I refer to the letter by Henry Fenech Azzopardi (‘The Prime Minister’s tweet’, The Sunday Times of Malta, May 31). I would like to clarify that I admire and respect Mark Anthony Falzon’s qualifications.

However, in his rush to obtain them he forgot to take a short course on chairing meetings as otherwise he would not have written at least two articles defending and promoting the hunting lobby while being chairman of the Ornis Committee.

Fenech Azzopardi claims “it is not true that 11,000 hunters prevent 400,000 Maltese and 1.5 million tourists from walking safely in the countryside as the electorate voted in a referendum to maintain spring hunting”.

This is a ridiculous statement as everyone knows it is dangerous to walk in our countryside when hunters are around.

One had hoped that the referendum would have given Malta a high standing among European countries for its democratic beliefs. Referendums are rare occasions in Malta, and the protagonists should only be citizens, without politicians putting their nose in. But no, politicians from both parties indicated they were in favour of hunters continuing their massacre of birds in spring.

It was a wonder how the anti-spring hunting coalition came within a whisker of winning. The referendum result was a strong message to the two political parties and I am pleased our Prime Minister saw the writing on the wall and wisely curtailed the hunting season.

One hopes that next spring’s hunting season will not even be opened.