Walking down Kilburn High Road (a heavily Irish area of London) shortly after the Irish defeat to Spain in the World Cup was a surreal experience on Sunday. What made it even more bizarre was to find a boarded up shop window which carried a few bill posters. Among the promotions of garage music and pop magazines was a fly-poster showing an IRA sniper with the caption “Freed!”. Underneath was a huntsman holding a foxhound and the caption “Jailed?” The stencil-like signature “Real C.A.” [Real Countryside Alliance] explained the poster’s origin.
Of all the places in the United Kingdom for such a poster to appear, the Kilburn end of Belsize Road is about as unlikely as they come. That the poster wasn’t defaced in any way suggested it had only just been placed. English toffs chasing foxes are hardly perceived as ‘brothers in the struggle’.
It did occur to me that the Countryside Alliance was created as a ‘Real Conservative Party’ in 1998, following the moral and practical collapse of the Conservatives under John Major and William Hague.
Now the Countryside Alliance has turned ‘New Labour appeaser’ and is being challenged by a provisional wing.
Can anyone tell me how I get a copy of the poster? I would like one for myself and a couple of spares for forthcoming birthday presents!
