A SHOWDOWN between Worcestershire MPs Mike Foster and Peter Luff was expected today as the Hunting Bill comes before the Commons.

Anti-hunting Mr Foster - who initiated a ban in a Private Members Bill in 1997 - and fellow Labour MP Tony Banks have tabled an amendment to bring it into force on July 31 2006.

But Mr Luff - a Conservative - yesterday opposed this with an amendment of his own to delay any ban for seven years in order to prevent the mass destruction of hounds.

Around 1,000 pro-hunting supporters from Worcestershire and Herefordshire travelled to Parliament Square today, as the debate began.

Despite jubilation that the Government has promised to force a ban on hunting through Parliament within the next two months, some anti-hunting MPs have been dismayed at its plans to delay its implementation for two years.

The move, which will bring forward the ban by about four months, had already secured the support of more than 100 Labour backbenchers last night and could be supported by the Government today.

Mr Foster said that the new date for the ban would put it safely beyond the next General Election - which could be held as late as early July 2006, although it is expected next May.

But it will also come into force in time to prevent the new cub-hunting season in August 2006, which would otherwise have got under way before the sport was outlawed in November.

The House of Commons will set itself on a collision course with the Lords tonight if MPs, as expected, vote for the Bill - regardless of the delay before it takes effect.

The proposed ban arouses equal passions on both sides of the debate. It has been repeatedly supported by the Commons, only to be thrown out by the Lords.

But this time, the Government is lining up what the Conservative Shadow Leader of the House, Oliver Heald, described as the "nuclear option".

If peers reject the Bill again this time around, the Parliament Act of 1949 is to be invoked in an historic show of strength over the Lords, overruling their vote and securing Royal Assent without their support.

The Act, enabling the will of the House of Commons to find its way into legislation despite opposition in the Lords, has been only rarely used.

It was used to pass the War Crimes Act in 1991, to introduce proportional representation in the European Parliament elections in 1999 and, in 2000, to lower the age of consent for homosexuals to 16.

It's about a way of life, says Mark

CITY dweller Mark Daniels is not your average pro-hunting campaigner.

For one thing, the 44-year-old has never been hunting with hounds in his life, for another he lives in Grenville Road, Dines Green, Worcester - not your typical rural haven.

Nevertheless, he joined around a thousand others from Herefordshire and Worcestershire this morning to urge MPs to throw out the Bill.

Mr Daniels has been a keen fisherman for three decades and worked as a gunsmith in his father's store, in Bromyard, before becoming a printer 20 years ago.

While he freely admits hunting with hounds does not "push his buttons", he fears the implications of a ban will affect far more than the hunting fraternity.

"In the fullness of time I'm sure a ban on hunting with hounds will lead to a ban on shooting and fishing," he said.

"The whole thing will also be a waste of police time.

"With all the trouble going on in the world, I can't help but think that the Government should have better things to do. It really shouldn't interest them."

Mr Daniels goes fishing across Worcestershire and shoots at Martley, Bishops Frome, Leominster and throughout the Cotswolds, as well on trips in Wales and Scotland.

He is a member of the British Association of Shooting and Conservation and has also taken part in two countryside marches in London and one, last year, in Malvern.

"First, the ancillary industries associated with hunting will all suffer," he said.

"Blacksmiths, saddle and helmet makers - in fact a long list of businesses - will all struggle and eventually the law will get mongrelised and shooting and fishing will be banned.

"I would certainly hope my presence makes a difference. If the MPs bother to look out of their windows they will see how many people are against it."