PA. Tony Blair suffered a damaging setback with the vote, which followed a passionate five-and-a-half hour debate.

The Suffolk police chief constable Alastair McWhirter appealed for legislation to be enforceable, which would be difficult with the Hunting Bill that is currently going through Parliament.

Reactions from South West pro- and anti-hunt campaigners digesting the news that MPs have voted to ban fox hunting.

A bill to ban hunting with dogs has cleared the House of Commons, with the Tories failing to win compensation for those who may lose their livelihoods, despite the precedent set when fur farming was banned.

Reactions from all sides, including MPs, peers and lobbying groups. Includes video clip.

Joint Hunt Master Chris Burrows-Wood from Worcestershire, gives BBC News Online his reaction to the vote on an outright ban on hunting with dogs.

Reactions in Wales, which is said to have more hunts per square mile than any other area of the UK.

The CA's Darren Hughes points out that if the hunting bill was really about animal welfare the legislation would be looking at all other methods of control, looking at the welfare negatives and positives of each and coming up with a sensible way forward instead of singling out hunting for no other reason than prejudice and bigotry.

Ed Johnson. Although Blair's government believes a total ban on hunting foxes with hounds would be unenforceable, and proposed regulation, Commons voted to approve an amendment banning fox hunting in England and Wales. Blair did not vote.

Mike Wendling, London bureau chief. Douglas Batchelor, chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS), said a next likely target would be North America's estimated 150 packs of foxhunting dogs. "We would be delighted to take this campaign to other countries."

Small issues sometimes have large symbolic power, and the government's weakness shows in its defeat on foxhunting although the issue is still not settled. There is still the House of Lords, the Parliament Act, the courts and the ECHR to get through, and even then the police claim it will be unenforceable.

The result of the free vote killed off government proposals which would have outlawed stag-hunting and hare-coursing, but permitted fox-hunting under licence in areas where it was judged to be less cruel than other methods of culling foxes.

Far from being done and dusted, the hunting row will now continue right up to the next general election campaign. And it will do so loudly.

David Ward interviews Randle Cooke, a joint master of the Cheshire hunt who is also a farmer and cares for 280 dairy cows on 320 rented acres.

Clips from UK newspaper editorials after the hunting bill was amended into a complete ban.

Nicholas Watt and Michael White. Pro-hunting peers plan to overturn the MPs' outright ban and slip the government's original compromise proposals back into the bill to place the prime minister in the position of having to reject his own policy because ministers have pledged to uphold the will of the Commons.

Nicholas Watt, political correspondent. Alun Michael argued that the government's would ban the cruelty associated with hunting in all its forms, and be enforceable. Tony Banks claimed the credibility of the government centered on a total ban.

Stuart Millar. Hunt supporters from the various pressure groups are making plans for the next step in the escalating battle, from harrassment to civil disobedience to the UK and ECHR courts of law.

Nigel Henson, Countryside Alliance. Points out that the majority of the public no longer supports a ban on hunting.

Leader. The Guardian praised Alun Michael when he presented his original bill, and blames him now for trying to tinker with it when it returned to the Commons this week, thereby causing the procedural problem which triggered the vote to ban.

Nicholas Watt and Michael White. The bill will have to return to a Commons standing committee because the measure has been so radically altered.

Jackie Ashley. As people turn away from politics in their millions because they feel there is no great ideological battle, and because they don't see much evidence of improved public services, the vacuum is filled by noisier, angrier people with a narrower agenda.

Gerard Seenan. "Things are done in the countryside for a reason. You can't just come in and change it and expect there to be no consequences."

An assortment of Letters to the Editor representing various perspectives.

Roy Hattersley. Thoughts on Gerald Kaufman, the Hunting Bill, trial by jury and reform of the House of Lords.

Colin Hughes, The Western Mail. The CA, led by Simon Hart, has distanced itself from the RCA and points out the manifesto referred to Parliament, not only Commons, and that the checks and balances in the political system will ensure proposals based on prejudice do not become law.

Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael has denied the Government has done a U-turn on hunting to win support from backbenchers for foundation hospitals.

Marie Woolf, chief political correspondent. MPs, led by Tony Banks, the former sports minister, defied the Government and in a free vote overwhelmingly rejected its Bill by 362 votes to 154.

Marie Woolf, chief political correspondent. Anti-hunting MPs, calling for a full ban, accused the minister of blackmail. They said, in a heated and bad-tempered debate, that the Government's decision to refer the bill back to a committee if an amendment banning fox hunting was accepted was wrong.

Marie Woolf and Andrew Grice. Fox hunting looks certain to be outlawed in England and Wales next year despite efforts by Tony Blair to distance himself from the vote by the House of Commons in favour of an outright ban.

Commons rejected the government measure to allow strictly controlled hunting, but Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor government has said that a total ban would be unenforceable.

Rupert Youngman. The unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable - Oscar Wilde's quote about fox-hunting and a pretty good description of rebel Labour MPs turning on their leader.

Accusations fly that Tony Blair did deal over fox-hunting to secure support for his foundation hospitals scheme from Labour MPs.

Bob Roberts, political correspondent. Despite jubilation among Labour MPs, the historic vote was seen as a fresh blow to Tony Blair on top of a new Mori poll for the Financial Times showing that nearly two-thirds of voters feel the PM is "losing his grip".

Leader. "Only one argument matters on hunting: that it doesn't matter. It is supremely unimportant." "If politics is the language of priorities, then our politicians have never got it so badly wrong."

Background, explanation of the vote to ban hunting, and future possibilities from the point of view of all sides.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was nursing a double setback on Tuesday after lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to ban fox hunting with dogs in England and Wales and a poll showed he has lost the public's trust. The defeat came just hours before a poll in the Financial Times revealed two thirds of voters do not trust the British leader.

