The answers I have been  getting from DEFRA are worrying. They show no sense of urgency to use our new freedoms to promote more growing and rearing home grown food. They are not standing up for U.K. interests in interpreting the Trade Agreement with the EU. They are not bringing forward early plans to raise our fishing capacity or to expand our market gardening areas.
The thrust of policy seems to be to wilding our landscape instead of farming it better.There are too many proposed grants for so called environmental gains and not enough for food production. Many of us want  to slash the food miles, employ more U.K. people and enjoy more good U.K. produced food.That  means extending the season for vegetables and soft fruit with more glasshouses and polytunnels. It means working  with the food manufacturing industry to put more U.K. produce into imaginative meals and good recipes for ready meals. It means strong U.K. branding.
I see some of the supermarkets understand U.K. consumer wishes. Many fresh food items have the Union flag on. None carry the EU, Spanish or Dutch flags. Letâs go one  step further and have  a farming policy which delivers us more great British food. The world does not owe us a living and it is not  good to be so dependent on overseas supply of things we can grow for ourselves.
January 23, 2021
When you have Boris and princess nut job in charge what do you expect.
The government departments don’t like us being out of the EU so will continue to follow Brussels dictat.
What about a sensible energy policy, during this cold snap we have been relying on the emergency STOR diesel polluting generators which are about a mile from where I live.
The whole government is a mess and we need the Reform Party to sort things out.
January 23, 2021
+1 Ian,
EU Level playing field on environment.
JR get rid of him. You are correct in everything you say.
January 23, 2021
Ian Wragg,
+1
The swamp has depth. Margaret Thatcher (with the assistance of top quality acolytes, including the good Sir John) was successful in large part in turning things round from what so many politicians and commentators considered to be unchangeable. Johnson and Nut Job, as evidenced by their deluded faith in wind and electric cars, are clearly blind to the superior wisdom of the Market Place.
January 23, 2021
Indeed. It’s the same leftwing pro EU jobsworths. No dredging to be done here etc. Root and branch reform is needed in all health and public service selections to rid them all of pc/woke brigade. There is nothing between Labour/former Conservatives in office. So why expect change?
January 23, 2021
Correct – a totally deluded faith in renewable electricity and electric vehicles. We have at energy Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Kwasi Kwarteng. Neither have a clue about the realities of energy and energy engineering. Get Lords Lilley, and Ridley to replaces them or at least explain some damn realities to them. Kwarteng is a fairly sound MP but clearly knows nothing about physics, entropy, energy engineering, science, energy economics, battery realities, electricity generation, climate ….. Many in government even think electric cars do not cause CO2 and the hydrogen is a source of energy rather than a very inefficient temporary store of it. Where are the hydrogen reserves waiting to be extracted ?
.
January 23, 2021
Dear Lifelogic–Don’t often see reference to Entropy as if it’s something stand alone that can be bottled
January 24, 2021
Entropy largely explains why turning wind into electricity and then using it to creat fuels like ammonia and hydrogen to store the energy for later use and pumping water up hills to store such energy is inefficient and very expensive. Also why mining to manufacture car batteries is similarly energy intensive and expensive – as is recycling the batteries.
January 24, 2021
A bottle of layers of coloured beads then shake it to make a bottle with even more entropy!
January 24, 2021
@Lifelogic,
But the technology is all leading to something. When the Wright Brothers started off, their plane flew at 20 miles per hour or something. Today the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird can fly at 2,000 miles per hour.
IF fossil fuel is damaging the environment, then we have to turn to science for an alternative. Science is great. We can have our cake and eat it (strong economy and green tech). It’s a case of having the courage, perseverance and wisdom to get there.
Lastly, no-one REALLY knows what’s going on – neither the greenies nor those on the complete other side. The scientific data simply isn’t there – enough. Science – or lack of – means we must be agnostic on this. Therefore in order to stop the POSSIBILITY of people growing two heads and/or we have to go around wearing gas suits and our economy crashes in 25 years+ times or whatever, so we need to actually find out what’s really going on. Government has a role to play in that. And they could do it on a low budget. As long as the will was there.
In fact, IF fuel is causing a serious problem, then why doesn’t the UK become the leader in Green Tech, further down the line, raking in billions and billions, in exports?
January 24, 2021
R&D makes some sense but roll out of duff, immature, uneconomic and inferior technology with tax payer subsides does not. Make the breakthroughs before expensive roll out!
