THE Bishop of Blackburn, the Right Rev. Alan Chesters, invites the ire of anti-hunting and right-to-roam campaigners when he dubs their campaigns as "trivial" in comparison to the crisis affecting farming.

Bishop Chesters is spot on with his priorities, but not with his choice of adjective, for the seriousness of the issues of the freedom of the countryside and cruel sports is measured by the large amount of public concern over them.

Yet, if he is suggesting that insufficient concern exists for the plight of farming, he is right.

British agriculture is in its worst crisis since the 1930s, with average farm incomes plunging to between £5,000 and £7,000 a year.

Indeed, only today a new report showed many farmers cannot afford to vaccinate their livestock against disease because the vets' bills exceed the value of their animals.

Set against such predicaments, the worries of ramblers and anti-blood sports protesters are indeed of secondary importance, though they are far from trivial.

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