Countryside March
10 Downing Street Newsroom: Lobby Briefing, BBC Breakfast: Countryside march, BBC: Huge turnout for countryside march, BBC: London braced for huge protest, Belfast Telegraph: Countryside supporters converge, Belfast Telegraph: Ulster farmers to back countrys, Cape Times: Rural folk and fox hunters hound Londo, CBC News: Huge rally defends UK fox hunting, CNN.com: Huge rural march grips London, CNN: Hunters march to protect tradition
BBC Breakfast: Countryside in crisis?
The message that the British countryside is in crisis is one which is often repeated - but how true is it? Watch video case studies plua a Forum in which Dave Ward from the League against Cruel Sports and Mal Treharne from the Countryside Alliance debate the issue. [RealPlayer]
BBC Breakfast: Fox hunting debate
The programme has been looking at the concerns of those who live and work in the country all week. Monday focused on the decline of rural services, Tuesday was the impact of cheap imports on British farmers. Thursday was the farmers' complaints against supermarkets. Friday, a special Online forum on fox hunting and the rural way of life, plus a video interview with Mike Hobday and Simon Hart. [RealPlayer]
BBC Newsnight: Fox Hunting
New research to be published in the magazine Nature purports to show that banning hunting will have no significant impact on fox numbers. Gavin Esler was joined by Simon Hart of the Countryside Alliance and Dr Rob Atkinson of the RSPCA which paid for the research. Transcript plus audio clip. [RealPlayer]
BBC: Capital set for 'biggest ever' marc
Organisers of the rural Liberty and Livelihood march in London on Sunday say they expect a turnout of at least 250,000 people.
BBC: Disease fox numbers disputed
A study claiming fox numbers were not influenced by a hunting ban during the foot-and-mouth outbreak last year is disputed.
BBC: Hunt ban left foxes 'unaffected'
Helen Briggs. Stephen Harris claims the hunting ban during the UK's foot-and-mouth outbreak had little impact on fox numbersm which is totally at odds with what the Countryside Alliance, National Farmers' Union and farmers have actually been seeing on the ground.
BBC: Hunt plans ready 'in weeks'
With the end of the public hearings in London, proposals designed to help MPs resolve their disputes over hunting with dogs will be unveiled "in a matter of weeks" according to Alun Michael.
BBC: Hunting debate begins far from countryside
Campaigners for and against hunting with dogs give evidence at a three-day public hearing in London which will pave the way for legislation. Audio clip.
BBC: Hunting debate sparks war of words
The Countryside Alliance clashes with the RSPCA over a future hunt ban, as both sides listen to evidence on the second day of a public hearing.
BBC: Pro-hunt beacons lit up
Beacons start a week of protests by countryside campaigners.
BBC: Public schools join countryside march
Top public schools are allowing their boarders to travel to this weekend's countryside march in London but Prince Harry will not be among them.
CNN.com: Hunters march to protect tradition
More than 280,000 campaigners are expected to join a countryside rights march in Britain's capital demanding their traditions are protected.
Country Life: Countryside March
News, features, interviews and commentary on the Liberty and Livelihood March. Photos, video clips, e-cards and forum.
Derbyshire Evening Telegraph:
A beacon was lit on a hilltop overlooking Carsington Water last night to mark the beginning of a week of protest, and many of the spectators will be on the 60-plus coaches which will travel on Sunday from Derbyshire to the march in London. Some local supporters are interviewed.
Derbyshire Evening Telegraph: Is there a middle wa
As the six-month public consultation on hunting with hounds draws to a close, East Midlands Conservative MEP Roger Helmer explains he is against a ban and Chris Williamson, leader of Derby City Council and executive member of the League Against Cruel Sports, explains why he is for a ban.
Economist: Charge of the green welly brigade
Balancing the depression in agriculture and the aftermath of the government's disastrous handling of the foot-and-mouth outbreak last year with the advantages of living in the countryside.
Economist: Riding for a fall
Foxhunting is already banned in Scotland, but because of the pest control loophole the hunts continue pretty much as before.
Economist: Why the countryside is angry
Rural people say they want "liberty and livelihood" from the government. They can't have both.
Evening Standard: Countryside fury
Leader. The Government will be making a serious mistake if it continues to ignore the pleas of the countryside - it could prove to be Labour's poll tax.
