Who?

The current Board of Directors consists of:

John Jackson - Chairman
Bill Andrewes – Deputy Chairman
Richard Burge – Chief Executive
Lord Mancroft
Maurice Askew
Prof. Caroline Tisdall
Robert Waley-Cohen
Charles Wilson
David Reynolds
Bob James
Mark Firth
Sam Butler[13]

Given that at least nine of these twelve people are involved in bloodsports, we should not give too much credence to the Countryside Alliance’s pretentions of being a broad-based organization concentrating on a wide range of rural issues. None of these people have expertise in eg. food policy or social exclusion, and some are actively involved in perpetuating rural poverty, for example by selling overpriced homes to commuters.

John Jackson
This ridiculously busy man cannot possibly have enough brain-space left to think coherently about the countryside: He is Non-Solicitor Chairman of law firm Mishcon de Reya, Chairman of Ladbroke Group, and Celltech plc.; A Director of Billiton plc, Wyndeham Press Group plc., WPP Group plc., Xenova Group plc., Brown and Jackson plc., and Oxford Technology Venture Capital Trust; Special Advisor to the Korda Seed Capital Fund and Cambridge Animation Systems Ltd.; and one of the four owners of History Today[14]. His original involvement with the Countryside Alliance was through the Countryside Business Group[15].

Bill Andrewes
Definitely a hunting enthusiast, Bill Andrewes was with the BFSS, before becoming Chairman of the Campaign for Hunting. Having been elected Vice-Chair of the CA Board, he relinquished his other position[16].

Richard Burge
A zoologist and former Director General of the Zoological society of London, colonel's son Richard Burge is also Member of the Labour Party. He is a trustee for the Television Trust For The Environment and of the Charles Darwin Centre. He also sits on the council of the Shropshire and West Midlands Agricultural Society[17]. His appointment as Chief Executive is said to have caused consternation in some quarters, particularly after an interview in the Spectator, in which he said that he would take a job from anybody, had never hunted, and that the Countryside Alliance would survive without hunting[18].

Lord Mancroft
Tory peer Lord Mancroft was Deputy Chairman of the BFSS[19], and is chairman of Inter Lotto UK Ltd[20].

Maurice Askew
Maurice Askew has been associated with the Union of Country Sports Workers and is or has been Master of the Barlow Hunt in Derbyshire[21]. He is quoted as threatening that "We are fighting for liberty and freedom. My warning for Mr Blair is that if he does not listen to us there will be a civil war in this country, the like we have never seen since the days of Cromwell and Fairfax."[22]

Prof. Caroline Tisdall
Formerly a Guardian journalist, Caroline Tisdall is now Professor of the Department of Rural Future at Oxford Brookes University. She shoots, angles, stalks, hawks and "would die in a ditch to defend hunting".[23]

Robert Waley-Cohen
Owner of a healthcare company, Robert Waley-Cohen has been a steward for The Jockey Club, (also associated with the Jockey Club are fellow CA board member Charles Wilson, Christopher Sporborg, a Countryside Alliance director, and the Duke of Roxburghe[24] and Lord Vestey[25], donors to the CA) is a racehorse owner and is organiser of Upton House Horse Trials[26]. He was an executive of Christies Auctioneers (UK and US) from 1969-1981, and in 1983 founded Alliance Imaging Inc., the largest out-sourced radiology department in the US, followed by Alliance Medical Ltd., the largest out-sourced radiology department in Europe. He is also a trustee of the Countryside Foundation for Education, a member of the National Trust, and the Country Landowners Association (due to being a partner in a farm on land surrounding Upton House in Warwickshire)[27]

Charles Wilson
Charles Wilson is a former Managing Editor of Mirror Group Plc; former Editor of The Times, a Trustee World Wide Fund for Nature UK and a member of the Jockey Club[28].

David Reynolds
Master of the Woodland Pytchley Hunt, David Reynolds is so keen to defend hunting that according to the East Northants. Anti-Bloodsports, he has tried to ride over saboteurs on a number of occasions[29].

Bob James
A well-known angler, Bob James is Chairman of the Countryside Alliance’s Gone Fishing Campaign.

Mark Firth
Chair of Foresight, the Countryside Alliance’s Campaign for Shooting, Mark Firth is Joint Managing Director of Roxton Bailey Robinson sporting agents. He participates in shooting, fishing, stalking and other country sports in the UK and worldwide[30].

