JOHN Routledge may well bemoan the huge effort it took to drive through the ban on fox hunting (HAS, March 8), but would do better looking at avoiding making the same mistake again by trying to undo the ban.

It took 700 hours of parliamentary time to get an imperfect ban onto the statute books because of the opposition of the House of Lords. I did not want a ban, and would like to see the ban repealed, but is doing this really more important than the economy, housing or the NHS?

The Conservatives seem to think so and say that they want to reopen the hunting debate – what does it say about their priorities as the world languishes in recession?

What’s done is done, but we risk a new government allowing this fruitless debate to be reopened to please their allies in the pro-hunting lobby at the expense of 100 per cent commitment to the issues that really matter to most people.

Paul Leake, Bowburn, Durham.