Guardian: Another country
Leader. There is absolutely no doubt that they are widespread and passionately held feelings, and no government should allow grievances to continue to fester in this way. Mr Blair needs to reflect and respond. He should not pretend that the mood will just go away or be easily mollified. But he needs a strategy. This morning's ICM poll should be enough to concentrate his mind on that.
Guardian: Country alliance lays down gauntlet
Patrick Wintour, chief political correspondent. Views on the upcoming public hearings by participants.
Guardian: Hunters get fired up for march on London
Tania Branigan. The international rocket relay fires off the buildup to the March on Sunday.
Guardian: Hunting ban did not lead to fox increase
James Meek. Stephen Harris's research for the IFAW and RSPCA claims that foxes regulate their own numbers and therefore hunting is unnecessary. The Countryside Alliance claims the research is flawed.
Guardian: Hunting debate gets teeth into Plato, Ar
Steven Morris. The Rev Andrew Linzey, vegan professor of ethics, theology and animal welfare (funded by the IFAW) attempted to explain to the Government's Consultation why hunting was morally wrong while it was acceptable for him to have cats which hunted, and to cook fish for them.
Independent : Cold comfort farm
David Aaronovitch. A visit with a boyhood friend in Shropshire who describes what he does to survive and why he supports the March. (Links to two additional stories on the same day.)
Independent on Sunday: John Jackson: The City gent
Simon O'Hagan. Interview and biography of the chairman of the Countryside Alliance.
Independent on Sunday: Minister's aides are p
Jo Dillon, political correspondent. Concerns and conjectures about how the final Government Bill and voting will play out.
Independent on Sunday: Pro-hunt activists to targe
Severin Carrell. Splinter groups from the Countryside Alliance describe possible future actions if the government ignores their concerns.
Independent on Sunday: Review biased in favour of
Jo Dillon, political correspondent. Anti-hunt campaigners have complained to Alun Michael that his planned consultation process favours the pro-hunt lobby. Pro-hunting groups have complained that any Government Bill will be amended and pushed through both Houses of Parliament to ensure an absolute ban.
Independent: A long march away from liberty and li
Leader. Why the newspaper supports hunting but not the demands to preserve the countryside's "way of life". (Links to three other stories on the same day.)
Independent: Blair strikes conciliatory tone with
Ben Russell, political correspondent. Tony Blair drew back from the aggressive tone of Alun Michael's response to Sunday's huge protest by the Countryside Alliance, urging John Jackson to join the Government's Rural Affairs Forum due to take place at Spalding, Lincolnshire, on Saturday, 9 November.
Independent: Hunting Bill may allow 'opt-outs
Marie Woolf, chief political correspondent. Alun Michael, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs minister responsible for drawing up the Bill, said he was interested by proposals to allow local circumstances to be judged against the standard of a national law.
Independent: Meeting of minds needed before fox hu
Marie Woolf, chief political correspondent. In the first day of public hearings, Lord Burns urged MPs not to act without public support and urged caution in framing a law on the future of fox hunting.
Independent: Rural problems are too diverse for on
Andreas Whittam Smith. "Liberty" clearly means freedom to hunt. Under "livelihood" come five themes: the protection of communities, culture, values, customs and children's futures, as dear to ethnic communities as to rural.
Independent: Tales of the Country: Am I marching?
Brian Viner. A newcomer to Herefordshire describes his new life and why he can't get worked up enough to march with his neighbours.
Independent: The cruelty of this tedious debate ov
Leader. Fox-hunting is a curious and rather unsavoury pastime, but that is not cause for a ban. There are far more pressing animal welfare issues, such as battery farming and experimentation on primates. Where cruelty is found in field sports, there are already laws to deal with it. Far better that there be no ban on hunting, than a fudged middle way, whose only true motive is political guile.
Independent: This Europe: Environmentalists tilt t
Elizabeth Nash in Madrid. Inspired by Britain's anti-hunting campaign, Spanish environmentalists are calling for a ban on the traditional hunting of wild boar in Spain's Coto Doñana national park.
Independent: Why you won't see me marching fo
Richard Askwith. The only case for banning hunting is a moral one, and governments should not legislate exclusively for the moral wellbeing of the governed. That way, tyranny lies; especially if the moral legislation is guided, as in this case, by class hatred. (If it isn't, why aren't we banning angling?)
