Celebrities take sides

By BBC News Online's Darryl Chamberlain

Both pro- and anti-fox hunting groups have been keen to recruit well-known names to lend their support to their campaigns.

Anti-hunting: Supporters of the Campaign For The Protection of Hunted Animals

Sir Paul McCartney, musician: "I believe that hunting with dogs is a barbaric practice that in no way can be justified as sport, and must be banned in our society before we can think of ourselves as 'civilised'. The animals with which we humans share this planet deserve our respect and kindness rather than the cruel tortures we too often inflict upon them. There can be no rational reason for this practice to continue, and only when it is banned will we be able to emerge from the dark ages into the light of a new century."

Richard Wilson, actor: "Hunting is a cruel and barbaric practice which has no place in a civilised society. Hopefully this will be outlawed by the year 2000."

Martin Offiah, rugby player: "Hunting wild animals with dogs is cruel and unnecessary. It's time to kick it out of touch."

Other supporters include satirist John Bird, BBC Radio 1 DJ Mark Radcliffe, comedians Sean Hughes and David Baddiel and 1980s pop star Midge Ure.

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Pro-hunting: Supporters of the Countryside Alliance

Harry Enfield, comedian: "If I may briefly summarise the foxhunting debate in as unbiased a way as is possible: some people think foxhunting is a good, fun healthy outdoor pursuit that preserves a part of our fast-dying culture and much of our countryside; and others are muddle-headed soppy dates who think that everyone who hunts is a haughty toff, and they don't like haughty toffs, so they'd like to spoil their fun? Most antis don't care much for foxes, they just enjoy a bit of aggro, chasing the toffs and shouting."

David Bellamy, conservationist: "While we have hunting, shooting and fishing interests in this country we will have better landscape management. Without these interests, Britain would have become a prairie landscape."

Jeremy Irons, actor: "[The countryside] is in modern parlance a balanced ecosystem, and our presence here today is like being a signal; a signal not to meddle for politically correct reasons with that balance. A signal that the voice of rural England will be heard. A signal to leave our countryside alone."

Robin Page, presenter, One Man and his Dog: "It is a mystery to me how those who object to hunting fail to see the great contributions made by hunting to the British countryside."

Other pro-hunt personalities include novelist Frederick Forsyth, footballer Vinnie Jones, cricketer Ian Botham, television presenter Anne Robinson and singer Polly (PJ) Harvey.