The Countryside Party was a minor
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...
operating in the United Kingdom. It was formed on 22 May 2000 by Jim Crawford, a
chiropodist
Podiatry () or podiatric medicine () is a branch of medicine devoted to the study, diagnosis, medical and surgical treatment of disorders of the foot, ankle, and leg.
A Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM), or a podiatrist, is a healthcare ...
and
sport shooter
Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airguns, in forms such as ...
who was the Northern Director of the
Countryside Alliance
The Countryside Alliance (CA) is a British organisation promoting issues relating to the countryside such as farming, rural services, small businesses and field sports, aiming to "Give Rural Britain a voice".
History
The Countryside Alliance ...
. Much of the party's agenda was the same as that of the Alliance, such as opposition to any restrictions on
fox hunting. The party stood unsuccessfully in elections for the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
,
Scottish and
European
European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
** Demographics of Europe
** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...
parliaments in the early 2000s.
Platform and membership
It was formed out of what it perceived as a lack of understanding or care about rural issues by the mainstream political parties. It was by and large a
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
-minded organisation, and unsuccessfully opposed measures such as the
Scottish Land Reform Act which had been designed to give greater rights to tenant farmers and crofters.
According to its 2004 accounts, the party's membership was formally "limited to the two founders, Jim Crawford and Richard Malbon plus a very small number of supporters who are not actually members of the Party".
Electoral history
Crawford contested
Ross, Skye and Inverness West, then held by the
Liberal Democrat
Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology.
Active parties
Former parties
See also
*Liberal democracy
*Lib ...
leader
Charles Kennedy
Charles Peter Kennedy (25 November 1959 – 1 June 2015) was a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1999 to 2006, and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ross, Skye and Lochaber from 1983 ...
, for the Countryside Party in the
2001 UK general election. He did not win the seat.
The Countryside Party stood in the
Scottish Parliament 2003 election for the
Highlands and Islands
The Highlands and Islands is an area of Scotland broadly covering the Scottish Highlands, plus Orkney, Shetland and Outer Hebrides (Western Isles).
The Highlands and Islands are sometimes defined as the area to which the Crofters' Act of 18 ...
electoral region. It polled 1,768 votes (1.05% of the vote in the area).
It contested the
2004 European elections in the
South West England
South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities ...
and
North West England constituencies. In the South West, it received 2.1% of the vote which was sufficient to retain its deposit. In the North West, it polled only 0.5%. Its relatively good standing in the South West may owe something to the notability of its candidates for reasons other than politics. The party's six candidates in the region included
Chris Thomas-Everard {{BLP sources, date=October 2010
The Thomas-Everard family are a family of British farmers who became known to the public during the 2001 foot and mouth crisis. The son Guy Thomas-Everard made an impassioned plea against his healthy farm animals bei ...
, whose family became famous during the
2001 foot and mouth crisis
The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom in 2001 caused a crisis in British agriculture and tourism. This epizootic saw 2,000 cases of the disease in farms across most of the British countryside. Over 6 million cows and ...
for refusing to allow his cows to be culled, Diana Scott, joint master of the Devon and Somerset hunt and a prominent pro-hunting campaigner and the explorer
Ranulph Fiennes
Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 3rd Baronet (born 7 March 1944), commonly known as Sir Ranulph Fiennes () and sometimes as Ran Fiennes, is a British explorer, writer and poet, who holds several endurance records.
Fiennes served in the ...
.
The party was deregistered in July 2008. Crawford, who was later elected as a member of
The Highland Council
The Highland Council (' ), the political body covering the Highland local authority created in 1995, comprises 21 wards, each electing three or four councillors by the single transferable vote system, which creates a form of proportional represe ...
for
Inverness South, suggested in 2012 that the party could be reformed to oppose
wind farm
A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...
development. He died in 2020.
References
External links
Official Countryside Party website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Countryside Party (Uk)
Political parties established in 2000
Defunct political parties in the United Kingdom
Political parties disestablished in 2008
Rural society in the United Kingdom
2000 establishments in the United Kingdom
2008 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
Fox hunting
Single-issue political parties
Defunct agrarian political parties