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Angry U.K. farmers 'invade' London

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON SEPT. 22. It was the sort of day, bright and sunny, when Londoners tend to head for the countryside, but on Sunday the traffic was all in the wrong direction as thousands of countryside dwellers descended on London to stage one of the biggest rallies seen in the city in recent years.

All roads and boulevards leading to Whitehall, the heart of the British Government, were taken over by an estimated 200,000 farmers and their supporters protesting a proposed ban on fox hunting which, they argued, threatened their livelihood and traditional rural "way of life''.

It was billed as the day when the country came to town — a spectacle which clearly delighted the curious tourists but native Londoners were not amused by the disruption caused by banner-waving and slogan-shouting farming community. And the intemperate rhetoric of some of the protesters didn't exactly help them win friends.

The march was robbed off much of its `glamour' after Camilla Parker Bowles, companion of Prince Charles and billed as a star attraction, decided to stay away apparently on the Prince's advice. But if the marchers were looking for royal endorsement, Prince Charles did not let them down. A letter he had written to the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, earlier this year supporting the farmers' cause was cleverly made public to coincide with the march. He accused the Government of "destroying the countryside'', and agreed with one farmer who told him that farmers were more "victimised than blacks or gays.''

The Tory chief, Ian Duncan Smith, made an appearance to defend what he called the `diversity' of Britain. "I want to live in a society where diversity and pluralism flourish, where people respect the rights of others to live their lives differently, even in a way that some might find distasteful,'' he said in an indirect attack on the critics of fox-hunting who want it banned on the ground that it is much too cruel to pass as a sport.

However, many farmers said the march, organised by the Countryside Alliance, was not about hunting alone but was meant to highlight the problems of the farming community. Hence the title: Liberty and Livelihood March.

"Today's protest is very much about expressing our growing frustration at Westminster-based politicians' refusal to recognise the many and various rural issues that need to be addressed urgently,'' a senior farmers' union leader, Bob Parry, said.

He warned of more militant action if the Government continued to `ignore' the countryside.

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