. comes from James Stanford of the Countryside Alliance which is preparing for Sunday's Liberty and Livelihood march.

The centrepiece will be two sets of giant arches will span the width of Whitehall to create a counting zone to register the number of marchers.

"I believe the sense of occasion will be incredible. We will be demonstrating in a way and on a scale never previously witnessed in London. Our ability to enroll such support is a measure of the anger and frustration of rural communities.

"One of the reasons we have gone to such lengths to provide the Arches is to ensure that the hundreds of thousands taking part, many at great expense to themselves, leave the March knowing that the strength and size of their feelings have been symbolically represented."