ONCE again, the government seems to have lost its nerve over fox hunting, which the Prime Minister said last summer it would ban.

For having already driven the issue into the thicket of an inquiry set up under Lord Burns, it is now being asked to consider establishing an independent body to enforce codes of conduct for the sport.

But whichever way one looks at this proposal - coming from an all-party group of MPs calling itself the Middle Way - the inescapable conclusion is that, on whatever the new terms will be, fox-hunting will still be allowed.

What a ridiculous fudge.

The issue, surely, is that either fox-hunting is all right or it isn't - and that it should either be allowed or banned.

If the dithering government will listen to the country - as opposed to the strident countryside lobby that clearly is in the thrall of pro-hunting enthusiasts - it will ban the practice on the grounds of its innate cruelty.

But does it prefer a fudge to integrity?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.