Countryside Party (UK)
The Countryside Party was a minor political party operating in the United Kingdom. It was formed on 22 May 2000 by Jim Crawford, a chiropodist and sport shooter who was the Northern Director of 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 UK, Scottish and European 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-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 leader Charles Kennedy, for the Countryside Party in the 2001 UK general election. He did not