So Ralph Leavis objects to the space given to opponents of foxhunting (Oxford Mail, May 15).

May I remind him that, before the ban, pro-hunters enjoyed considerable coverage in the press?

Quite a bit of blustering defiance, such as that permitted to David Cameron (Oxford Mail, May 3), has since been indulged in by those who dare to presume that an overwhelmingly popular law may be openly flouted by hunting addicts, and this has also quite rightly received press coverage.

As a regular reader of the Oxford Mail over many decades, I cannot recall a time when issues relating to impoverished pensioners, hospitals and children shouldering burdens of caring have not been covered.

Space has also been allotted to many other matters that should prick all our consciences, including the brutal behaviour towards non-humans by a sick minority in order to provide sport. No, Mr Leavis, we are not hypocrites, nor have we got our priorities wrong.

We all want to feel proud of our country.

Cruelty, in any of its hateful forms, is a stain on the fabric of our society and must be exposed as and when it occurs, so that it may be eradicated and the perpetrators punished.

The anti-hunting law must be upheld and it ill behoves any person, whatever their perceived status, to contend that they may, with impunity, break it.

Bea Bradley, Cuxham Road, Watlington