"There's certainly a massive disjunction between country and town".

Well actually, thats one of the Big Lies that the Countryside Alliance has tried to put about.

The name Countryside Alliance was coined a few years ago when the hunting lobby, wanting to increase their critical mass, organized a Hyde Park rally of disparate rural interests to protest about government policy towards rural affairs. There were all sorts of people there, perhaps a majority who disapproved of hunting, who knows? But ever since the hunters have quoted the numbers at that rally to show how much support they have. They've done such a thorough job, and retained the name, so everyone thinks pro-foxhunting and Countryside Alliance are synonymous.

I live in the country. There's no groundswell of rural fury about banning. Quite the reverse. Most people I know think they are all w*nkers with underdeveloped moral sensibilities.
The best quote I ever heard on the subject was...
"The squirrel you kill in jest dies in earnest"