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This Sunday's Liberty and Livelihood March was billed, based on the 400,000 participants, as the largest demonstration the United Kingdom has ever seen. It may have sent a significant message to government, but hardly a clear one. (700 words)

That there were so many issues of concern to country folk worthy of a trip to London to demonstrate about is an indication of the failing of the current government to get very much right when it comes to its rural policies.

In certain respects this is understandable. The government, while having a massive majority in the House of Commons, has next to no rural grass roots on which to draw on when seeking to understand rural affairs or indeed promoting programmes it sets up to address countryside concerns. The government's rural policy seems to be dictated by a mirid of single issue lobby groups who often appear to have better connections with the Labour Party than the countryside.

The challenge of the government is most evident in the issue of hunting with dogs. A ban has been threatened for many years by Labour Party pre-election manifestos. And it is really very strange that after more than five years during which the Labour government has enjoyed substantial majorities nothing has been achieved.

The League Against Cruel Sports is the major proponent of this ban and its position is supported by many government party backbenchers, most of whom have few if any rural constituents. But for the government itself the issue is less straightforward, particularly as the case made against hunting with hounds is debatable, while the issue of the liberty of individuals is not. The political strategy of delaying, when in doubt, has tended to prevail.

It is perhaps this general hesitancy to act decisively on this and other rural issues, often simply perhaps because they are not understood, that may have contributed to the massive loss of the government's credibility in the countryside. This certainly was the case for another major issue for the countryside, the government's handling of the foot and mouth outbreak last year.

And a series of government-sponsored studies of issues, three for the foot and mouth outbreak on its own, also probably signifies a reluctance to act. In the countryside this may be interpreted as a fundamental lack of sensitivity to rural concerns.

Also of significance at the demonstration was the absence of posters criticizing Margaret Beckett, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who now holds the agricultural portfolio, although the Prime Minister was a target. After being subject to more than her fair share of ridicule when she was first allocated the agricultural portfolio, Beckett seems to have disappeared into the woodwork. As was to be expected, she chose to delegate the government response to this massive demonstration against her policies to a junior minister. Certainly the industry does not regard her as any champion of their interests in cabinet which is another cause for alienation.

The immediate response of government to the demonstration was predicable - issues are being studied, any decisions on programmes will have to await and an antagonistic call to recognize the needs and problems faced by urban communities.

For anyone attending the march, who may visit London infrequently and then by train, the bus drive through the inner suburbs may have been revealing. These suburbs have clearly been the beneficiaries of the level of government spending on infra structure over the years that rural areas can only dream of. Judging by the cloths worn and the cars owned by people who live in these areas they are relatively affluent, at least by rural standards. But to country eyes they probably still seem rather ill kept and in places squalid.

Perhaps the countryside would benefit from less attention of government. But there again the record of government is hardly encouraging. The gold plating of European Union imposed regulations and the restrictions and administrative overhead that this has caused is a further burden that has been placed on farmers and other small businesses which provide the economic fabric of the countryside. Indeed, the day after the demonstration, Beckett was busy promoting yet more regulation.

September 23, 2002