January 24, 2021
@Lifelogic,
I’m with you. There is some really dumb spending on green issue. But that doesn’t mean the principle is wrong. R&D is crucial.
If it wasn’t for government money and Thames Barrier, we’d have the Thames in our streets with fish swimming by … If it wasn’t for government money, we wouldn’t have Channel Tunnel. Government money indirectly (and directly I believe) even played an important role in the development of Silicon Valley.
The point is that government does have a role to play where private enterprise can’t do it all on its own. But the idea is for government to help sew the seeds, put down the fertiliser of investment, so to speak, and then private enterprise takes over. It’s not that black and white. But something like.
So we need SMART CAPITALIST GOVERNMENT INVESTMENT (as opposed to the political heresies of hugely wasteful SOCIALIST SPENDING or NO SPENDING AT ALL).
Lastly, my background is in High Tech / Digital. R & D is crucial here. And helps me, I think, to see how crucial a limited, but smart, degree of government investment is needed in certain things – not to, could be just as bad as wasteful, indulgent socialist spending.
January 23, 2021
Indeed, we need a complete clear-out and replacement with patriotic experienced people.
January 24, 2021
Wright Brothers started off, their plane flew at 20 miles per hour or something.
Indeed they were doing sensible R&D the government did not give tax payer grant to roll out millions of these dangerous (and largely useless in practice) 20 MPH machines did they?
January 24, 2021
@Lifelogic,
The difference between Wright Brothers and Global Warming is that there was no existential reason for the Wright Brothers to do what they were doing other than fun / make money (good on them). But Global Warming is different. IF if it is true, and IF it is man-made (we simply don’t have the scientific data to come to a clear view on this – one way or the other – and even if we did, we’re still clueless about what to do, effectively), then government has an existential (or whatever word is) requirement to do something that doesn’t cost a lot but is effective in understanding more about this issue and trying to work with private enterprise to stop it – whilst keeping our economy just as buoyant ever. It is possible that we can have our cake and eat it, have: 1 Strong Economy 2 Clean Environment – but requires wisdom, courage, perseverance, leadership etc. And IF the greenies are right, then our economy will be decimated, anyway, along with our health in a few decades time or less, but could well start sooner than that.
January 23, 2021
Correct! The whole quality of the civil service is a poor reflection on the nation. Dominic Cummings clearly identified what is wrong and unless the public holds them to account nothing will improve.
Like our politicians, it is all promises and no product. He must be doing a good job, he was in the New Year’s Honour list!
January 23, 2021
As a former senior civil servant I can assure you that while many of my erstwhile colleaugues were, indeed, liberal, internationalist (and hence pro-EU) and conformist (to the ‘woke agenda’), they would always do what their political masters intructed them to do. So the problem is not really the civil servants, but the ministers, who are weak, stupid and cowardly and refuse to issue firm instructions to their staff.
Ministers who are not conviction politicians, who do not have very strong opinions and ideas, and who lack total self-belief and confidence, will all too often want to be ‘guided’ or ‘advised’ by their private office. This is fatal. A minister should tell his officials that he knows everything, does not want ANY advice, and is determind to impose his beliefs and ideas. That is the only way to get any changes through.
January 24, 2021
We are lost!
January 24, 2021
âA minister should tell his officials that he knows everything, does not want ANY advice, and is determind to impose his beliefs and ideas. That is the only way to get any changes through.â
Most minister have read PPE, law, classics, history or similar so know almost nothing about energy, engineering, real economics, physics, maths, business, logic, chemistry, energy etc. Nor can they usually even understand it when/if they even try to.
We are indeed surely done for then.
January 24, 2021
You cannot even grasp the simple logic of the Precautionary Principle, that is, that until something is proven – on reliable evidence – to be safe to a known degree, it must be assumed to be unsafe.
So do not appoint yourself as the judge of others.
January 24, 2021
So, if a minister doesn’t tell a civil servant to ensure there is a suitable form to export shellfish to the EU, it doesn’t get done?
I would like to know why a business selling cheese to the EU now has to nominate someone to sign an export health certificate. This will be an official vet (OV) or sometimes a local authority inspector (usually an environmental health officer). They will check your consignment meets the health requirements of the destination country. So to send a ÂŁ20 gift box of cheese you no doubt have to pay more than that for the paperwork?
January 23, 2021
Ian Wragg you are 100% correct on ALL point but BEWARE, the people are very fickle.
They voted Labour, they voted Conservative and they have witnessed the disastrous results and they will STILL VOTE FOR THE SAME.
