Letter to the Prime Minister, 8th July 1999

Dear Prime Minister,

This past Tuesday, 29th June the countryside spoke out once agaih, this time from an obscure and poor rural community, Exmoor.

Supporters friends and well-wishers spoke with one voice at a Rally held on the Exford Village Green. The Rally was organised by local people calling themselves Endangered Exmoor. The message was simple: Exmoor now works, keep it working. Hard facts and well-documented figures from an independent study commissioned earlier this year by the West Somerset District Council have underlined how vital and essential field sports are to Exmoor's economic and social survival.

Those who condescendingly dismiss field sports as outdated or vilify them as a grotesque anomaly must recondsider. Their attempts to victimise a large section of society because of its difference must be seen by you our Prime Minister and your Government as ill-advised. These attitudes show a frightening intolerance in what is a free and liberal country.

Endangered Exmoor has sprung from small beginnings, but it has quickly swelled into a torrent of widespread support for the survival of the countryside.

Yours sincerely,

Endangered Exmoor