Media questions with answers from the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman. Questions included asking if the Prime Minister was aware of the purpose of yesterday's March in light of Alun Michael's reported admission that he personally was not, and whether Mr Michael's comments represented a Government view.

As tens of thousands converge on London for the Liberty and Livelihood marches, Breakfast reported live on the issues involved in the rural protests. Photos and video clips.

Over 400,000 people marched through London in support of the countryside, in one of the UK's biggest protests of recent times. Photos, audio clips and map. (Links to eleven additional stories on the same day.)

Organisers of the countryside march in London on Sunday say they expect a turn-out of at least 250,000 people.

Brian Walker. In a 1,000-strong joint effort between North and South, all 17 Northern Ireland hunts plus other sporting groups marched with Countryside Ireland. Northern Ireland.

Michael Drake. Ulster Farmers' Union President John Gilliland said,"No other Government in Europe has let its farming industry slip into the crisis which now faces the future of farming in Northern Ireland." Northern Ireland.

More than 350 000 aggrieved country folk have taken part here in one of Britain's biggest marches, defending the right to hunt foxes and protesting at the erosion of rural life. South Africa.

"If they try to take away our freedoms one by one, the countryside will suffer and our livelihoods will suffer," said one woman marcher. Canada.

Around 400,000 campaigners have taken part in a countryside rights march in London in one of Britain's biggest rallies. Video clip. [RealPlayer] USA.

Wildlife experts on Friday urged the government to adopt a "middle way" option of licensed hunting to solve the controversial issue of hunting with dogs. Fairer laws were the only way of getting the countryside lobby on-side and making the laws enforceable, the report into hunting said. USA.

The demonstrators are also angry over rural issues including a lack of affordable housing and decent transport services, unemployment and the financial ruin of farmers hard hit by the foot-and-mouth outbreak. Video clip and related stories. Canada.

Lambert, a master of fox hounds for 20 years, says those against hunting are predominantly city-based people, ignorant of what the sport entails. "Their knowledge is probably based on sound bites in the press and dramatic pictures from those who are against foxhunting, who regard hunting as cruel and barbaric and totally out of tune with the 21st century," he says. South Africa.

Archives of stories about the campaign, attendees, radical supporters and Scotland's experience. Downloads of posters and car sticker. Free registration required.

Tania Branigan. In response to speculation that he might propose a licensing system, Alun Michael said yesterday: "A lot of people have recognised that the two sides have become too polarised. Activities with dogs may be no more cruel, or actually less cruel, than other ways of dealing with it. On the other hand, people are saying we cannot just go on as we always have done. But that doesn't necessarily mean accepting the 'middle way' option."

Paul Harris and Stephen Khan. They are coming from all corners of Britain and all walks of life. From landowners to tenant farmers, shopkeepers to vicars, and huntsmen to retired army officers: the countryside is coming to London.

Snapshot of the many groups who will be marching on Sunday in support of the countryside.

"We have no services, we have no post office, we have no shop, we never see a policeman," said a marcher from the village of Priors Hardwick in central England. "We've had enough." Bahrain.

Activists opposed to fox-hunting are threatening to wreck the homes and farms of country folk who are expected to pour into London today in one of Britain's biggest ever protests. Bahrain.

A wide range of famous faces including model Elle Macpherson, footballer-turned-actor-turned-singer Vinnie Jones, comedian Jim Davidson, actor Edward Fox, Earl Spencer and explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes joined the demonstration in London.

Farmers, hunters, landowners and rural residents and workers flocked from every corner of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to bring London to a standstill and demand Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour government must do more to protect their traditional way of life. Pakistan.

Simon O'Hagan. Interviews with various members of the village of Hallaton, Leicestershire in the heart of hunting country. (Links to six additional stories on the same day.)

Paul Peachey. The Countryside Alliance claims "hunting was a litmus test for the Government to show willingness to deal justly with rural issues." (Links to six additional stories on the same day.)

Rural Britain took over central London today in the biggest invasion of its kind ever seen as at least 400,000 demonstrators converged on the capital. Whether the march will signal a sea-change in the way the Government deals with rural affairs remains to be seen. Ireland.

More than 400,000 hunters, farmers, and landowners descended on London for the Liberty and Livelihood march to defend fox hunting and their traditional ways of life. Ireland.

Official site for full coverage of the march for the protection of the countryside, country sports, communities and ways of life for country people and future generations. 22nd September 2002.