Too many MPs and Government do like the UK. (Pensions are good though)
We have not had a true Energy Policy for many years because NO ONE in government understands energy. How many power stations have closed recently? Where is our next Lord Marshall? Hinkley Point, how much Chinese Money is involved and how much control and influence do they have?
I voted for Thatcher but I did not agree with the policy of the selling off of and breaking up of our Energy system. Windmills are a total fallacy but profitable for land owners and foreign manufacturers however they placate the “Greenies”.
January 23, 2021
JR, I read Eustice was implementing no whale meat or fur. Was this on Princess NutNuts advice or Johnson?
As you highlight, there are far more important issues for him to be focusing on. Do you think this is endemic for people like him and civil servants only being able to follow EU instructions rather than think for themselves?
January 23, 2021
Dear Hope–Apart from its coming from small cuddly animals did anybody ever work out the difference between fur, easily the best for wrapping up warm, and leather on shoes, easily best for walking on?
January 24, 2021
I understand fake fur contains plastic and is worse for the environment! I am waiting for these Nut jobs in govt to ban sheep skin coats.
.
January 24, 2021
Virtue signalling fools. As we see with the specialist coal bans that Matt Ridley has highlighted. So we import it from Russia instead and export the jobs.
January 23, 2021
Yes, I suppose we can’t ALL be paid from the public purse. Perhaps if MPs hadn’t voted for these ruinous lockdowns there wouldn’t be such a dwindling of that purse. Those bleating that we must ”find an exit strategy” shouldn’t have voted for the disasters in the first place. This is nothing to do with a slightly risky virus. But then, when you’re comfortable and know where your next pay cheque is coming from, you don’t have much thought for those who are actually WORKING to pay your wages.
January 23, 2021
Presumably the civil servants of DEFRA will do what they are instructed to do …… so someone should instruct them !
January 23, 2021
Capture and distribution of water would be a good use of public spending, better than a white elephant HS2
January 23, 2021
I live 5 yards from The Great Ouse.Come the summer we will be short of water.We have had a week of water racing by to the North Sea.
January 23, 2021
Or be strong enough to drive the mandarines in the direction the public want, which is as far from the eu as possible. It was good to hear Boris is cutting out eu directives from our english rule book.
Bring back the âBuy British â slogan
January 23, 2021
Itâs George Lucas.
January 23, 2021
I want to see our English flag on things.
January 23, 2021
Sorry, I should have said Saint George’s Cross. We see the Saltire all the time.
January 23, 2021
Exactly. All supermarkets seem to have the same mentality as politicians with their âdonât mention Englandâ attitude. They have no problems labelling Scottish produce as Scottish with the saltire displayed whereas all English produce is labelled âproduced in the UKâ with the Union Jack.
January 23, 2021
Indeed it is very insulting to the English. Some years ago while at the cheese counter in Sainsbury’s there were many flags. I asked why they did not display the flag of England on obviously English cheeses. The man behind the counter looked puzzled and confused and then said ‘but it’s here’ pointing out the Union flag. He did not even know what the English flag was. Clearly Sainsbury’s don’t care.
January 23, 2021
Those many of us who agree and have banged the same drum must encourage others to do what weâve been doing for years:
– search out British produce
– check labels arenât misleading
– choose non-EU over EU
– support poorer economies like Tunisia & Morocco, & sub-Saharan Africa
– think about whose workers have made, reared or grown what you buy and choose British if you can.
In summary, vote with your wallet.
January 23, 2021
British lamb in M&S, green beans from Nigeria as well. No EU produce for me. Especially RoI. Beef can be 100% traced.
January 23, 2021
You pipped me at the post..
Saltire for Scotland, Dragon for Wales, Union flag for England. We English don’t exist.
January 23, 2021
I also want to see the EU flag – helps me ensure to avoid it! Plus every shopper could see the product being left.
January 23, 2021
Great point Fred
January 23, 2021
So do I and many others who live in Scotland – please delete your second comment!
January 23, 2021
Well, I want to see fewer of them tattooed on heads in pubs, personally.
But to address John’s point, first of all, farmers need to earn a living.
Many were doing quite well exporting the UK’s premium produce to the European Union where people are happy to pay more for it than are UK customers. Quality grain is an example, which the French snap up gladly.
How brexit’s making it difficult for that trade to continue will help farmers is not clear to me.
January 23, 2021
Senior advisors at the Department for International Trade are offering a solution to companies experiencing problems with exporting to the EU – set up in the EU. You couldn’t make it up.
