March of the hunters

FOR fox-like cunning, it was hard to beat. Eight months ago the Scottish parliament thought it had savaged fox-hunting with hounds to death by banning the pursuit in Scotland.

Yet as the mists rose over the Scottish Borders last week, the Buccleuch Hunt, as it has been for centuries, was in full cry. The hounds, yelping in anticipation, were homing in on their bushy-tailed quarry while a group of riders struggled to keep up.

For the hunt’s Master of the Foxhounds, Trevor Adams, it was good to be back in the saddle even if he now leads an upmarket version of Rentokil - like eight of Scotland’s 10 lowland hunts, the Buccleuch Hunt claims it is now strictly in the pest control business.

"We have to be invited onto a farmer’s land and the major difference is that now we have to flush the fox towards waiting guns. That’s what we have to do to stay within the law but if it keeps the infrastructure of the hunt going then that is what we will continue doing. We believe that we will win our case through the courts in the end and if we do then we will still be here to pick up the reins."

Despite the shedding of their traditional red and black riding jackets, the spirit of the hunt is alive and well and not much has changed. Of the 30 foxes that the Buccleuch has despatched since riding out three times a week since August, 25 have been shot while five have been finished off by the hounds.

The hunters are exploiting a loophole in the law that still allows foxes to be killed by hounds if they do not leave the cover of woodland or are injured and require instant despatch. "The law allows us to do it," said Adams. "At least that’s our interpretation."

A small act of defiance against an allegedly urban-dominated parliament’s desire to consign the country gentleman’s "sport" of fox-hunting to history. But another bigger one takes place today when more than 250,000 protesters are expected to gather in what the organisers claim will be the biggest civil demonstration in Britain since the Second World War.

The country is going to town to protest against what it believes is the systematic erosion of rural life by Labour politicians elected by urban constituencies. To the organisers, the Countryside Alliance, the ban on hunting with hounds - already in force in Scotland but yet to be passed in England and Wales - is just the beginning of a misguided attack by a powerful urban elite on traditional country sports that bring money into rural areas.

When two giant marches kick off in central London today - one, called Liberty, aimed at showing support for traditional fox-hunting and the other Livelihood to protest at general rural decline - Adams will be in the thick of them.

"It’s not just my way of life that is under attack," he said. "It is all of us living in the countryside. I will be out there waving my Saltire with the Scottish contingent because we will not be taking all this lying down."

There is no doubt that the Scottish countryside, which is sending a 7,000-strong contingent of protesters, is smarting. And it not just the familiar litany of young people being priced out of local housing by wealthy incomers from the cities or the exorbitant cost of petrol tax.

Landowners, farmers, their workers and the businesses that supply them and entertain their guests feel under the cosh of a raft of existing and proposed legislation that has gathered pace since the Scottish Parliament came into being.

Land reform, critics say, will eventually lead to the break-up of the great Scottish estates that have produced the landscapes for which Scotland is famous world-wide as well as providing local employment. New and unnecessary laws on access, they add, will allow town-dwellers out for a country ramble to trample farmers’ crops. The hunting-with-hounds ban, brought in after the passage of Lord Watson’s Protection of Wild Mammals Bill by a small Holyrood majority of MSPs last February, is just the tip of a very large iceberg.

"What’s next? Shooting, stalking, fishing?" said Fiona Ferguson, the wife of a head gamekeeper who was busy last week organising a party of marchers from the Angus glens. "I am not interested in hunting myself but it is one of the traditions we still have left in the countryside. All the talk at the moment is about going into Iraq to protect our freedom but no-one mentions that ours is under constant attack. If all country sports go the way of hunting then the Angus glens will die. Last week we had a party of Americans, this week Irishmen and next week Germans. They are not going to come if more and more obstacles are placed in their way." The effect on local employment could be devastating, she adds.

Each estate in the glens has agreed to send at least one representative to London. They will be joined by 83-year-old Bryce McCosh, a retired naval officer and farmer who has organised his own busload to London. "The march will be anti-government because they are anti-countryside," said McCosh from Quothquan, near Biggar. "Our busload will include farmers, brigadiers, poachers, the lot - because the countryside is fed up with being organised by people who do not understand it."

