IT HAS emerged that down in East Yorkshire, the Holderness Hunt chased a fox for four miles. The hunt says it was unable to stop the hounds, which finally killed the fox with the usual savagery: no flushing out and shooting.

If allowing a pack of dogs to crash uncontrolled around the countryside for four miles isn't criminal behaviour then it ought to be. Since the Government, surely, doesn't wish to have wasted its time putting through the hunting ban, Labour's manifesto for the general election should say something like this:

"We will closely monitor the working of the ban on hunting with dogs and will introduce and implement any necessary measures to ensure its effectiveness. Among these will be a specific offence of being in charge of dogs that run out of control.''

To answer critics who claim there are more important animal welfare issues than hunting, the manifesto could usefully add: "The ban on battery cages, due to come into effect in 2012, will be brought forward to January 2006.''

RISES of up to ten-fold in the cost of the new directory inquiry services has led both the National Audit Office and the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee to question the opening-up of the service to competition. Invoking the old "If it ain't broke, don't fix it' wisdom, Edward Leigh, Tory chairman of the PAC, says: "Oftel has made an unpopular and unnecessary change''.

But it was necessary - to comply with an EU dictat. This explains why the Government hasn't responded to the criticism of the change. It doesn't want to draw attention to the extent to which we are under the EU's thumb.

THIRTY five of Britain's 43 police forces complain they are overwhelmed by paperwork, which the Chief Constable of Surrey says accounts for 90 per cent of his officers' time. It might do. But I can testify that efforts to get police out from behind desks date back to at least the 1960s, when I wrote about the subject. And I wouldn't like to count how many times since then figures for the transfer of desk jobs to civilian staff have been presented to suggest that this particular battle was being won. Now, it seems, it has been spectacularly lost.

DAFFODILS again. As uplifted by their cheerful appearance as anyone, I have nevertheless long considered the daffodil to be overplanted in public places. Now, however, I am also sure that if daffodils filled every road verge they would still not out-bloom the litter that chokes every hedge and besmirches every green place.

Most British citizens belong to either or both of two groups, membership of which is denied by all. One of these is litter louts. The other? Racists.

NICE to see the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, the Rt Rev John Packer, on duty at the northern tip of his diocese - in Bowes. His appearance there, to confirm identical quads, is a reminder that Bowes, administered by Durham County Council, remains in Yorkshire. Our historic counties ought to be identified on maps and by special road signs. The general election is a chance for a political party to commit itself to this small measure, which would command much public support.

DR Who is back. Is there anyone who really did watch the original from behind the sofa?