January 23, 2021
The first measure should be to stop tearing up good arable land for housing. We keep increasing our population while simultaneously reducing our food production, which makes us even more reliant on imports.
It appears that many UK producers are not interested in the UK market. We need to find out why. For example, a big fuss is made about exporting lamb, but it is rare to be offered British lamb at home. Why isn’t the home market a priority?
January 23, 2021
Oh, indeed. I am yet to hear from Mr. Redwood why very high immigration, with the huge demand for housing it brings to this densely populated island, is his governmentâs policy. He says he opposes the policy but never explains why his government disagrees with him.
January 24, 2021
Remove the restrictions on the millions of âholiday homesâ and allow them to join the actual housing stock.
January 23, 2021
Excellent points Shirley. +1
January 23, 2021
George Eustice was on TV yesterday morning, but talking about the Treasury’s Covid support schemes rather explaining what his own department is doing to support fishermen and farmers who are finding it difficult to continue their exports to the vindictive and obstructive EU.
January 23, 2021
https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/government-urged-to-help-fish-traders-whose-eu-exports-are-banned-altogether
“Centuries Old Shellfish Traders Are Facing Collapse After EU Exports Are Banned Altogether”
January 23, 2021
If only we could buy the Scottish and westcountry prawns, crab and lobsters and leave the EU with their own inferior little mussels. They aren’t on the websites and fish counters are closed. Fish is cooked so why is it supposed to be dangerous?
January 23, 2021
Lamb has been too expensive for years, due to better price obtained outside UK.
January 24, 2021
Perhaps, initially the government could re-direct some of the old subsidy budget to allow our high end product producers, lamb, beef, shellfish etc to sell locally to compensate for any reduced EU sales.
January 23, 2021
+1 i agree with that!
January 23, 2021
We need more creative TV programmes / documentaries about how we can produce more home-grown stuff here in the UK. The pleasure / joy in producing our own stuff, less impact on the environment (we don’t have to fly it in) – and eating stuff from our own land. We need to tap in more to people’s sense of IMAGINATION / ROMANCE (which in turn will arouse more their sense of patriotism).
Romance (not just erotic romance) is key in life – whether between a man and a woman, the sense of romance that inspired the great architects to build Venice, the sense of romance that inspired Mozart to write his music, Shakespeare to write ‘Full fadom five thy father lies,’ sense of romance that inspired Sir Francis Chichester to sail around the world, sense of romance that inspires painters and lovers of nature and of the moon and the stars, sense of romance that inspired St Joan of Arc to feel patriotic about her country.
Romance is divine. Patriotism (as opposed to populism) is divine. We have to turn much more to people’s sense of romance in general – including the divine romance of patriotism.
January 23, 2021
There is a sense of harshness creeping in . My observation of this was in the 90’s when unfairness to many was seen to be its opposite :fair. Clothing changed to basic boring materials and wearing of colours was looked upon as dandyish .Flats were made in abundance as warehouses were converted into the smallest of living quarters. Land was pulled up for 3 storey houses without gardens with little communication available for neighbouring and the barest minimum of parking space.Houses being thrown up, had postage stamp gardens , a lot smaller than my grandparents council house garden. The television began using actors and actresses who started speaking badly ,cutting words with poor annunciation and far from representing the normal ,changed the way viewers spoke. Kids went to school with dirty shoes and looked scruffy The bad language was and is rife. The pride of possession was in the biggest cars , boats , televisions and not in the way people conducted themselves. The majority was seen as having an ability to be a lynch mob and get their own way with roughness and lies. Lawyers only thought about a win and not the ethics involved and the barristers were proud to support contrived evidence to win their case.
Its such a pity France is giving us a bad time : we have a strong historical connection with the romance.
January 23, 2021
Great comment – sadly true.
‘wearing of colours was looked upon as dandyish’ – I get why men don’t dress up for each other. However, women do! Women love when a man is well dressed (doesn’t have to be over-the-top). But that he dresses up a bit to make himself attractive to her (as well as clean nails, tidy hair, in good shape etc). And no excuse whether you’re working class, middle class or upper class.
Now sadly you so many people dressed like slobs. Tattoos. Vulgar language. Loss of sense of Romance (in general sense – not just erotic romance).
We can only do the tiny, tiny bits that we can to make things better.
January 23, 2021
Ed M
“We need more creative TV programmes / documentaries about how we can produce more home-grown stuff here in the UK.”
