FEW, if any, Parliamentary occasions are more enjoyable than a visit from the hunt lobby. Unlike the serious protesters - peace, democracy, etc - they are very colourful. A ray of all-singing, all-cheering sunshine. And damn polite, too.

So it proved on Monday. Despite getting drenched on Sunday night, they awoke with a smile and were soon getting into the spirit of things.

When I popped over at 8.30am, the first thing I spotted was a half-empty bottle of red wine (which may, I admit, have been from the night before) and a bowl of cherries.

Later there was a live singer, giving popular tunes a "save the countryside" twist, body painting and even a "pantition" - which involved stringing 1,000 pairs of knickers around Parliament Square.

Iain Duncan Smith popped over and got mobbed, which is quite possibly a first. And there was even a speech by Ann Winterton MP. Last year, she was relieved of her duties as a Tory rural affairs spokesman for making a racist joke at a rugby club dinner. But here she judged her audience and the content of her speech perfectly.

Her rallying cry to the crowd, almost exclusively female and clad in pink T-shirts, went something like this: "I have enjoyed hunting all my life!" Cheers "So have my sisters, who would have liked to have been here today!" Cheers. "But they are at home - looking after my 91-year-old mother!" louder cheers "And she hunted nearly all her life!" Ecstatic applause

What a shame the Government couldn't behave in such a civilised fashion.

Tony Blair and the two poor souls he charged with finding a solution to the hunting shambles he himself created by promising to ban the pursuit live on TV in 1999 - Alun Michael and Margaret Beckett - were all long faces and idle threats.

First they tried to buy-off anti-hunt MPs by toughening the Hunting Bill - making the puzzling announcement the length of the chase would have to be "kept as short as possible".

Then, when this failed, MPs were warned the Bill would be badly delayed if it were turned into an outright ban as it would have to be re-committed to a standing committee.

But it subsequently emerged this was not true and the committee could turn the legislation around in just one week.

So, as MPs prepared to give the Government's compromise option to allow hunting to continue under licence a proper hammering, Mr Michael took the only cowardly option available.

He withdrew his amendment and said it wasn't needed after all, leaving the door open to the outright ban duly backed by an overwhelming majority of MPs.

Downing Street and DEFRA were still not willing to stop the underhand tricks, however. They deliberately mired in confusion the issue of whether the Parliament Act would be used to force the ban through the House of Lords.

It almost certainly will. The mood on the Labour backbenches is mutinous and Mr Blair cannot afford to put any more noses out of joint.

Crucial votes on issues such as foundation hospitals will take place as early as Tuesday and he knows MPs would need little or no invitation to take revenge by ripping the policy to shreds.

But, as one disillusioned Labour MP put it: "Until the Parliament Act is signed, we can't be certain of anything."

This lack of trust may yet prove to be the PM's undoing.

Updated: 11:40 Friday, July 04, 2003