WORCESTER MP Mike Foster is, I am told, a keen match fisherman. And good luck to him - for I would guess that the weary reality of hours spent in the House of Commons is enough to fill a person with a yearning for the great outdoors.

I would imagine he feels there is nothing better than rising early on a well-earned day off, putting that pre-packed lunch into the basket, picking up the rods and heading for the river or canal bank which, all being well, will be the setting for many a silvery conquest.

Fresh air, sunshine and the gentle breeze that hints at the fine day to come. The feathered rainbow that is the kingfisher barrelling downstream, this lightning bolt, electra glide in blue of a bird that always appears so overdressed for making an appearance on the local cut.

And then there is the quarry itself. The sudden swirl in the mirror calm beneath the willow that announces the arrival of the dandy of the stream, Beau Brummel in person, the perch making his grand entrance, this prince of fishes.

Excuse me for this lyrical excess. But the facts of the matter are that I cannot help charging my quill with dark brown river water when my thoughts turn to the subject of fish.

This is, after all, the reason why I recently dusted off the old rod once more and found the perfect excuse for spending even more time on the Severn's banks.

Mike Foster would no doubt agree with these sentiments. I imagine we would probably clash over most other topics - his party's policies regarding Europe, the environment, local government and lack of support for higher education.

And it will always be my belief that he has woven a hair shirt for himself on the fox-hunting issue.

But despite what many might think, Mike Foster is a conscientious constituency MP. His many opponents in the Countryside Alliance should not allow their justifiable anger over New Labour dogma cloud the facts that he is not a single-issue man.

But there is trouble ahead for the Right Honourable member for Worcester and it has to do with fishing.

Government Ministers have been urged to order police protection for fishing competitions because of the anti-angling campaign being waged by animal rights activists. Angling groups, representing more than two million enthusiasts, are appealing to Kate Hoey, the Sports Minister, to help save their sport from the threat of militants.

Some leading figures in the angling world have been subjected to personal threats and intimidation. The fishing lobby has been mobilised after discovering an internet website instructing activists to disrupt angling competitions.

They have also been angered by new literature sent to schools telling children that angling is cruel and urging them not to eat fish. Ms Hoey is shortly to receive a report from the Angling Trades Association, which acts for all tackle manufacturers and retailers, on behalf of the sport, setting out the problems for angling if MPs vote for a hunting ban.

There is also concern about the security of events to mark this month's National Fishing Week to encourage young people to take up the sport.

The anti-angling action is being co-ordinated by the Campaign for the Abolition Of Angling (CAA) an American charity in South London and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

A spokesman for CAA said the organisation was confident of Government support and admitted that the campaign involved going into schools and taking direct action to disrupt fishing competitions...

So you can see why none of this bodes well for Worcester's MP. For, despite his claim that the issues of fox-hunting and angling are different, to many people they are one and the same.

I suspect that a number of anti-hunt lobbyists also feel uncomfortable about the fishing issue and the fact that their champion is a practitioner.

At the moment though, they are keeping quiet. But it's a distinct possibility that once the anti-blood sports people have won their ban, then they will turn their guns on to fishing and shooting. Mike Foster will then be the enemy.

This is inevitable. For the logic of single issue is that it transcends every other consideration. That is how it works - the relentless nibbling away at the edges until the target in question collapses in on itself.

And once the objective has been achieved, then the next quarry is selected.

Within the next few years, angling will come under increasing and relentless pressure.

But the saddest aspect of all this is that any campaign against this harmless pursuit will be the last battle fought - and in all likelihood lost - in Britain's vanishing green acres.

Most animal rights people have very little interest in the diversity of the countryside. There is but one long player in their record rack that is played again and again.

Yes, the question of cruelty should be debated. But I would feel a whole lot better if now and again an activist actually looked at the bigger picture.

For I have yet to hear the anti-brigade complain about the spread of bricks and mortar in the countryside, road-building, GM crops, loss of agricultural jobs, or locals priced out of their own villages.

Come to think of it, I cannot recall any views being expressed about pollution, neither can I bring to mind any concern for the loss of birds and the invertebrate life on which they depend brought about by the slump in cattle farming.

Their simplistic, monotonous mantra is as breathtakingly crass as the universal tunnel vision so shamelessly displayed. Don't eat meat, it's not nice to ickle moo cows.

If angling is ever banned, the rivers, canals, lakes and ponds of this country will rapidly descend into decay, fall into disuse or be taken over by idiots on jet skis.

The natural custodians - fishermen - will then swell the expanding ranks of Britain's newly-criminalised. And the waterways of Britain will follow the farms, barns, meadows and woods of our country's fast-vanishing landscape, dumped on the junk heap of doctrine.

Where once animals and man co-existed, the theme park and industrial estate will throw its light haze high into the night sky, illuminating the folly on Labour's New Animal Farm...

On Sunday last, a couple of lads started chatting to me as I sat by the Severn on Pitchcroft. Like me, they hadn't caught anything, and the conversation was revolving around good places to catch chub and bream, that sort of thing.

Then one of them, completely out of the blue, explained why he had taken up fishing. It was to make sure he kept out of trouble, he said.

Now there's something for you to think about, Mike Foster.