Posted on 09/22/2002 8:27:40 AM PDT by madfly
Judy Carless hung her apron on the back of the kitchen door. Instead of serving customers at her Exmoor tearooms, she was shutting up shop early and preparing for a long trip to London.
Carless is angry. She says the countryside is in crisis and has no doubt whom she blames. 'We will be heard, we won't give up, we won't go away. Be warned, Mr Blair, be warned,' she said.
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. Whatever the pros and cons of the hunting debate, the spectacle and scale of more than 300,000 people on the move is remarkable. It will be a protest unprecedented in recent memory.
In the West Country, thousands of people like Carless yesterday prepared for the journey. Her anti-government sentiments were shared by Cornish farmer Graham Higgins, 48, who farms 250 acres outside the tiny village of St Neots. He already has a part-time job to help run his herds of Aberdeen Angus cattle and Welsh Mule ewes. Unfortunately, that job is working for the local hunt, kenneling hounds on his land. He thinks he is fighting for his family's way of life.
'The simple fact is that farms can no longer support the families who live on them. They have to get part-time jobs to make ends meet. I would get out of farming now, but it is pride that keeps us here,' he said.
Most were preparing to come up early today in a fleet of 2,363 buses chartered by the Countryside Alliance that will head out before dawn. Others will take some 31 special trains. But for some, the journey will have taken several days. The Adams family from Melrose in the Scottish borders were in Leicester yesterday, breaking their long car journey. Trevor Adams had set out with his wife and son on Friday to protest against a government which he says is wrecking their lives.
Adams is employed by the Buccleuch Hunt. The family house is tied to the job and, given the Scottish Parliament's decision to outlaw hunting, it is a job and home now in jeopardy. 'They just don't understand the countryside. The Government would like to turn it into a theme park for people to visit at weekends,' he said.
Meanwhile Hawick-based farrier Paul Allison closed his business for a day. Since the hunt ban in Scotland, working every Saturdays and Sunday has become vital to keep his horse-shoeing business afloat. But he will not be working today. Last night he made up packed lunches and drove from his home to Berwick to catch a chartered train to London.
'The time has come to say enough is enough. If you don't take part now you are in no position to complain if things go against you,' he said.
Hunt supporters, farmers and villagers in North Yorkshire were also busy packing hampers with sandwiches, cakes and drinks ready for an early morning start for their trip to London. For some it will be the first time they have visited the city. Some were planning to travel through the night by car because of the pressure on coach and train services, and to avoid any hold-ups.
Among those coming from the Yorkshire town of Malton was former coal miner Dick Tonks. After being laid off from the pit, he works for the Middleton Hunt nearby. Tonks, 45, a father of two, said he would be one of eight hunt staff who would lose their jobs if a hunting ban goes ahead.
'The union I was part of as a miner was the one which supported Labour. But the very people who put Labour in power are now having their jobs taken from them - they are kicking us in the teeth,' he said.
All 20 members of the Morgan family from Appleton, near Oxford, are coming to London. The clan, dubbed 'The Marching Morgans', say they are protesting so that Jack Morgan, aged just 14 months, can one day take over the family's Field Farm.
'Every member of our family is involved in the farm. We are all determined to keep the name of Morgan over the door. The children all want to carry on working on the farm, and we want to make sure that can happen,' said David Morgan.
One rural vicar from Gloucestershire will be holding his Sunday service on a coach full of marchers from the seven villages that make up his congregation. 'Everybody said they were going, so we thought we would have the service on the bus. It will just be a simple service with some hymns,' he said.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
1. It sounds as if the UK is developing its own "red vs blue" political division, the same as the US (see the last electoral map)
2. These folks just don't get whats going on: the elite leftists are importing a new population that is indifferent or even hostile to traditional English culture. Once the elites have imported enough third world peasants to tip the voting population, these folks will be completely dispossessed.
Well, Surprise, surprise, surprise!
You got what you voted for, now quit complaining!
By God, I think the Brits have figured it out. Too bad they took away the right to own guns, this would be very interesting under different circumstances ;o)
And the govt will say: "Piss off, what you gonna do about it? And because the citizens are unarmed, they will go away.
I hope the country folk never forget this. I was appalled to see how many safe rural Tory seats ended up in the hands of the Red filth after the Major-Blair debacle.
-ccm
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