Sir.-For many years, my family and I have enjoyed an outing to the Easter Monday point-to-point meeting at Hackwood Park.

It offered a carnival atmosphere and a chance to meet friends, to admire the beauty of horses and the skill of riders and to enjoy a mild flutter with the bookmakers.

Sometimes on the approach road, one would encounter hunt protesters making their point of view known. I always felt this was inappropriate as spectators were not attending a hunt and it was not that kind of occasion. However, the intrusion was slight and momentary.

I have never regarded myself as a political person, in the party-political sense, although I can be impassioned about matters of peace, truth and justice and I have a strong civic loyalty.

This year I was deeply appalled at the degree to which some people in authority at the meeting appear to have crudely politicised what has always been a splendid family social event.

The proliferation of banners with political slogans was offensive enough but spectators were subjected to several minutes of what I consider to be vile party-political demagogic rant in the worst possible tradition over the public address system.

I would describe myself as a neutral in respect of some of the so-called "countryside" issues. Consequently, I felt sullied and degraded by Monday's experience, which has certainly alienated me and, I would expect, the more fair-minded countryside supporters.

-Paul Connolly, Yew Tree Close, Oakley.