Britain Has Its Own Masked Protesters. It’s Time the Government Looked
If you have been following the news recently, you will have seen the protests sweeping across Europe. Germany, France, Spain and Italy have all witnessed demonstrations, with masked individuals causing widespread disruption and, in some cases, outright violence.
Although many protests began peacefully, masked groups have emerged to cause trouble and clash with police. The Guardian reported that in Paris, “different groups of masked men dressed in black emerged who had not appeared to have taken part in the peaceful march”. CNN reported that protests in Germany turned violent, with masked rioters smashing shop windows and police deploying water cannons, while the BBC reported that in Italy, police used tear gas and water cannons after protesters, many wearing masks, threw paving stones, bins and chairs at officers.
You might think this is a problem confined to the streets of European cities. It isn't. Masked men are already operating in the British countryside, turning up at legal trail hunts and subjecting ordinary rural people to intimidation and confrontation. The difference? It rarely makes the headlines, politicians remain largely silent and the Government seems to have little interest in what is happening.
For more than a decade, masked hunt saboteurs, dressed head to toe in black and concealing their identities, have been turning up at legal trail hunts. They claim to be peaceful protesters acting in the name of animal welfare, but their behaviour tells a different story. Reports of verbal abuse, intimidation and physical confrontation are not confined to the mounted field; landowners, kennel staff, foot supporters and even farmers have found themselves targeted. Hiding behind a mask does not make this behaviour acceptable, nor does claiming to be an animal welfare activist excuse it.
Legal trail hunting is also an opportunity for people of all ages and backgrounds to come together and enjoy the countryside. The majority of the mounted field are female, and during school holidays children regularly come out on their ponies. Yet these women and children can find themselves followed around the countryside by masked men, turning a family day out into an experience of intimidation.
One hunt supporter described women being followed by individuals who were “anonymous, intentionally antagonising, dressed like terrorists, behaving like they're in the military”. How exactly is this peaceful protest?
Nor do you even have to be involved in hunting to become a target. In 2019, The Daily Mail reported on an incident involving Paul Allman of the Stockport Monitors and four other masked men, who blocked the entrance to the home of Rebekah Uden, a 31-year-old mother living in Trefant, north Wales. Uden was at home with her children, aged 10 and 13, and had never been involved in hunting or even attended a hunt.
“I'm not a fox hunter, I've never hunted in my life. But they're using fox hunting as a smokescreen to cause trouble. They're nothing more than thugs,” she said.
When Uden confronted the group, she said they swore at and berated her until police arrived. In the same year, Allman was convicted of assault against a hunt Master following an incident in Cheshire in 2018.
These are not simply disagreements about hunting. They are questions of personal safety, intimidation and the right of ordinary people to go about their lives without being pursued by masked strangers.
So why is it that masked groups causing disruption in European cities attract national headlines and political condemnation, yet similar concerns raised by rural communities in Britain receive so little attention? Despite repeated reports of intimidation and confrontations in the countryside, those affected are still asking whether anyone in authority is listening. Will the Government simply continue to look away until these masked groups take their activities onto the streets of London and the problem becomes impossible to ignore?
Peaceful protest is a right. Intimidation is not. Wearing a mask does not put anyone above the law, and claiming to act in the name of animal welfare does not give anyone the right to terrorise rural communities. It's time the Government stopped looking the other way.
