I AM writing in response to the columnist Peter Heaton-Jones, Tue, September 24.

What an ignorant man he is. He earns his living broadcasting to people in and around Swindon, many of whom are country people. If you needed an excuse to switch to GWR, I think you've found it. Many of those, "straw-sucking yokels and whingeing farmers," as he puts it, are his audience.

He's what I call a Townie, thinking that all farmers and country folk drive around in four wheel drive vehicles. A lot of us leave that to those who move to the country and pretend to know the right thing for our countryside.

Most have no idea of true country life and how hard it can be. There are those who have no transport to go to Tesco nor the means of ordering online. The elderly and people with disabilities need the village shop, so don't let them close because some are luckier or younger than others.

The country way has always been to help one another, which in a lot of cases is still true in local villages, sometimes spoilt by the fact that some town people moving out to the country don't even want to get on with their neighbours let alone give a helping hand. Thankfully not all people are the same.

The countryside march held on September 22 was about more than hunting, but about values of country life. Values that some people could never possibly understand, people like Mr Heaton-Jones, who sits in a warm studio, talking for a living! No farmer I know would swap with him and give up a way of life that's born into them, even if it is hard. Let them get on with it and support their call for a better living for those who depend so much on the land. The thinning out of foxes is all part of the country process. Leave it to those who understand it.

P J Lait

Pavenhill

Purton