Andrew Cawthorne, Reuters. Many of the marchers poured scorn on Blair, accusing him of accentuating a decades-old neglect of the countryside. Florida, USA.

Reuters. Rural protesters held one of the biggest marches of recent times in London to defend fox hunting and their traditional ways of life. Video clip. [RealPlayer] USA.

John Mortimer, attorney and author of the Horace Rumpole stories. We live in a society with many different values, and many ways of life, and the only way we can live together is by mutual tolerance. Although opinion polls show a majority of citizens do not care for hunting, far fewer think it should be made a crime.

"Today we are making history... They must listen," said the march's main organiser, James Stanford. The march of 407,791 protesters brought London to a standstill. New Zealand.

Tens of thousands of people from across Britain marched through central London on Sunday to stage a protest against an official ban on hunting and highlight the needs of rural communities. China.

Summaries of the Countryside March coverage from each of the major newspapers.

Michael Pilgrim, Chronicle Foreign Service. The issue reveals schisms between economic classes and town and countryside that date back centuries: arguments in Scotland about banning English influence, and arguments in England about the relative cruelty of different fox-control methods. California, USA.

Malcolm Aitken. Interviews with a cross-section of the protesters of the March to highlight rural decline in Britain and defend hunting with hounds. New Zealand.

J. Watson. The Scottish countryside is sending a 7,000-strong contingent of protesters to the Liberty and Livelihood March. Scotland.

Edward Black. Why the countryside people of Scotland marched in the Liberty and Livelihood March. Scotland.

Edward Black and William Lyons. Scotland might be the only part of the United Kingdom where politicians have successfully passed anti-hunting legislation, but they have failed to quell anger among rural communities who will form a sizeable invasion force for tomorrow's Liberty and Livelihood march - 10,000 strong. Scotland.

Josie Appleton. Liberty and livelihood on the march. Oppression breeds anger...and insurrection.

More than 400,000 lovers of the rural way of life demanded to be seen and heard. Helicopter photo. (Links to two additional stories on the same day.)

W.F. Deedes. Impressions of the people marching and their reasons for doing so.

George Jones, political editor. The Government was accused yesterday of adopting a "complacent and arrogant" approach to the countryside after a minister described the Liberty and Livelihood marchers as "muddled". (Links to seven additional stories on the same day.)

Leader. Denounces the "breathtakingly patronising" response to the march by Alun Michael, the minister for rural affairs.

Mr Bishop, who farms in Herefordshire, said he had been receiving the same prices for some of his produce as he did in the 1970s, while supermarkets sold them at five to seven times the farm gate price. Australia.

Sandro Contenta. Britain's hunters have opened the fox season, and the government has opened the season on hunters. Toronto, Canada.

Kevin Ward. A sense of alienation was a common refrain among the marchers, who fear rural life is being eroded by attacks on such country traditions as fox hunting, as well as the faltering farm economy. Toronto, Canada.

Front page. A child sleeps prior to the Liberty and Livelihood march - one of Britain's biggest rallies - organised by the Countryside Alliance in London on Sunday. India.

Picture gallery.

Despite Britain's flagging national health service, schooling scandals and shambolic transport systems, it takes a proposed ban on foxhunting to really get the crowds out to protest. India.

Ben Macintyre. Describes the diversity of the marchers and the unity of their cause.

William Rees-Mogg. Thoughts on the meaning of the march.

Michael Drudge. Alan Crane from Kent: "It's just vindictiveness on the part of a section of the majority. And I thought governments had to protect minorities." Audio clip. [RealAudio] USA.

Frederic Manby. The day the Pendle Forest and Craven Hunt set off from Gisburn to march in London.

Leader. That is why rural Britain is on the march this weekend. Not because every inhabitant of the countryside is in favour of hunting with hounds, but because they all know the present assault on fox-hunting is only the beginning of a wider attack on the traditional liberties, freedoms, customs and habits of the countryside. How very different when it comes to refugees, asylum seekers and ethnic minorities, where New Labour is all for preserving and cherishing cultural differences.

Leader. The marchers, one Minister claimed, were trying to intimidate Parliament. A richly ironic claim from a party which has tried to turn the House of Commons into a legislative rubber stamp, and has stacked the House of Lords with its lickspittles and cronies. Others were wheeled out to dismiss the throng -- the largest such congregation of people in London for more than a century, as an irrelevant minority.