…..agreed. There are some very good home growing programmes on TV, but they’re generally acknowledged as watched by a niche audience.
Perhaps we need to get the subject into the state education system. Schools could then either sell what they produce or donate it to food banks……or, put it into the school meals.
Maybe the government could consider such a bold move, even recruit the right people to spearhead a national drive. Mr Rashford or his highly respected mum ? Monty Don ? We have capable people in this country.
I grow my own toms & potatoes and actually find the independency very satisfying.
January 23, 2021
Well said
This is something that Boris should be good at / should be doing in the future when the virus subsides – capturing people’s imaginations to rally around something like this.
January 23, 2021
A nephew of my wife exports fruit from Argentina and no longer bothers about the UK because the supermarkets are difficult customers and unreliable.
January 23, 2021
There are many brown field sites that look a mess in edge of town areas that could be flattened a used for houses.
January 23, 2021
Indeed. Why isn’t greenie Boris brought to account for his “nut nut” green policies whilst inviting 6.5 million new immigrants on their watch and more under Labour. How does their consumption, living room, vehicles, their health, education and public service provision help our carbon footprint or English citizens?
January 24, 2021
“The first measure should be to stop tearing up good arable land for housing”
And covering farm land in solar panels and wind turbines, but they get good payments for that, better than farming. Coal this morning is providing the same amount of power as Wind and solar combined, but we import most of it.
January 23, 2021
If what you say is true, and I for one don’t doubt it because you are in a position to know the culprits at DEFRA. No doubt senior civil servants still embued with EU thinking. I can say it even if you cannot. A time for naming names, a normal occurance with failure or mal practice in the private sector.
Environmental concerns are important in that the preservation of insects and birds ensure the fertilisation of the plant life producing the crops. Look after the bee for instance. Try concentrating their minds on flood defence work, essential in our time of climate change and instrumental in allowing DEFRA to feel good about itself. Get them busy in devising a national insurance scheme to replace the ineffective private providers who jump ship after the first inundation. If they persist with EU thinking, an early acquaintance with form P45 would be appropriate. A few changes at the top would have a sobering effect.
For items we cannot grow, the World is now our supermarket. For that which we can grow, change the thinking. Time for Boris to step forward and produce a rousing direction changing oration.
January 23, 2021
Well written Agricola yes we need to make sure that those in positions of control are made aware of what they control and why so yes if they have not changed their mindset to supporting England and the UK then discharge them from their control.
January 23, 2021
Yes, a ârousing, direction changing orationâ is just what we need. From Johnson!!!! Seriously?
January 23, 2021
Agricola
“Look after the bee for instance.”
Yes. Most people don’t realise that without bees we’d be in serious trouble.
“Try concentrating their minds on flood defence work”
Stopping property developers from building on land that floods would be a good thing.
January 23, 2021
Habits and attitudes formed over 40 years (the entirety of every Civil Servant’s career) will take time to change – it’s not going to happen overnight. But I agree with the sentiments and in time people and business will see the opportunities and begin to address them. But for the moment – many are just trying to survive this pandemic…
Doesn’t stop people planning for the future though…
January 23, 2021
Agreed. They have gone from willing rule takers and gold platers to having to act and think for themselves. They no longer can say the EU this or that, although, thanks to the terrible ‘deal’ the Tories negotiated, I have no doubt they will use that.
January 23, 2021
Agricola, we do not need flood defence work , that was a result of eu policy. We need to clean field drainage, dredge the rivers and use the flood plains as ghey were designed by our fathers, not for building unneeded housing.
Its time our politicians shut the door our country is full!
January 23, 2021
What you say we need is flood defence work. Defence is avoiding flooding by every practical means.
January 23, 2021
Agricola, +1
You echo my first thoughts when I read that first sentence and first paragraph by Sir John.
DEFRA is an acronym, the actions or inactions are the work of individuals.
Even multimillionaire socialist football club managers paid the best players top whack and dropped the poor performers from the team. No hiding place on the pitch nor on the public purse.
January 23, 2021
agricola.
Boris to step forward and produce a rousing direction change oration?
Sir you are having a laugh. You have more chance walking on water.
January 24, 2021
“essential in our time of climate change”
There is no more flooding now than in previous centuries, the time of climate change exists in computer models only.
January 23, 2021
But if you had believed or at least listened to the âconspiracy theoriesâ gleaned from actual globalist websites, then you would have known this.
I have had posts re this deleted.
As I have said many times…we will starve.
Maybe not next year….but ultimately.
