I'd dispute that hunting contributes anything significant to the rural economy. The problems of the countryside are simple to state and hard to fix- jobs, housing, transport, schooling, entertainment (particularly for the young), pollution, traffic, etc.

Hunting provides a few, usually low- paid, jobs in some areas, but the bulk of the problem is the result of the long-term collapse of agricultural employment due to mechanisation, and the replacement of steady jobs by casual cheap labour. And aas a corollary, the collapse of the rural commercial infrastructure like shops and service industries, caused by easy (car) transport to towns with their supermarkets and so on.

There is an unremarked crisis in small country towns, as shops and services close down, the premises usually being converted to yet more housing for commuting incomers, who have little social or commercial connection with their new country home, and whose high incomes are spent elsewhere and so contribute nothing to the local economy.

If the Countryside Alliars had had any interest in the countryside as other than a place to hunt, they would have brought these issues to the fore. But they are a one- issue campaign, and for the English countryside it is the wrong issue.