"Whatever credibility the Hunting Bill had, has now been lost," were the views of Dafydd Jarrett, NFU Cymru Policy Adviser today.

Gerald Warner. Explains why Britain is now pervaded by loathing and contempt for the political class, and if the government goes ahead with its hunting ban it will end the consensus on which democracy depends and subsidiarity could turn out to mean something very different from what MPs and Eurocrats intended.

Scottish MPs were yesterday facing calls to withdraw from England-only affairs as countryside campaigners reacted with outrage at their part in voting for a total ban on fox-hunting south of the Border, as MPs for England and Wales could not vote on Scotland's Bill.

Militant fox-hunters were threatening a campaign of civil disobedience today as ministers pushed ahead with plans for a ban.

Hamish Macdonell and Fraser Nelson. If Holyrood was supposed to be a testing arena from which Westminster MPs could learn, it has abjectly failed in the task. The MPs appear to have learnt nothing from the failed experiment in Scotland.

Alun Michael suggested an outright ban would prove unworkable and insisted the Government's alternative would be the best way of preventing animal cruelty.

Tories failed to win compensation for those who will lose their livelihoods as a result of the ban. Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael said the proposed scheme was too widely drawn, impractical and "unworkable". The Human Rights Committee and ECHR may disagree.

Leader. Based on the results of the Burns Inquiry a complete ban, to be put in place by the Parliament Act, is ludicrous considering the Human Rights Act was to protect British citizens from arbitrary and disproportionate legislation.

Josie Appleton. "Preventing the old elite from practising one of their favourite sports is a pretty lame and mean-spirited way of trying to establish authority. The fact that foxhunting has remained an issue for Blair's whole government is down to the domination of gesture politics in New Labour."

In a bad-tempered late-night third reading debate, Mr Michael said the Government had made a "genuine effort" to bring forward a sound and workable piece of legislation but MPs had made it clear they would settle for nothing less than a total ban.

Susan Bisset. Thousands of British hunters are planning to pursue their sport in France, Ireland, America and Russia if, or, as seems increasingly likely, when it is banned across Britain.

Charlie Brooks. Explains why he finds the RSPCA to be no longer the benign organisation that any benevolent person would support, but hypocritical and unknowledgeable as they move from hunting to horse-racing.

George Jones, political editor. Tony Blair was accused last night of acting in "bad faith" by anti-hunting Labour MPs after the Government put further procedural hurdles in front of their attempts to impose an outright ban on foxhunting.

Chris Hastings. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, has criticised MPs for wasting parliamentary time on fox-hunting while ignoring "alarming" developments in embryo research.

George Jones, political editor and Andrew Sparrow, political correspondent. Ministers expect the Parliament Acts to be invoked for only the fourth time since 1949 to overcome opposition in the House of Lords and ensure legislation banning hunting becomes law in the next session of Parliament.

Stephen Robinson. Shami Chakrabarti, the new head of Liberty, said Liberty took no position on hunting but noted that efforts to ban the sport reflected the prevailing view of MPs and ministers who sought to impose criminal sanctions on behaviour of which it disapproved.

George Jones, political editor. A committee of MPs will meet today to amend the Hunting Bill to bring it into line with Monday's Commons decision to reject a licensing system and impose a total ban. Under a tight timetable set by the Government, the Bill will return to the Commons on Wednesday for a three-hour debate and - provided it gets a third reading - will be sent to the House of Lords.

Andrew Sparrow, political correspondent. Lord Mancroft, a pro-hunting Tory peer and a Countryside Alliance board member, predicted that the Lords would reinstate the provisions for the regulation of foxhunting contained in the Government's original Bill.

John Steele, crime correspondent. A ban on hunting with dogs will create friction between police and some rural communities and divert resources from the fight against crime, the Association of Chief Police Officers have told Government and Parliament.

George Jones. Explanation of the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 and how they affect the current bill to ban hunting.

Leader. The government-labeled "wrecking amendment" of a complete ban has been passed, causing questions about how they can now apply the Parliament Act.

Boris Johnson. While MPs representing Scotland voted to ban hunting in England and Wales, MPs for England had no say whatever over the fate of hunting in Scotland because it is a devolved issue, a point which the government continues to ignore.

George Jones, political editor. The Prime Minister has spent the past six years using every procedural device to delay a decision while trying to give the impression - as he told David Dimbleby in July 1999 - that foxhunting "will be banned as soon as we possibly can".

Michael Kallenbach, Parliamentary correspondent. Coverage of the debate on the government and total ban amendments.

Leader. Voters want action on schools, hospitals, roads, crime, trains and asylum - things that matter. Chasing vermin with dogs doesn't even show on the radar.

George Pascoe-Watson, deputy political editor. The Prime Minister was forced into an astonishing retreat after it became clear his amendment on the free vote would be defeated. He finally caved in just six minutes before the vote.

Martin Kelly. A hunting ban is a law that nobody needs. No matter the issue, the Labour Party cannot be trusted not to interfere where its influence is not required. It cannot be relied upon simply to leave people alone.

Debra Saunders. The issue is power. The majority has the power to write laws that tell the minority what it cannot do. The majority is not content to hector foxhunters, or try to persuade them to be kinder in their kills. The majority wants to force the minority - ostensibly a privileged elite - to obey. Or else. Sometimes the highest purpose of government isn't to protect or to serve, but to provide believers with the delicious satisfaction of forcing other people to do as they say. Tally ho.

A Yorkshire Chief Constable has warned that police would face serious practical difficulties enforcing a ban on hunting.