The feeling has been that MPs should be warned. But is it that they are fully aware of all the hair raising plans and are being disingenuous? Or just not telling the truth?
January 23, 2021
Sir John, UK farming needs support to compete effectively against foreign competitors with major advantages – Canadian and Ukrainian wheat, Argentinian beef, New Zealand lamb. If that support is to come from the taxpayer while circumventing subsidy rules then some imagination is needed.
There is an opinion in the industry that concentrating inputs on the most fertile soils would increase production and profitability, but then the question becomes what to do with the rest of the land?
A countryside rich in wildlife, with managed access and opportunities for leisure activities would avoid accusations of featherbedding the rich at taxpayers’ expense. Farm the public if you want their support.
JF
January 23, 2021
Time for Boris to step forward and produce a rousing direction changing oration.
Indeed but he need to start with a change of Direction on cheap reliable energy which is needed for everyone and for all the economy and indeed for farming and market gardening.
The Minister for Business, Energy and Clean Growth on Any Questions last night clearly has not got a clue about energy or energy engineering (St Pauls and Oxford Poly) it seems. Replace her with a Lord Lilley or Matt Ridley type.
What Brexit show above all is how much governments (UK and EU) get in the way people and business wherever they can do with taxes, red tape lunacy and licensing. They are largely parasitic and damage the economy massively.
January 23, 2021
Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth said we will have new roads but we will have electric vehicles which will not be causing greenhouse gasses to be emitted. Sure dear and how will these cars and batteries be made and where will the electricity to charge them come from exactly? How will normal people even afford them?
January 23, 2021
The current Minister at DEFRA is George Eustice; a brief search shows that he has some years of experience in that Dept. Perhaps you, John, could formally request information from him on what actions are NOW being taken or are being planned to encourage the domestic food producers and their UK market accessibility?
January 23, 2021
Why am I and I suspect umpteen other people not surprised. Wedded to the EU desperate not to upset them. I read yesterday Covid grants to businesses were being held back because they donât comply with EU subsidy rules albeit allegedly we have left. Your comment on that would be welcomed.
You need to energise the ERG plus. We are meant to have left but looks like Brino.
The civil servants who told you back in the day you couldnât do something are still at this time using our latest agreement.
January 23, 2021
âThey are not standing up for U.K. interests in interpreting the Trade Agreement with the EU.â This is an extremely important issue.
However, I donât think it is something civil servants will initiate. They need instruction from government. That does not mean micro management. It means telling civil servants how they are expected to behave and what they are expected to deliver – with appropriate rewards for success and penalties for failure. That said, I doubt government will behave in this manner. After being undeservedly lauded in the media for his Brexit deal, Boris is content to rest on his laurels. He certainly will not challenge the EU or rock the boat.
This part of a bigger theme. The UK should be pushing forward. If the EU is still proving a hindrance then this needs to be addressed. We should also be actively seeking out ways to delay or hinder EU exports to the U.K. These do not have to be immediately implemented but held in reserve in case of trade battles. French products should be the main targets and also German in case they are needed to add further pressure to the French. This requires a new way of thinking and some creativity. We donât seem to be good at imaginative non trade barriers to entry. I think someone like Cummings would have been valuable in driving this forward.
January 23, 2021
Guaranteeing all parts of the U.K. benefited from the benefits of Brexit and unfettered access for Northern Ireland were in your manifesto.
Howâs that going then?
January 23, 2021
It sounds as though DEFRA is still populated and run by the same people who were responsible for the mismanagement of the Somerset levels. Are they clueless about the potential of modern farming methods? If the government wants to promote science and technology it should focus as much on farming as any other economic sector. My suspicion is that many officials are as clueless about the economics of farming as the civil service as a whole is about what helps make a business tick and what will destroy it.
January 23, 2021
DEFRA once again shows itself unfit for purpose.
Which is bad enough – but It would appear that our political establishment cannot handle more than one objective at a time for each area of life:
– save the environment;
– save the NHS.
No alternatives available.
DEFRA is still wedded to EU ways – They really must be missing the regular jollies across to Brussels and their fact finding missions to exotic place, but that must also apply to the whole of the civil service…..
This government is failing in far too many ways… It cannot be all incompetence, surely?
January 23, 2021
Good morning Sir Redwood.
Excellent topic Sir.
I agree with everything you say, but I would add that in my opinion there is far too much land being left to the ravages of property developers, that could otherwise be used for food production. I don’t think we need more houses – but we do need to stop immigration.
