Why the country feels under threat

IN THE kennel yard at the Birdsall Estate, home of Lord and Lady Middleton, the horses are being washed down, and the hounds fed. Frank Houghton-Brown, master of the Middleton Hunt, has already changed out of his hunting clothes into a yellow T-shirt sporting the words Liberty And Livelihood March.

But despite his informal attire, he's in bullish mood.

"It seems amazing that those MPs that are most vocal in their dislike of fox-hunting don't even live in a rural constituency where fox-hunting happens," he says.

"There are thousands of people all over England, and in particular this part of rural Yorkshire, who feel so strongly that this is a touchstone issue that they surely will not lie down and let this urban government dictate what they can and cannot do."

This urban government. They are words that strike at the heart of the sense of betrayal and anger felt by country people across Britain. That is why Sunday will see what is likely to be the biggest peacetime civil rights demonstration in UK history as up to 350,000 protesters converge on London in defence of their way of life.

What's become known as the "countryside march" has been portrayed in some, often urban, quarters as a last attempt by the hunting lobby to defend the indefensible.

Certainly it was the threat to fox-hunting that sparked Sunday's march. Even the Countryside Alliance, which has organised the protest, acknowledges that. Many of those who travel to London this weekend will do so to defend a sport and a way of life that they see as vital to the countryside as they know it.

But to dismiss the march simply as a stunt by the pro-hunting lobby would be to miss the point. The march is about far more than that. The countryside is in crisis - and the people who live there are about to stand up and make sure their voices are heard.

Marching shoulder to shoulder with the huntsmen and women on Sunday will be farmers, agricultural labourers, hunt employees, farriers, blacksmiths, village shopkeepers and rural parish priests; people from all walks of life, united by one common belief - that their rural way of life is under threat.

"This is not just about hunting," insists Derek Watson, the former grain merchant turned farmer who is now county head of the National Farmers' Union in North Yorkshire.

"When Tony Blair came to power he said he would end the North/South divide. But I think what he has created is the biggest urban/rural divide we have ever seen."

It's a familiar claim: that the London-based Government of Tony Blair simply doesn't understand the problems besetting the countryside.

Yet the evidence of crisis is there all around. In the desperate plight of farmers; in the laying-off of agricultural workers; in the closure of village shops and post offices. Public transport in rural areas is often patchy or non-existent; and many local people cannot afford to buy homes in the villages they were born in because spiralling house prices have forced property out of their reach.

The Countryside Alliance talks of a countryside that is becoming a museum - of villages in which the heart and soul has been ripped out along with the village shop, school and post office so that they become little more than dormitories for the wealthy.

To a certain extent, admits Ian Strong, of the Yorkshire Rural Community Council, a charity which aims to protect the quality of life of those living in the countryside, what we are seeing is a process of change which is inevitable. But that does not mean it is not a cause for concern.

"Rural services are under threat and there are big changes," he says. "A lot of people born in the countryside are going away to university and will never come back.

"Things are changing quite dramatically. Actually, the countryside has been changing for centuries. It is a mistake to think the countryside was always the way it was a few years ago. It is right that things change. But what we must be careful about is that we don't destroy people by allowing change to happen willy-nilly. We have to help people through the process."

Making sure the powers that be are aware of the extent of the problems is a necessary first step, which in a sense is the point of the countryside march.

The banner under which marchers will be united on Sunday is Liberty And Livelihood. Already, a delegation from the Countryside Alliance has visited Number 10 and left Prime Minister Tony Blair a "calling card".

This demanded that the Government:

u Defends the right of rural people to live their lives responsibly in the way they choose.

u Safeguards rural people from attacks on hunting with dogs and all other field sports

u Respects the values and customs of rural communities

u Ensures any laws directed at rural people have their consent

u Addresses the real problems in the countryside which are destroying its communities.

Ultimately, if the countryside is to be saved from becoming a "museum" and a vibrant, rural way of life is to be preserved, farmers could well hold the key. A thriving agricultural industry provides the cornerstone of traditional country ways of life.

And yet the problems faced by farmers are well documented. Many find themselves in desperate straits as the price they get for their products continues to slump.

"I was offered £50 a ton this August for cereal at harvest," says Maurice Patrick, who runs a 300-acre arable farm at Skipwith, near Selby. "That's less than the cost of production. Six years ago we were getting double that: sometimes up to £120. It's getting so we cannot afford to go on growing crops."

It's not only arable farmers. Pig, cattle and sheep farmers are still reeling from the combined effects of BSE, foot and mouth, swine fever and deflated prices and dairy farmers are desperate. Milk is fetching 16p per litre at the farm gate, according to Conservative MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber Robert Goodwill - that's three pence below what is costs to produce.

"Last year the average farm income was £7,000 - lower than the minimum wage, with most hill farmers losing money," he says. "Income is going down, but costs continue to spiral. For many, foot and mouth was the last straw. No wonder suicide levels are at an all time high and the Samaritans publicise their number in local farming journals."

Many farmers, says Mr Watson, are being driven out of the business altogether, or else forced to diversify. He himself is hoping to turn part of his mixed 250-acre livestock and arable farm at West Knapton into a caravan park to cash in on the tourist trade.

But not all farmers are in a position to be able to do so. They are, he says, like the coffee bean producers of the Third World, at the mercy of multinational companies who determine the price at which they will buy food.

Mr Watson warns of disastrous consequences of the multinationals' determination to keep the prices they pay to producers low in order to maximise short-term profits.

The Government, he points out, has no stores of grain set aside for a rainy day: and with more and more farmers being driven out of business, there is a real danger that we could one day find ourselves going suddenly hungry.

"It would not take much of a natural or man-made disaster to suddenly see shortages of food," he says.

Updated: 09:39 Friday, September 20, 2002