Mirror: Annette on her most important role
Interview with Annette Crosbie, new President of LACS, who claims humans are the nastiest species of animal on the planet and that she herself is impatient, intolerant, judgmental and tactless and the product of a dysfunctional family.
Nature: No fox boom after ban
John Whitfield. Overview of Stephen Harris's research claiming that fox numbers regulate themselves by causes such as starvation, making hunting unnecessary. Opposing views on the research are provided by Jonathan Reynolds. Link to full research article.
New York Times: Blood Sport as Politics
John Mortimer, attorney and author of the Horace Rumpole stories. There is no worse tyranny, wrote John Stuart Mill, than that of a majority. The test of democracy is not that the majority should always get its way but how far minorities are respected. Will fox hunting be saved? Our best hope is to get President Bush to put on a pink coat and chase a fox; no doubt Tony Blair would fall right in behind him.
Observer: Fox-hunting celebrities named in militan
Paul Harris. The Urban Alliance with the support of Class War is circulating a property hit list in an attempt to disrupt the Countryside Alliance March. ALF is also thought to be involved.
Observer: Foxes stir the soul of a nation: Saddam
Clive Aslet. After marching in both, the editor of Country Life compares the Countryside Liberty and Livelihood march with the anti-war march.
Sunday Times: Focus: Country strife
Jonathan Lewis. Explains the importance and possible impacts of the countryside march for countryside protestors and the government.
Sunday Times: Focus: Shooting a hole in the law
Mark Macaskill. On August 3 the first hunt under the new law set out with eight armed gamekeepers and 30 hounds. 11 foxes were killed as they fled from the cover of woodland, pursued by hounds into the path of waiting guns, as the cull is no longer selective.
Sunday Times: I'm willing to risk jail for fo
Otis Ferry. The son of rock star Bryan Ferry explains why he believes so passionately in the countryside way of life, including hunting.
Sunday Times: Senior police defy minister by insis
Mark Macaskill. Scotland's most senior police officers have ruled that foxhunting is still legal if they are doing genuine pest control work.
Telegraph: A march against bad law
Leader. It is a conservative case - that long-established traditions should be respected - and a liberal case - that activities of which we may not approve should nevertheless be tolerated. The question here is not, "What do you think of hunting?" but, "What do you think of a ban on hunting?"
Telegraph: Prisoners of the hunting war
W.F. Deedes. A fox chased by hounds and, if caught, suffering instant death is unacceptable because the fox is being pursued by the wrong sort of people. A fox flushed from its cover by dogs, shot at, perhaps wounded and suffering a lingering death is acceptable because the execution is being carried out, at least in Labour's eyes, by the right sort of people.
Telegraph: 'Something must be done. Rural lif
Robert Uhlig, farming correspondent. Marchers will be protesting the deterioration of housing, schools, post offices, shops and public transport as well as the possibility of a ban on hunting.
Telegraph: Blazing beacons start the protest
Nicola Woolcock. Monday night's beacons, bonfires and rockets from Land's End to Scotland marked the start of a week of activity.
Telegraph: Britain evenly split on foxhunting
David Derbyshire. While 50 per cent of the people questioned in a Telegraph/YouGov poll believed that hunting should be criminalised, 48 per cent favoured tighter regulations or keeping the status quo. (Links to three additional stories on the same day.)
Telegraph: Estate owners vow to defy ban on huntin
David Harrison, environment correspondent. The landowners, who lead hunts on their own estates, told The Telegraph yesterday that they would join the growing rebellion against the Government's proposed ban.
Telegraph: Hunt ban will end in chaos, say police
David Bamber, home affairs correspondent. The Government's plans to ban or restrict hunting with hounds would cause chaos in rural areas and put an unacceptable strain on the police, senior officers are warning ministers, due to the practicalities of prioritising and enforcing.
Telegraph: Hunting ban will not lead to fox boom,
Roger Highfield. Prof Harris, chairman, says the Mammal Society has made the first scientific study into the impact of hunting on fox numbers and it shows that hunting plays no role in regulating fox numbers and indeed all forms of fox culling are less important than hitherto believed.
