Countryside Alliance

The Countryside Alliance (CA) is a conservative political lobby group that protects the financial interests of corporate landowners of the British countryside, many of whom are the absentee offshore type.  The CA’s main activity is to coerce the government into using tax-payers’ money to enhance the profits of these landowners.  

Money grabbers
Examples of the aforesaid coercion are in the CA’s ‘Rural Charter 2017,; a document that outlined the CA’s wish list in a post Brexit UK.  The quotes below are taken from this document.

The CA demanded “incentives for landowners to make land available for affordable housing in rural communities.”  That is, the CA wants tax-payers’ money to be handed over to non-contributing owners of unused land (in addition to the cost of buying or leasing the land) in exchange for the owners allowing people to have somewhere to live.  

The CA wanted the government to “ensure that [post Brexit] UK farmers and producers continue to have access to the EU labour market, which may include the reintroduction of a Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme.”  This was a demand for UK government intervention (that is, tax-payers’ money) to be used to subsidise what is already cheap labour to maximise the profits of landowners.

The hunting industry is a significant source of income for the rural landowners.  The CA wanted the government to maintain “tariff-free and frictionless trade with the EU in firearms, ammunition and game meat, and ensure that those travelling to or from Europe to take part in country sports face no additional bureaucracy or costs.”  Again, the CA wanted preferential post Brexit access to the EU for an issue that affects the income of rural landowners; such post-Brexit access would be attained via negotiation between UK government and the EU with inevitable costs to the UK tax-payers.

Animal welfare?
The CA congratulates itself repeatedly as a defender of animal welfare.  This onanistic back-slapping is at odds with its posture toward the RSPCA: Countryside Alliance attacks RSPCA.

Fox hunting with hounds is fully supported by the CA, including the use of violent mercenary thugs to prevent animal welfare activists from monitoring the hunts for illegality.

CA media appearances
Watch out for this pair on TV.

Liam Stokes and Tim Bonner

Links to brief descriptions of other right-wing think-tanks: UK think-tanks

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