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townies back countryside protest
URBAN COUNTRYSIDE protestors may be a contradiction in terms
– not to mention relatively rare, but hundreds of townies
showed solidarity with their rural counterparts last Sunday
by standing shoulder to shoulder with them on the march through
London.
With more experience of urban life than rural decline, few of
them say they will be marching primarily because of concerns
about threats to village communities, the squeeze on countryside
services or the crisis in farming.
Instead, urban marchers such as Samantha Bartram, born in Manchester,
now resident in very urban Wimbledon, south-west London, are
among the most vociferous opponents of a ban on hunting with
dogs.
Mrs Bartram, 51, has never hunted, but said she would be marching
from the Liberty starting point because "I do not think
townies - although I am one - should impose their views on people
from the countryside. Just because there are more of us does
not mean we are right.
"A lot of townspeople have the wrong idea about the rights
of animals. I do not think hunting is cruel and if my fellow
townies had seen, as I have, what a fox does to chickens, they
would agree that it is a terrible killer."
Mrs Bartram, who runs a bridge club, said she used to be opposed
to hunting.
"I have never hunted or seen a kill, but I informed myself
and now I am fervently against a ban on hunting," she said.
"I am really concerned that people who know little about
the reality of hunting - that it is something that stretches
across the entire rural community - are trying to stop it without
really understanding the issues.
"I think I might be able to do something about changing
things where I live. But it is arrogant for anyone in a town
to think they have any idea how to change a way of life in the
countryside."
Another Townie who joined the march is Alex Bergin-McCarthy,
26, a broker born and bred in Ilford, Essex, now living in Clapham,
south-west London.
Rapid turnaround
Until
his girlfriend, Kirstie MacGillivray, 28, also a broker, bought
him a horse for Christmas, Mr Bergin-McCarthy was "at
best neutral but by instinct probably anti-hunting".
He said: "I had never seen a fox, nor been on a farm,
until I got the horse. But I have made a rapid turnaround
since I found out what hunting was really about."
Mr Bergin-McCarthy and Miss MacGillivray now hunt with the
Surrey Union. They will be marching from the Liberty starting
point in support of hunting, but also, Mr Bergin-McCarthy
said, "to protest at the Government's mismanagement of
the foot and mouth crisis".
Last year's epidemic "brought the countryside to a standstill",
he said. "If the same thing had happened in central London,
the Government would have acted far quicker."
Samantha Fletcher, a private equity entrepreneur working in
Cork Street, Mayfair, described herself after 15 years living
in Fulham, south-west London, as "thoroughly townie in
outlook" but galvanised into action by "a threat
to the way I grew up".
Miss Fletcher, 35, was born in Yorkshire and hunted from the
age of six to 15. She gave it up "when I discovered boys
and the better things in life".
She said: "I feel it is time to make a stand, to be counted
for believing in something that is very important to rural
communities, which should be left to lead their lives as they
want to lead them.
"I do not think the Government is listening to what people
in the country really want and it has become a case of the
majority imposing views on a minority they do not understand."
"If we do not act now, they will stop us shooting and
fishing as well," she said. "Hunting is a way of
life. We live in a democracy, yet we are being dictated to.
"There are many more important issues for the Government
to spend its time on, rather than trying to squash a minority.
"It is surely a sign that this Government is not listening
to what rural people need and want that there will be a lot
of law-abiding citizens marching through the streets of London
on Sunday."
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