"We
can say that it is the biggest demonstration in London of the last 20
years," a Scotland Yard spokesman told Agence France-Presse
(AFP). Organizers said 408,000 people had turned out.
"It's
an overwhelming success. We were 408,000 at 5:45 pm [1645 GMT],"
James Dewar, said a spokesman for the Countryside Alliance.
The
main focus of the protest was Prime Minister Tony Blair's plan to ban
the hunting of foxes with hounds, though the event was also used to
highlight wider concerns about the quality of life in rural
communities.
"This
is a march that is going to unite town and country in a common cause
to secure a sustainable and viable future for rural Britain,"
said Countryside Alliance spokesman Adrian Yalland.
Among
the thousands of protesters bringing parts of the capital to a
standstill was Jackie Davidge, a "fifty something" housewife
and member of the Crawley and Horsham hunt from southeast England.
"I
hunt. I enjoy hunting. I regard it as a perfectly natural form of fox
control," she told AFP, bearing a sign reading, "Rural
England Says No To Hunting Ban."
She
added, "It's the least cruel method. It's the most natural and
the nearest way to nature's method of controlling any species.
"Fox
are vermin, they will be shot and to accuse us of cruelty is
obscene."
Alongside
her, other protesters, some clad in tweed caps and dragging their dogs
on leads, bore placards reading "Give Farming A Future" and
"Save Our Rural Jobs Blair."
Half
the marchers set off from Hyde Park in central London, while the
others began at nearby Black friars Bridge with the two groups merging
along Whitehall where government Ministries are located before ending
up in Parliament Square.
Supporters
insist fox hunting is an inalienable right and a rural tradition which
helps control countryside pests and provides thousands of jobs.
Opponents
say it is both elitist and barbaric.
In
a surprise twist to the emotive debate on fox-hunting, newspapers
reported Sunday that the heir to the throne Prince Charles wrote to
Blair expressing his anger at government plans to ban the country
pursuit.
"If
the Labor government ever gets round to banning fox hunting, I might
as well leave this country and spend the rest of my life skiing,"
the Mail on Sunday tabloid also quoted Charles as saying, heard by an
unnamed senior politician.
Downing
Street and St James Palace declined to comment on the reports.
But
not everyone was supporting the aims of the rally - about 150
anti-hunt supporters staged a peaceful protest in an area cordoned off
by police in Parliament Square.
"Some
of the rural issues we agree with but we are against hunting,"
said Paul McNally, 40, from London.
"This
is a political movement. These people are not poor farm laborers, they
are wealthy people who want to protect a cruel sport," he added.
Foxhunting
is one of Britain's most bitter political issues, with a great number
of country dwellers are in favor of the activity but the majority of
parliament and people in general are against it.
A
ban has proved elusive, however. Last year, the left-dominated House
of Commons voted for it, but the House of Lords, rooted deeply in the
land-owning aristocracy, rejected it.
