TALKING POINT
TALKING POINT
Septembers march
in London will be
about opposing a
ban on hunting
and its
no good pretending
otherwise, says
Charlie Flindt
In the unlikely event of having finished harvest at Flindt Towers by Sept 21, I was planning to join the White Hunter Cricket Tour of Provence. But were off to London instead.
The Countryside Alliance has at last announced Sept 22 as the day to put on some stout boots, fill up a Thermos, and head to London for a damn good protest.
Protest about what, exactly? According to the alliance, there is a raft of issues dragging people from the villages and hamlets of the nation out onto the mean streets of London. Some will attend to protest about Post Office closures.
Some will be blowing whistles and chanting protests about the high cost of countryside housing. There will be a contingent expressing their fury at the diabolical state of public transport in rural areas. Im sure that if you look hard enough there will be a posse protesting at how some people insist on having their own pewter tankard behind the bar at the Jolly Flowerpots, and insist on holding up the queue while Frank the barman finds it.
All these assorted groups will, according to the Countryside Alliance, be storming the capital to show Our Blessed Leader just how angry they are about buses, housing, shops and, of course, tankards. Oh, there might be one or two people up in arms about hunting.
Come on, Countryside Alliance. Wake up. All this lack of clarity of purpose does is let in the Michael Meachers of the world, with their "Im on this Countryside March, but Im strongly against hunting" line. Doubtless, certain Kiss-a-Bunny TV presenters and Countryfile Cuddlies will seize upon that immediately.
Ninety-nine per cent of marchers, probably more, will be there because they oppose the proposed ban on hunting with dogs. The reasons for their opposition will be many and varied. Some have jobs and cottages that rely on it. Some live for it as a hobby. Some think that gassing and shooting are far crueller than death by dogs. Some worry at the concept of banning something simply because of disapproval of that activity.
Some will be trying to point out that you cant ban what you cant define. Some recognise the ugly and undignified face of class war when they see it. Never mind all the assorted reasons, the mission is clear. Our Blessed Leader seems to take note of numbers when they are zeros on a cheque, so perhaps hell notice half a million pairs of feet yomping through his back yard.
The Countryside Alliance ought to realise that. It has lots of learned experts in the organisation, who have a wealth of experience on all sorts of countryside matters. They have spoken clearly and sensibly, for example on the foot-and-mouth crisis and the lack of local abattoirs.
But once in a while it loses the plot completely, as when it upset most of the countryside with its views on modulation. Despite those occasional gaffes, everyone is happy to acknowledge that it represents the vast majority of those of us who participate, in one way or another, in field sports. If it feels that it has to have views on other matters, thats fine, even if there are other rural organisations that have these covered.
On alliance website at present is: "The Countryside Alliances Response to the EU White Paper on Co-operatives in Enterprise Europe." Fascinating, no doubt, but not what the alliance should be about right now. And certainly not what the march will be about. Lets not pretend otherwise.