DEPUTY Prime Minister John Prescott faced a rough ride at the hands of pro-hunting protesters when he arrived in Kendal on Thursday night reports Justin Hawkins.

Demonstrators tried to bar his way as he arrived at the Stone Cross Manor Hotel. As police moved them aside the Deputy Prime Minister's Jaguar was hit by an egg.

Mr Prescott initially refused their calls to talk about the issue and his entourage swept past the demonstration. He entered the lobby unscathed but looking rattled.

However, moments later he did agree to speak briefly to one of the demonstrators. Jimmy McNamara from Kendal said: "I had a word with him. I put across to him the fact that a lot of people not just in Cumbria but countrywide are opposed to the Government's views on banning hunting. He said that it was party policy and that they were going to stick to their guns and push for a Bill later this year."

Mr McNamara added: "If he wants to give the impression that he's concerned about this area he's going to have to get in touch with reality."

Mr Prescott was in town to host a debate on regional devolution for the North West in the run up to an autumn referendum on the issue.

But he found himself confronted by around 20 vocal, banner-waving activists and assorted dogs from the Countryside Action Network demonstrating against a ban on hunting with hounds.

CAN is a relatively new pro-hunting group - formed two years ago - which prefers which more "radical" tactics than the more established Countryside Alliance and has in the past plastered MPs' offices with pro-hunt posters and disrupted traffic with "go-slow" convoys.

Protest organ-iser Peter Hole said CAN had arranged a "welcoming party" for Mr Prescott as a member of Tony Blair's cabinet.

The last official attempt to get legislation banning hunting through Parliament fizzled out in the House of Lords last October after too few peers turned out to support the Government Bill.

But Mr Hole said: "The fact is that various back bench MPs are saying that the Government has given them assurances that there will be a Bill in June for a complete ban on hunting with hounds and that they will use the Parliament Act to force it through we are not going to tolerate that.

"Really, it's the whole Government that we are targeting so that they are aware of how much trouble they will cause if they go ahead with this."

Pro-hunting groups fear that the Government will push ahead with a ban on hunting with hounds as a sop to backbench MPs angry about university tuition fees and the war in Iraq.

"These back benchers really have no idea of what country life is about. Most are from urban areas and they are putting tremendous pressure on the Government we have to show that we are not going to be walked over," said Mr Hole.

Tom Fell, regional director of the Countryside Alliance, said: "We share their aims, but we do not always see eye-to-eye on how to go about it." He said CAN had deployed "mischievous" tactics in the past, but had promised a peaceful protest in Kendal.

- GUEST speakers from the official YES and NO campaigns have been invited to give presentations at a public meeting to discuss regional Government at the Hired Lad, Penrith, next Thursday, April 22, starting at 7.30pm.