THE 2,000 protesters descending on Pershore tomorrow, for the biggest demonstration yet against the proposed Throckmorton asylum camp, need to know people are listening.

We don't just mean the Government. We're also talking about people living just beyond the fringes of the frightened villages stretching from Upton Snodsbury to Wyre Piddle. Our appeal, today, is to them.

If the folk of Worcester, Evesham and Redditch think a 750-bed centre on the old RAF Pershore site is nothing to do with them, think again.

Throckmorton's only 10 miles by road from the Faithful City, a magnet for an asylum-seeker deposited in the middle of an airfield miles from his natural home, and anxious to make good for his family.

We know the Immigration Advisory Service, Amnesty International, the Law Society and the Commission for Racial Equality all say the ludicrous plan is impractical.

We need go no further than the fact that, with 130,000 foot-and-mouth carcases rotting at the airfield, the nearby villages have done their bit for the country already.

So far, all the wise words, all the arguments and all the protests have fallen on deaf New Labour ears - but, then, we've known for five years that it's very difficult for Mr Blair's colleagues to accept that his Government ever makes a mistake.

So tomorrow's protest needs to send a fresh and very loud message to the people foisting this centre on us.

It will affect everyone. We appeal for people from all quarters of the county to join the march. Your voice is vital.