Urine attack on Nick Brown
19 January 2001
Urine attack on Nick Brown
By FWi staff
THE Countryside Alliance has condemned hunt supporters who threw urine at agriculture minister Nick Brown during a visit to the East Midlands.
The urine narrowly missed Mr Brown, who was in Northamptonshire for a meeting with local farmers and rural people on Friday (19 January).
During the visit, it is understood that Mr Brown was heckled by protestors angry at his decision to vote in favour of a ban on hunting with hounds.
Local pig farmer Bernard Howard said feelings were running high about the crisis in the countryside, but said farmers should not be blamed for the incident.
“Throwing urine might be the sort of behaviour hunt supporters want to indulge in, but we dont want that sort of thing blamed on the farmers,” he said.
A spokeswoman from the Countryside Alliance also condemned the action. She said: “If such a person took this action they were seeing red.”
The spokeswoman added: “What we want is as much public support as possible and [throwing urine] is not the way to go about it.”
A MAFF spokesman said that Mr Brown had gone to the East Midlands to hear the views of producers and other people on a range of rural issues.
Mr Brown was always willing to hear the views of a wide variety of people but only if they were put in a constructive manner, the spokesman said.