Overseas demonstrators at Countryside March

24 February 1998

Overseas demonstrators at Countryside March

PROTESTORS are expected from as far afield as the USA, New Zealand, Canada and France at Sundays Coutryside.

The Scotsman carries a full-page feature, which describes the rally as a mass protest by a set of unlikely allies.

It says 200,000 anglers, hunters, farmers and country-dwellers will march from London Embankment to Hyde Park.

They will represent interests from those affected by bovine spongiform encephalopathy through to the “right to roam”.

Alan Cochrane writes that rural people feel put down and let down.

The Rev Toddy Hoare, a hunter, has rescheduled his 9am Sunday service for 7.30pm on Saturday so he can join the march.

Andreas Whittam Smith writes in The Independent that the marchers will be protesting at what they perceive as an attempt to reduce the boundaries in which we conduct our private lives.

The Guardian asks if the Government is playing a dangerous game by backing the “right to roam”, in trying to please its own supporters as well as pacify the powerful landowners lobby.

The Times reports the Government will confirm tomorrow it has abandoned plans for an immediate public right to roam over privately-owned uncultivated land.

• The Scotsman 24/02/98 page 13, page 17 (Opinion)
  
• The Guardian 24/02/98 page 13
  
• The Times 24/02/98 page 10
  
• The Independent 24/02/98 page 13, page 17 (Comment)
  
• The Daily Telegraph 24/02/98 page 12, page 21 (Leader)