Yes, but you've got to remember, Shambles - when miners and steelworkers were trying to protect their communities and their livelihood, they didn't make a central issue of defending the right to preserve dog-fighting and cock-fighting. If they had I'm sure they'd have had support from the blood-sports enthusiasts.

Poor people in the countryside have always had a rough time, especially from rich landowners. Issues like the run-down of small farming, and the practice landlords have of chucking people out of their tied cottages to sell them to rich townies who then join the local hunt - somehow these have always been brushed aside.

I suspect that if some farm-labourer were to go on that march with a banner saying "Save the countryside - and sod the hunt", he'd be in trouble when he got back home.

There are a lot of people in the countryside would be happy to see the end of hunting, and they must resent the way issues that matter, such as rural housing and schools and transport and employment, are now being exploited and tarnished by the blood sports brigade, led by very people who have been largely responsible for what has gone wrong.