Are hunters on the poll trail?

Feature
By Ollie Stone-Lee
Political reporter, BBC News website

Thousands of hunt supporters knocked on the door of democracy when they protested in Parliament Square and they vowed to make this election count for their cause.

The government was apparently so worried that it was willing to see the ban on hunting delayed until safely after polling day.

The huntsmen says their efforts are continuing

In some quarters there were dire forecasts of a countryside in revolt in a wave of angry demonstrations.

Stroud in Gloucestershire might be just the place to expect unrest.

It is a marginal seat - 62nd on the Conservative target list, with a Labour majority of 5,000 at the last election. It has several hunts in the area and its MP in the last Parliament, Labour's David Drew, voted for the hunting ban.

But egg-throwing protests, which occasionally have happened in other areas, are nowhere to be seen, nor did I see any pro-hunt posters.

Mr Drew says there has been little sign of hunt supporters so far and wonders whether they will appear in the final days before the election.

Invisible?

Henry Berkeley, master of the Berkeley Hunt in the constituency, says the pro-hunt lobby may not have been very visible but has been weighty.

He says the campaigning is not party political - they are just backing the pro-hunt candidate.

About 80 people from his hunt have joined the drive to unseat Mr Drew, he says, and have delivered 29,000 Conservative leaflets, mainly to urban areas in this very mixed constituency.

"Our main concern is that we get rid of him," he says. "We don't have to do that out in the open."

Mr Berkeley says most people would not realise the leaflets were delivered by hunt groups, although this is not intentional and certainly not being done "under cover of darkness".

They would demonstrate if they knew in advance where ministers planned to visit but he believes egg-throwing is counter-productive.

A group called Vote OK is targeting 139 marginal constituencies nationwide with similar campaigning.

Housing worries

Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael has suggested the way Vote OK is working suggests hunting is the "activity that dare not speak its name".

Richard Roberts, a hunt whipper in, says the hunt issue has involved people like him in political campaigning for the first time.

The hunt supporters say their complaints are one of the last issues for the election.

David Drew says he can rely on non-hunt canvassing support

The nearby small town underlines the point: the protest posters scream: "Don't swamp Berkeley with houses."

Conservative candidate Neil Carmichael too does not appear to be making hunting a major part of his campaign.

And Mr Drew hopes he will get help from elsewhere, including the trade unions, to balance out any push by the hunt lobby.

He argues: "Hunting does not seem to change people's votes, it confirms what they are like already."

Claims of a great divide between town and countryside are a misconception, says Mr Drew: the same issues come up in each area, albeit in slightly different ways.

Access to public services is a key issue, he says, and pensions and immigration also surface on the doorsteps.

Mr Drew is keen to champion his efforts to keep post offices and local hospitals open, as aiming to establish a SureStart children's centre in each area.

Absent voters

He acknowledges housing is a major concern too but argues that people who oppose development in villages also realise such areas need new homes too - sensitivity is essential.

As I follow him canvassing an estate mixed with council and privately owned housing, few issues are raised because there are few voters in sight.

A Labour canvasser jokes: "It certainly seems like Britain's working: you come out in the day and there's nobody around."

Neil Carmichael (left) wants to encourage business efforts

The only voter we meet talks about drugs for Alzheimers' patients before assuring Mr Drew he will get three votes from his home.

At a hustings meeting at Stroud College, the candidates face a variety of issues raised by staff and students: special needs schooling; tax; tuition fees; and transport worries.

Ron Bishop, standing in for UK Independence candidate Edward Noble, says people are realising their stance on withdrawing from the EU needs to be represented in Parliament.

Green candidate Martin Whiteside earns the only round of applause, from some of the audience at least, for calling for a tax on aviation fuel to counter global warming.

It is a mixture of issues fitting for a constituency where green country lanes edged by pheasants and spring cowslips emerge onto main roads bordered with light industry.

'Stop interfering'

One of the first stops on Conservative candidate Neil Carmichael's tour for the day is the Bottlegreen Drinks Company, whose fruit drinks sell nationwide.

He sits talking to the staff beside a bottle full of green bottles. In nursery rhyme parlance, Stroud is high on the list of green bottles the Tories must knock off the parliamentary wall to end Labour's majority.

Mr Carmichael lists anti-social behaviour, choice in schools, and pensions as key concerns in the constituency.

Peter Hirst says Iraq is a major voter concern

He decries local housing plans, saying there is enough brownfield land which can be used before villages are targeted.

If he wins the constituency he believes anger against excessive government interference will be a clinching issue.

He continues: "One of the things people realise is that Drew plods around the constituency... but there is local frustration about his failure on delivery."

Post offices and a local hospital have closed, whatever the area's MPs efforts, he claims.

That is a charge taken up too by Liberal Democrat candidate Peter Hirst, whose chief hope is to lay the foundations for taking the seat at the next election.

The brewer's view

Discussing Mr Drew's opposition to the Iraq war, Mr Hirst says: "Whatever he says, he represents the Labour Party."

The Woolpack at Slad, with its Union Jack hanging outside, seems an apt test bed of rural opinion if ever there was one. This was after all the local pub for Laurie Lee, author of Cider with Rosie.

Brewer Chas Wright was among pub regulars talking politics

At one table, the conversation is already loudly revolving how hunting encapsulates the government's attitude to the countryside.

Local brewer Chas Wright uses a nearby beer mat as his business card as he says he will vote Conservative.

He declares: "I'm a very corpulent small businessman, the less I am messed around by politicians..."

Zena Aylward, offers her support to the Greens, despite being sure they have solutions to her major worry of local housing.

She says: "I don't see the major three parties are giving much choice."

At another table, retired university academic Derek Cherrington decries the "lies and corruption" of the main parties.

"We are two elections away from a small revolution," he predicts.

In this rural corner of England there is talk of revolution after all.