their supine followers in general?

They are ever willing and eager to follow their masters' bidding, maintaining the vow of silence imposed upon them, pending a change of government.

The only other explanation must be that the torpor induced by the hunting ban on otherwise eager correspondents has caused a morbidity resulting in total inability to pass on hitherto freely imparted advice on what hunt monitors should do with their time.

If hunters regain control over our wildlife, then I trust they will learn from the retributive after-life that must surely be their due.

As for Darren Beal (Oxford Mail, June 28), I can reply as one of those lentil-munching, but mercifully beardless tree-huggers.

We are, in general, of a fairly generous disposition.

I may, at some indeterminate date, find myself reaching out a helping hand to him and like-minded scoffers of climate change if I, on dry land, find him or them in perilous waters.

In the meantime, may I suggest that he attempts to grow up.

BEA BRADLEY Cuxham Road Watlington