Pull the plug on charity branding country folk racist

IF you're one of the ten million or so people who live in rural Britain, or one of countless millions more who regularly visit the countryside, then the bad news is that the finger of official suspicion is pointing at you.

- Patrick O'Flynn

Because it appears to various experts that you may be involved in a giant racial conspiracy to prevent ethnic minority citizens enjoying the great outdoors. While you may think you've just got in from taking your labrador for a walk, or a spot of fishing, or chatting to a neighbour outside the village hall, what you've actually been doing is shoring up "racist colonial legacies".

That, at least, is according to Wildlife And Countryside Link, an umbrella group representing many leading nature and heritage charities. It claims many fear the countryside is "dominated by white people", governed by "white British cultural values" and "a white space" that inhibits people from other ethnic backgrounds.

Now, it's indisputable that most of those who live in the countryside are white and native British. This is largely on account of Britain still being a mainly white country around 82 percent of the overall population remain white British, the latest census estimates. But in rural areas, that percentage is substantially higher, approaching 97 percent, according to current government statistics.