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Yesterday, David Cameron spoke at the Oxford Farming Conference. He rightly highlighted the importance of the role of farmers in the maintenance of the English countryside. Today, Clive Aslet wrote an interesting article in the Telegraph, indicating what he thinks a future government needs to do to address the lack of confidence in the rural community.
The future of the rural economy is not any easy political subject. The majority of Britons only interact with the countryside for rest and relaxation. Consequently, few of them can be expected to have any real understanding of the daily challenges facing those who work within the rural economy. They do, however, all have the right to vote.
In the last decade, the Labour government has nakedly displayed the politics of envy. They have allowed poorly-drafted anti-hunting legislation to be passed, created the debacle of the rural payments agency and ineptly overseen the management and ramifications of both BSE and foot & mouth crises. All of these events have understandably contributed to a sense of impending doom within rural communities.
The political difficulty is that the metropolitan elite that controls the Labour Party runs the country. They have never hidden their distaste for ‘country people’. They do so knowing that their Parliamentary majority is hardly touched by offending country people. For example, major strategic planning decisions have often ridden roughshod over the wishes of those who have lived in the countryside for decades. Their disregard for rural heritage and contempt for the wishes of the country-dwelling minority, however, belies their ignorance of our need as a nation to have a long-term sustainable rural economy.
For rural concerns to be heard and addressed we need a Conservative government. That Conservative government must, however, be consistent and fair in its policy-making. Consistent in supporting subsidy-free industry and guarding against monopoly abuse. And fair in the application of government legislation in the countryside. In yesterday’s speech, David Cameron called for a “paradigm shift”. He emphasised the need for the farming industry to serve the customer: to build value instead of volume. He also, just as importantly, indicated his determination to deal with the supermarkets abusing their monopoly position. By stating these two goals, David Cameron is seen to be sympathetic to both farmers and customers. It is a political direction that is right for the long-term health of the rural economy, and one that I wholeheartedly support.