Re: DEFRA. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that organisation was pro-remain, just like most other publicly funded bodies. They all need a good routing.
I do think one of the best things Boris could do for the country is to sort out the entire civil service and transform them into organisations that promote Britain and Britishness. If he doesn’t, they will carry on behind the scenes plotting away.
However I do see supermarkets in my area struggling to sell EU produce, which I find quite amusing. Good to see people sticking it to the ungrateful EU.
January 23, 2021
Why am I not surprised with your posting today JR.
I understand that the PM has been consumed by Brexit and the pandemic as the immediate problems to resolve, but surely the minister responsible here should get a grip.
I am all for protecting the environment with sensible methods, but although perhaps nice to look at, you cannot feed a nation on wild flowers.
Also when are we going to start dredging again, in the areas where that is the most efficient way to stop flooding.
Time for a drastic rethink of priorities and then action accordingly.
January 23, 2021
Off topic.
Is the save my name feature working for anyone ?
January 23, 2021
yes.
January 23, 2021
yes, no problem. Have you put a tick in the box below your details?
January 23, 2021
Yes tried that a number of times, still no joy !
Not remembered me again with this log in so yet another ticking the box..
Perhaps JR does not want to recognise me !!!!!!
January 24, 2021
Have you tried using a different browser? I find that sometimes helps.
January 23, 2021
Alan Jutson
No. It is a right PITA.
January 23, 2021
Make sure you are not blocking cookies.
January 23, 2021
Yes
January 23, 2021
It is for me.
January 23, 2021
Yes. Working for me using Edge on a windows 10 desktop and working on my iPhone using Firefox.
January 23, 2021
I would like to see the return of indented paragraphs when replies are to other posters rather than the main article. It is so much easier to read.
Without that, some replies make little sense initially – unless you backtrack and find the initial post that prompted the reply.
January 23, 2021
Good morning.
None of this comes as a surprise. But why should we be looking to government and DEFRA ? If the there is a market for home grown produce then there would be investment. When it is better to sell your land for development and retire than try to make an ever smaller profit what one does expect ?
Government policy is MASS IMMIGRATION. It is not stated policy, but policy nonetheless. Until we get a government that sees this Ponzi Scheme for what it is there will be no change.
Our kind host has many fine ideas. Ideas that would make a government electable. Sadly the Tory Party Top Brass have convinced themselves that Labour are unpalatable to the masses and therefore the only game in town are the Tories. Message to the Top Brass – Don’t count on it !
January 23, 2021
You say more glasshouses and polytunnels. Where will they be sourced from? I reckon that any supplier will be running well below capacity because of the coronavirus emergency. They might be open for business, but heavily constrained because of covering absent employees. They won’t be able to recruit because they can’t train with the constraints of safe-distancing. This transfers too to the suppliers for their materials.
Until the restrictions are lifted, industry is treading water.
January 23, 2021
Let’s hope the Channel Islands take advantage and start supplying us with tasty tomatoes instead of the bland Spanish ones.
January 23, 2021
Polytunnels and glasshouses have Planning problems…so no chance whatsoever of more food production that way….
Reply A farm near me got permission for polytunnels. I was delighted to see their enterprise.
January 23, 2021
There should be plenty of spare CO2 to pump into greenhouses which will increase the yield.
January 23, 2021
It is a scandal that DEFRA is brainwashed – there needs to be a clear-out by UK focussed folk who are in touch with the economic reality. Tree-hugging seems to be going on! Even Prince Charles knows the economy comes first before this!
January 23, 2021
+1
January 23, 2021
Not Singapore on Thames, more like La La Land on Thames.
January 23, 2021
Where in the timeline were the policies (priority order) created, Gove, Villiers or Eustice?
January 23, 2021
we should be a lot more self sufficient in a lot of things, medical gowns, mask, etc for a start.
we need a reality check on what kind of economy the political class are trying to manipulate the country into. a country which lives on financial services, subcontracts all its IT work to India and Indian nationals here, refuses to do any manufacturing, etc is not the way to go.
January 23, 2021
If the management of DEFRA won’t change , then change the management . You need people with backgrounds who understand urgency and continuous improvement, such as people from the car and aircraft industry . Have the government set DEFRA objectives and realistic targets , if they haven’t , then how can you expect them to know what’s required and by when it should be achieved.
January 23, 2021
Stephen Reay
It will never happen civil servants accepting any change? It is in their DNA not to change anything.
