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Dear all

I'm a third year geography undergraduate at Sidney Sussex, Cambridge
and I've only just joined the cgf. This is my first contribution, so it's
going to be short. I've been fascinated by the rural protest(s) this
weekend, and particularly by the make-up of the 'Countryside Alliance'.
Yesterday, I spoke to someone who attended and asked him about claims that
the protest had been 'hijacked' - he said yes, by those _not_ opposed to
blood sports.

I think it's clear that the protest is a very complicated affair, and I'd
caution against explaining it in purely class terms. The work of Varshney
on rational choice models of political behaviour in India's so-called 'new
agrarianism' should perhaps lead us to question the extent to which the
rural working-class' involvement can only be attributed to fear/pressure
from employers or land owners. A different context I know, but it raises
interesting theoretical issues about the political mobilisation of such
movements.

David Lambert,
Sidney Sussex,
Cambridge



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