I WAS one of the 30 or so people who protested in a quiet and good-humoured manner outside Gordon Prentice's constituency offices in Nelson on Friday and could hardly believe the comments made by our MP in your report (LET, July 8).

"Bully-boy' tactics for goodness sake? I think not. Giving his staff the afternoon off "to avoid any distress."

What planet are you on, Mr Prentice? Do you really employ people so pathetically inadequate that when they see a small group of well-behaved voters gathering in a law-abiding manner they collapse into babbling nervous wrecks?

If I were a member of your staff I would be extremely angry that you had so little faith in me or my abilities! As to your comments about being personally threatened and intimidated, I cannot comment as I do not know whether this is true or just your imagination.

If it is true then I, like all my colleagues in both the Countryside Alliance and in the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, of which I am also a member, deplore and condemn these activities.

Many of our members have had first-hand experience of being attacked by balaclava-wearing club-brandishing anti-hunt campaigners and we know that violence achieves nothing and is the resort of scoundrels who should be treated with the contempt they deserve.

Twice, we have marched on London and received nothing but praise from supporters and detractors alike. Ask the Metropolitan Police about us if you have any doubts.

And, by the same token, ask the police officers who came to your offices on Friday about our behaviour and they, too, will confirm everything I have said.

You may not agree with our stance, Mr Prentice, but at least have the decency to save your vitriol for the people who deserve it and have a little more respect for your own constituents.

SHIRLEY WHITELEY (Mrs), Gib Clough Head Farmhouse, Southfield Lane, Nelson.