The Liberty March: Placards reveal depth of anger in countryside ? and tout for business

"Bullying Labour Axes Individual Rights", said one of the banners, held aloft proudly over the heads of the thousands, competing for attention with "Piss Off Tony" and "Buy Your Sheep Dip at Relph's of Cumbria".

At Hyde Park, the start of the Liberty branch of the march, the placards said it all: anger, widespread dislike of Tony Blair but a fantastic opportunity to promote business.

The marchers' route had been chosen well, for they were among friends. After filing interminably around rows of barriers – learning what it is like for city commuters buying train tickets in the process – the crowd headed towards Establishment London, swinging in front of the Ritz Hotel.

From an upper window, a man wearing a tie and jacket waved cheerily down. Cue a cacophony of whistles, hunting horns and cheering. A similar response met a coachload of confused Japanese tourists who gave the marchers a little wave as they drove past. It came again when the demonstrators saw supportive banners strung from businesses such as William Evans, gun and rifle makers, along St James's Street. A small girl peering from an open window got another big holler as she pointed to the banner strung across the building below her: "Welcome to the Countryside Marchers".

It was all the most marvellous fun and some of the marshals even wore vests that apologised for the delays.

As the banners of the Waveney Harriers and South Pembrokeshire Hunt bobbed past, Cameron Middleton, 19, a gamekeeper from Perth, Tayside, explained why he had felt obliged to travel to London. "We are here to protest against the hunting ban that we have already got in Scotland. The city MPs think they can run the countryside but half of them haven't even experienced a year there," he said.

The march was dominated by supporters of fox hunting, but other issues were on the agenda. One classic of contemporary protest included the A-level exams crisis, John Prescott's cars, the Hinduja brothers and similar gripes on a single placard, a totem to anti-Blair sentiment.

Harry "Boots" Bantock, wearing a Union Jack waistcoat and holding a cardboard cut-out of a fox's head, was vehement. "If fox hunting is banned, every farm will be approached by someone who will say, 'Can I get rid of your foxes'. These people will be the badger baiters and other such criminals."

The lines of people continued through Pall Mall past Farlow's, a fishing shop. "Farlow's Gone Fishing [crossed out] Marching Again", said a banner in the window.

For the most part, with police dotted sporadically along the route, the marchers had the roads to themselves. In Trafalgar Square, however, animal welfare organisations had flown a balloon with the message "Ban Fox Hunting" on the side.

The march turned down Whitehall towards Downing Street. It remained silent as it passed the Cenotaph as requested by signs beside the road. As the marchers arrived in Parliament Square, many signed forms expressing their willingness to risk jail by flouting a hunt ban.

Jacqueline Bates, 41, from Evesham, Worcestershire, summed up the mood. "I hunt and I want to carry on hunting. If this doesn't have any effect we will just have to do it all again."

'This smacks of Communism'

Anne Gray, 54, a district nurse from Perth, Tayside, said: "I'm here to try to protect the countryside way of life. I don't think the Government gives enough consideration to the farming way of life. It's just so wrong that hunting was banned. It smacks of communism."

Tomm Fulton, 54, a civil servant from Co Down, said: "I'm here to prevent bad law being imposed by an even worse government. This is all about hunting and what the Government wants to do is to reduce the countryside to a place for town people to come and have fun."

John Dryden, 61, a regional director for the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, of Taunton, Somerset, said: "It is all about liberty in the countryside and leaving us alone to run things the way we have done for hundreds of years. We don't come to interfere in the town."

Paul Connolly, 38, a bus driver of Harrow, London, said: "I'm supporting all these people because I know how they feel. I was a pistol shooter and they are going to get treated the same way as we were. My hobby's gone and it's never been quite the same."