Telegraph: Hunting protest masks deeper divisions
Robert Uhlig, farming correspondent. FMD was the turning point: almost a year since the last of 2,030 outbreaks of foot and mouth was recorded, little appears to have been done to address the most likely cause of the epidemic. Only two sniffer dogs and a poster campaign have been employed to stem the illegal meat imports still flooding into the country.
Telegraph: Ignore marchers' anger at your per
David Harrison, environment correspondent. The government's chief adviser on the countryside, Ewen Cameron of the Countryside Agency, will warn Tony Blair this week that rural frustration will spill into civil disobedience if he ignores concerns raised during the Liberty and Livelihood march in London.
Telegraph: Saboteurs target hunt supporters'
Matt Born. The Urban Alliance published the addresses and telephone numbers on their web site of more than a hundred prominent hunting supporters encouraging protesters to "target" them where they live.
Telegraph: There is no third way in the hunting de
Leo McKinstry. Potential problems with a regulatory system for hunting.
This is London: Intolerance that made me march
Kate Hoey, Labour MP. Tony Blair is the Prime Minister who vowed to build a tolerant nation free from prejudice. It is a shame he doesn't seem to include the countryside as part of this nation.
This is Worcestershire: Luff: We will burn the lie
Fifty beacons were set alight across Worcestershire to mark the official start of the Countryside Alliance's Liberty & Livelihood campaign. Mid-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff, a founding member of the Middle Way Group, applied the blazing torch to the one at Whittington and said a few words.
Times: All those anti-hunt protesters should burge
Simon Barnes. Why a vegetarian non-hunter finds cruelty distressing but hypocrisy loathsome.
Times: Blair goes to the country to woo angry rura
Valerie Elliott and Melissa Kite. Mr Blair has agreed that Ewen Cameron, the Government's rural advocate, should join next Sunday's countryside march to listen to the wider grievances of country people.
Times: Boarders given nod to join march
Valerie Elliott, countryside editor. Student groups will be joining Sunday's March.
Times: Country grievances
Leader. Mr Blair should pay close attention that the countryside marchers have rural grievances beyond hunting.
Times: Foxed - by my daughter
Mary Ann Sieghart. Author debatea the chain of predation, whether animals should have equal rights to human beings, whether wasps were as deserving of good treatment as foxes, and what liberties a government should curtail in a free country as she marches with her 11-year-old daughter.
Times: Hunt hotheads plan disruptive action
Valerie Elliott, countryside editor. Civil disobedience by the Real Countryside Alliance is expected to follow any government announcement to ban hunting.
Times: Hunting ban and human rights
Letter to the Editor from the Director of Liberty, the group who introduced the Human Rights Act 1998 which came into force in Ocotber 2000. Suggests a new right needs to be added: the right to engage in any peaceful activity unless there is a legitimate reason to prevent it.
Times: Hunting not the only country issue
Letter to the Editor from Richard Burge, Chief Executive of The Countryside Alliance in response to Nick Palmer, MP.
Times: It's a short trip from Pink Floyd to h
Roger Waters. "After the Berlin Wall came down, I stood in front of 350,000 people in the Potsdamer Platz and performed The Wall. In many ways, the Whip Craic fundraising concert this week is just as symbolic."
Times: Next step
Leader. As it has taken a number of steps in the wrong direction already, it would be politically impossible (although desirable) for the Government to announce that it was withdrawing its legislation on hunting. The best that can be done would be for the House of Commons to opt for modest regulation of the pastime and not outright prohibition.
Times: Pro-hunt activists plan disruption at Labou
Valerie Elliott, countryside editor. Buoyed by the success of the countryside march, which turned out to be the biggest civil liberties march in British history, hardline protesters are anxious to keep up the pressure on the Government.
Times: The hunting debate is about much more than
Mick Hume. As the Government holds an unprecedented three-day hearing at Westminster into whether or not hunting foxes with hounds is necessary or cruel, the author sees confirmation that, whatever the international situation, we appear to be beating a retreat from the standards of a free and democratic society on the home front.
Times: Tribunals may rule on right to hunt
Valerie Elliott, countryside editor. Alun Michael, the Rural Affairs Minister, is considering local tribunals to oversee hunting. Hunts could apply for permission to hunt for the purposes of pest or population control, and possibly social and economic reasons.