Right to roam?

If you went out into your back garden today, and found strangers wandering around there, you would, I would imagine, be somewhat bemused and miffed, and if, on enquiring what they were doing there, the answer you got was something like "This is such a beautiful garden, you have no right to keep it to yourself - it should be open to everybody", you would probably think - what a nerve! And yet, this is exactly what David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, is proposing to do if your land happens to be on the coast. He is proposing to create a coastal corridor all the way round the country where anyone will have the right to walk, have a picnic, pitch a tent or whatever. And if that corridor happens to cross your back garden, or a field where you're growing stuff, then tough apparently!