Alliance claims thousands for march

20 December 2000



Alliance claims thousands for march

By FWi staff

FORTY thousand people are already registered to for the Countryside March in London on 18 March, reports The Daily Telegraph.

Organisers the Countryside Alliance say the protest will be the biggest demonstration in favour of civil liberties the capital has ever seen.

Demonstrators will direct their anger against the Bill to ban hunting with dogs and the Governments rural policies.

Organiser James Stanford has distanced himself from predictions that a million people could march.

He would only commit himself to saying that he expects more than the 300,000 who marched in 1998.

Mr Stanford, a former soldier and businessman, insists that whether hunting is banned or not, his job ends on 19 March.

Meanwhile, thousands of hunt supporters are expected to descend on Trafalgar Square on Wednesday (20 December) when MPs debate the Bill.

• London lobby shows strength of countryside lobby, FWi, 02 March, 1998
• Scale of countryside support shocks MPs, FWi, 26 February, 1998