Rural people, the book informs us, want more roads, more use of agrochemicals, more genetic engineering, and less health and safety regulation. No one will be more offended by these propositions than rural people. They are the ones who have fought hardest to defend the greenbelt and to stop the countryside being ripped apart by new roads. Newbury, for example, was sharply divided over its new bypass, but the villages which lay along its route were firmly opposed. Rural people have been hurt more than any others by the loss of songbirds and the destruction of landscape features caused by the farming methods the Social Affairs Unit promotes.
Rural people appear to be just as supportive of the right to roam as townies are.
Curiously, none of the 34 authors of this book appears to live and work exclusively in the countryside. Nearly all of them are urban academics, journalists or consultants. The Social Affairs Unit is based in central London. Like the Countryside Alliance, the Country Landowners' Association and the Telegraph, the Times and the Mail, these authors conflate the interests of rural people in general with those of large landowners and property speculators. The landlords, though many of them live in cities, are the authentic representatives of the countryside, and what they want is what all rural people want.