The impact of the new legislation is already being felt in rural communities. Membership subscriptions which pay the running costs of the Buccleuch Hunt are down by half. As a result, two of the full-time staff have been laid off and a third of the hound pack has been sold off to hunts still legally operating south of the Border.

"If the numbers of people signing up continues to fall then there will be a knock-on effect on farriers, blacksmiths and saddlers - and these are rural businesses already struggling to survive," said Adams.

But despite the efforts of the Countryside Alliance to portray the march as representative of all country dwellers, wealthy landowners and their families will be to the fore. Renowned gentlemen’s clubs are opening today as a concession to members taking part in the marches. The possible participation of Camilla Parker Bowles, Prince Charles’s partner, has occupied column inches in the diaries of The Times and the Daily Telegraph all week. She was at Balmoral last week in a car sporting a Countryside Alliance sticker but it may be deemed politic for her to remain in Scotland.

Both two-hour marches will begin at 10am with Liberty setting off from South Carriage Drive in Hyde Park and Livelihood from Blackfriars. The two sets will congregate along Whitehall to be counted. By last night, the Countryside Alliance said more than 250,000 people had registered to take part.

If the Alliance’s predictions about numbers are correct the march promises to be the largest public demonstration of dissent since Tony Blair came to power in 1997. But there have been similar marches before - last year’s was cancelled because of the impact of the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak - and there are no signs yet of the government backing down on a hunting ban that will play well in Labour heartlands. But whether it will have any effect is open to question.

"Labour’s majority is based in suburban Britain where most people think that banning fox-hunting is a good idea and where their only desire for the countryside is to be able to walk in it," said John Curtice a political analyst who works at the University of Strathclyde.

Overwhelming numbers will give pro-hunters the ammunition they need to force a compromise. Options range from setting up a statutory body to licence hunts and their activities or to defer the problem to local authorities.

However, a feeble turn-out will give the anti-hunting majority within Labour ranks the opportunity to close in for the kill and force through an outright ban.

Whichever way it goes, anti-hunt campaigners are glorying in the spectacle of countryside interests which have for so long dominated parts of the Westminster machine - particularly the House of Lords - on the outside looking in.

The League Against Cruel Sports says it does not feel threatened and is not even bothering to organise a counter demonstration. "We believe we are in the ascendancy here because we are inside Parliament working with MPs on anti-hunting legislation," said a spokesman. "[The countryside interests] are on the outside for a change and they do not really like it."

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Tally ho through the capital

THE Liberty and Livelihood march is expected to be one of the most spectacular that Britain has witnessed in decades. Two sets of giant arches will span the width of Whitehall to ensure the headcount is accurate.

The 6.6-metre arches will be positioned 100 metres north and south of the Cenotaph. Marchers will pass through the first arch, entering the "counting zone," and will march in silence past the Cenotaph. A running total of the number of marchers that have passed through the zone will be displayed on the second set of arches on a giant digital screen.

The alliance has gambled more than 1m on making the march a success. Altogether, 2,263 coaches and 32 chartered trains will bring the demonstrators to London from all over the UK. More than 500,000 car stickers and 250,000 posters have been distributed nationwide to enlist support.

More than 1,000 large banners and 200 "mega" banners have been sited along major trunk routes into the capital.

On the day, those caught short on the two-hour trek will be serviced by 456 portable toilets placed along the route.

The march will be policed by 1,600 officers - smaller than normal for large demonstrations because senior policemen expect it to be largely peaceful.

They are warning, however, of long delays across London, with sections of the capital, including the Embankment, Pall Mall and Westminster, due to be brought to a standstill. A total of 22 roads will be closed.

The alliance is expecting heavy support from the Tory party, with leader Iain Duncan Smith and his family joined by 15 shadow cabinet members. About 3,000 sympathisers from as far afield as New Zealand, Kenya and Thailand are also expected to attend.