PRINCE Charles has, apparently, been making plain his views on the weekend's countryside march. Ban hunting, he is reported to have told a private gathering, and I might as well leave the country.

The comments came on top of his views, expressed in a private letter to Tony Blair, that ministers would never dare treat ethnic minorities or homosexuals in the way they have treated farmers and rural communities.

The comments will have delighted countryside campaigners. But, as a future king, should the prince really have been speaking out this way against his country's government?

Rosey Dunn, farmer and county vice chair of the National Farmers Union, who lives at Stockton on the Forest

"I think what he is saying is right. People in the countryside are a minority and as such it doesn't seem as though we count for the government. Perhaps he could have been a bit more diplomatic. I think he has got the right to speak out for a sport he loves. On every subject there are always two views, and everybody should be allowed a view. He's a farmer as well as a royal and he's some one who enjoys fox-hunting, and he should be allowed to say what he feels."

June Tranmer, 47, an acupuncturist who runs the Healing Clinic in Fulford Cross, York, is keen on green issues

"First of all, who really is sure he said all this? Where did it come from? There seems to be all sorts of leaks emerging. What is the purpose of making this public? Just because somebody is a public figure does not mean that every word they utter has to be plastered across the newspapers. I really like Prince Charles. He talks to trees! I think his heart is really in the right place. Hunting is another thing altogether, but it is worrying how people are going to survive in the countryside. I know of farmers who have committed suicide. It is a desperate situation, and I feel sad there is this rift between the city and the country. It is possible that this is all he was trying to say."

Updated: 09:14 Tuesday, September 24, 2002