Foxhunting may be persecuted by Parliament but it is not in retreat. The season starts on Monday, and the preparatory cubbing has been heavily subscribed. At our newcomers’ day in the Cotswolds, 310 mounted followers turned up. It was poignant to see how keen the young hunters were. The Pony Club has nurtured them, a movement which was born here in Britain and has now spread round the world.

Will class war interrupt these newcomers’ hunting future? The sport now faces a fortnight of great political complexity but the scientific, moral and institutional lines have become clearer. The House of Lords has spoken and voted crushingly against the Tony Banks Bill, one of the most feebly drafted bits of legislation they have ever had to contemplate.

One contribution stands out for its scientific importance. Lord Burns is the author of the Government’s own commissioned report and in the House he spelt out his position with clarity. He had looked into all aspects and he found “no compelling evidence for a ban on animal welfare grounds”, “no evidence of cruelty” and no alternative method of controlling foxes which would be preferable.

This opinion destroys a popular myth. Morally, we should surely attend to the inclinations of that unmounted constituency, the bishops. Peterborough has been eloquent on the defensibility of hunting and Chelmsford has been even more explicit. They are the true heirs of the great Archdeacon Grantly in Trollope’s matchless novel The Last Chronicle of Barset. In a brilliantly human scene, Trollope reminds us how the archdeacon “could have heard nothing of his son to stir him more in his favour than strong evidence of his partiality for foxes”. How the great novelist would have appreciated Jim Thompson, the late Bishop of Bath and Wells, the see which left such an imprint on Barsetshire. Bath and Wells went round the wavering bishops when the legislation first threatened and stiffened them to oppose it on humanitarian grounds. Even my local Bishop of Oxford has reversed his “anti” stance.

The scientific and moral arguments may be clear, but the institutional ones are about to become a glorious mess. The Lords have rightly refused the Banks Bill with all its inconsistencies and have called for investigation, possible regulation and delay for several years. Can the Government really use the Parliament Act in the face of such opposition? Labour insiders insist that Tony Blair wants a compromise and an exit. Will they submit the question of using the Parliament Act on such a minority issue to a whipped vote in the Commons?

If the Act is used, part of the chaos will be constitutional. Already, lawyers are contesting the validity of this particular Parliament Act. If the Act of 1949 is to be applied, has it or has it not legally replaced the previous Act of 1911? The 1911 Act required at least three submissions of a Bill to the Lords, whereas the Banks Bill has had only two. There will be delay, expense and a continuation of hunting until this question is sorted out.

The Government’s own Human Rights Act will have to compensate the victims of an anti-hunting Bill who will lose their profession, often in middle age, for no economic reason. Thousands of people are involved and the cost could exceed £100 million.

There will also be a human and animal cost. It is extraordinarily difficult to listen to the League Against Cruel Sports, telling foxhunters to adopt a “preferred equine alternative”. These people always omit the hounds. Why should they not be allowed to chase a prey and kill it instantly? Are they planning some Canine Rehabilitation Alternative Programme? It is as unwanted as its acronym. English foxhounds are the envy of the world and without the sport, they have no alternative. Nor, I fear, do some of their devoted keepers, not least in their own minds. Several of our finest huntsmen have stated fervently that they do not wish to live on if their beloved packs of hounds are suspended and effectively removed from their care.

I hope that hunters have nothing to do with violence and instead devote their energy to planning a haven for foxhounds until the next election but one, when Labour will lose. Then a new Government can reintroduce the sport as a protected heritage activity. There is no worry about “access for the disabled”. Hunting has always been great at creating them in the first place.