THE pro-hunting decision in the House of Lords this week brought fighting talk from Alan Hill, the senior joint master of the Kimblewick-based Vale of Aylesbury hunt.

He said he hoped the Government would not try to bring the bill back to the Commons before the general election if it is delayed.

He said: "With all this going on in the countryside, are the Government going to be that insensitive and that stupid to go ahead with a ban on hunting? Let's fight the crisis we have at the moment, get that sorted and then go to the country and then, if they want, bring it back after that."

Mr Hill doesn't think the fight is over and his struggle will continue.

The vote, for hunting to continue and for hunts to be responsible for their own regulation, was in direct contrast to the Commons vote in January to ban hunting completely.

The Lords did not even back the so-called third way, which would have set up a regulatory body and which might have been seen as a way out of the impasse for the anti-hunting Government.

In January, Mr Hill said the hopes of the hunters rested with the House of Lords. But now it depends on the date of the general election.

If the forecast date of May 3 is delayed the Commons could still have time to overturn the Lords' vote.

Penny Little, spokesman for the group Protect our Wild Animals, said the Lords' vote had nothing to do with democracy.

She said: "They will always vote that way, because they hunt, or they used to hunt or their friends hunt."

She said the vote had ended the so-called middle way option and people could now concentrate on getting hunting banned.

The Lords had to be overruled and the Government should invoke the Parliament Act to get the MPs' wishes through as soon as possible.

"We shall never give in," she said.

Tory MP David Lidington, whose constituency includes the hunt, voted against the ban in January.