Sam Butler
Chairman of the Countryside Alliance’s Campaign for Hunting, Master of Warwickshire Hunt and partner in estate agent Butler-Sherborn, Sam Butler is a particularly badly-placed person to be a leading light on an organization which claims to care about rural communities: His estate agents sells extremely pricey homes to rich folk, with not a hope of the locals being able to afford them. Nick Cohen of the Observer phoned Butler-Sherborne posing as a cash buyer for a remarkably over-priced Cotswold pad. On expressing concern that he could face hostility for being a townie, the saleswoman replied 'Oh no, Everyone round here's a commuter.'[31]

Butler made rather a fool of himself by bellowing without a blush to a demonstration outside the Labour Party Conference: 'Our forefathers didn't fight Hitler to have this lot take away our liberties.' One of Butler's forefathers was 'Rab' Butler, who certainly didn’t fight Hitler. He appeased him throughout the Thirties and then aided Lord Halifax's manoeuvres to force Churchill to bring about a negotiated surrender in 1940[32].

President: Baroness Anne Mallalieu QC
A Labour peer and great fan of hunting: "Hunting is our music. It is our poetry. It is our art. It is our pleasure. It is where many of our best friendships are made. It is our community. It is our whole way of life."[33]

Deputy President: Lord Marcus Kimball
Educated at Eton and Cambridge, Lord Kimball has been Director of the Royal Trust Bank, External Member of the Council of Lloyds, and Tory MP for Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. He has been Huntmaster of the Fitzwilliam Hounds and Cottesmore Hounds, and frequents Whites and Pratt’s gentlemen’s clubs[34].

Commercial Directors:

Christopher Sporborg
A banker who lives on a farm in Hertfordshire[35]. One wonders what happened to the farmer…

Michael Hoare
A banker from London[36]. A real yokel then…

Nick Bannister
A stockbroker from London[37]. Hmm.

Secretary: Roger Loodmer
An angler from London.

Also of interest is that out of the Countryside Alliance’s token five pounds’ worth of shares, one is held by Andrew Salvesen, who was a Non-executive Director of Christian Salvesen plc. between 1989 and the demerger in September 1997, when he was appointed to the Board of Aggreko plc. He had more than 20 years' with Christian Salvesen, including being Managing Director of Christian Salvesen's former Oilfield Technology operations. He is a Non-executive Director of Smedvig ASA and Stirling Shipping Ltd as well as being Chairman of Robertson Research Holdings Limited, Canvas Holidays Limited and Roxar ASA[38]. Quite what expertise about the countryside this has given him is unclear.

References
[13] Countryside Alliance, Annual Report and Accounts 2000
[14] www.mishcon.co.uk/
[15] "Guardian of the Land", Horse and Hound, 15th February 2001, p.10
[16] "Board Changes at Countryside Alliance", Press Release, Countryside Alliance, 7th July 1998.
[17] Who's Who 2000, A and C Black, London, 2000, p.291
[18] "Gone to Claridge’s", TheSpectator, 20th January 2001
[19] "RSPCA Head ‘Enlisted Hunters’", Times, Wednesday May 2nd 2001.
[20] "Next Step Forward For The Countryside Alliance", Press Release, Countryside Alliance, 26th March 1998, www.countryside-alliance.org/news/latest/980326sgm.htm , last viewed on 28th June 2001
[21] "Countryside 'army' descend on Labour", This Is London, September 29 1999
[22] Maurice Askew of the Union of Country Sports Workers at the Welsh Countryside March and Rally. Western Mail, 11 November 1999.
[23] Caroline Tisdall, potted biography for Countryside Alliance Board elections 2001.
[24] Prince’s Aide Revives Row Over GM Food, The Guardian, 28th September 1999.
[25] Prince named as secret backer of hunt lobby, The Guardian, 26th September 1999.
[26] British Endurance-Riding Association, Latest News March 2000, www.british-endurance.org.uk/ghr_pressnews.html , last viewed 9th July 2001
[27] www.countrysidefoundation.org.uk/WhatisCFE/Trustees/RW-Cmain.htm
[28] "Next Step Forward For The Countryside Alliance", Press Release, Countryside Alliance, 26th March 1998, www.countryside-alliance.org/news/latest/980326sgm.htm , last viewed on 28th June 2001
[29] East Northamptonshire Anti-Bloodsports News, 2nd December 2000 www.northantshsa.org.uk/news.htm, last viewed 9th July 2001, "Hunt Master hospitalizes Saboteur", Kettering Hunt Saboteurs news release 11th February 1995
[30] "New Chairman For Campaign For Shooting and Alliance Shooting Committee", Press Release, Countryside Alliance, 21st June 1999
[31] "Is it Hair or Blague?", The Observer, 31st December 2000
[32] Unholy Alliance, The Observer, 15th October 2000
[33] Baroness Mallalieu’s speech at the Hyde Park Rally, later repeated in her submission to the Hunting Inquiry www.huntinginquiry.gov.uk/evidence/baronessmallalieu.htm
[34] Who’s Who 2000, A and C Black, London, p.1139
[35] Countryside Alliance Annual Return 2000
[36] ibid.
[37] ibid.
[38] http://production.investis.com/aggreko/board/ last viewed 9th July 2001