Too many are in BOGAP mode. Brains on gate automatic pilot. Doing the bare minimum to justify their existence until they qualify for their golden handshake and pension. They are incapable of thinking outside the box as they are not in the box in the first place. Having the right experienced ministers with real drive and determination who will sort out all the staid brainwashed civil service diktat that has been their bible regarding conditions of employment is essential if change and progress is going to happen.
January 23, 2021
Indeed. I have personally witnessed this in a local Council and the Home Office. No private sector can do for them. Let’s meet, consult, research and hopefully it’ll all be forgotten so they can continue to surf the internet or walk around carrying irrelevant papers.
January 23, 2021
The government has been captured by cult-style brainwashing, where they’ve been sold the idea that the impossible can be possible……….if only they can make XXX happen; or perhaps it’s YYY, or is it XYZ? Miracles are as rare as hens teeth, of course, so why aren’t those dripping this poison into the government’s ear being rejected and held to account, instead of the blame being shifted to the public?
Government policy on Covid might be noble, but it’s been hugely destructive and distracts them from very real and pressing issues, like policy on future trade and food production. The reality is that every single thing the government’s Covid policy sought to preserve has, without exception, done the exact opposite and triggered its slow and painful demise.
As unpalatable as it is, might it not be time to surrender to the forces of nature and accept that whatever we do, thousands are going to succumb to this virus and many are probably going to die? Parliament, as a whole, must lead the way and get back into the workplace (perspex screens, e.voting, etc, and earning every single penny of their ÂŁ250k!) so there’s at least the impression of being governed effectively………….and yes, it would involve a plan for providing adequate and appropriate, i.e. refrigerated, warehouse storage.
January 23, 2021
Or are we ‘ on a promise ‘ to the EU ? And of course they have to work out first where all the hundreds of thousands of new homes are going to be built. All I seem to have read so far is the possible lifting of a previously EU restricted pesticide. How many years now ? No vision in evidence and nothing to excite. Also, what with Cornwall in June and Glasgow later and Covid persisting, borders basically still open, what can be expected.
January 23, 2021
Heathrow had thousands of passengers yesterday. If the new variants get in and the vaccine doesn’t protect us then we’re in for another year of hell.
January 23, 2021
I think if that happens, one of two things will happen.
1) People will ignore the government and carry on regardless.
2) Social unrest.
This cannot go on.
January 23, 2021
“mikes”?
Not a recognised SI unit surely? But then we have left the EU, so like the Left, we can make up our own approved language…
January 23, 2021
I find it frustrating, to say the least, that I read reports that a London based Pork exporter has a consignment for Germany rotting in Rotterdam (no pun intended), Welsh Farmers selling live Lambs to France (soon to be frustrated by the Law) and acres and acres of land under glass not being used to grow anything.
What is the matter with us?
We, the Consumer, should be cajoling the retailers to offer more and more UK produce. We have more varieties of cheese in the UK than France, our meat is excellent and so is our fish. If we don’t insist on buying it, the markets won’t make it available.
January 23, 2021
Credit to the government when credit’s due. I was pleased to see that David Duguid is all over the Scottish fish export problem.
P.S. I agree wholeheartedly with Shirley’s post, above, complaining about the government’s destruction of our stock of farmland. This May I’ll be spoiling my ballot paper.
January 24, 2021
Vote against, then itâs a swing of 2! Unless you only want to send a half-hearted message?
January 23, 2021
There seems to be a distinct lack of drive and initiative, JR, to implement the ideas you put forward. Surely there is a body (I shrink from the word committee) tasked with driving forward the post Brexit agendas you outline. You are exactly right. The world does not owe us a living, but until there are more people with the same compulsion as you to get things moving, it won’t happen.
January 23, 2021
One thing we should do is break the obsession with planting trees everywhere; it’s a nonsense, appeasing false green politics. Crops can’t be grown and animals can’t feed.
And our bureaucrats and industrialists are still of the view that imports are good and to be welcomed. Yesterday there was a tv news in the south of England about the latest power link opened with France. The man in charge was delighted that we are now taken even more power from France. He ought to be embarrassed but such is the mindset among his type that it will require a determined contrary view from government. Under ‘Boris’ and his EU loving Ministers and the civil service we will continue with worship of all things foreign. We need big change and pressure must be brought.
January 23, 2021
Here ! Here !
I would like to buy more British food products but you can spend half of one’s shopping experience on looking for place of origin and then it’s not clear. Smacks of EU deception by using clever rules and requirements. A policy change is needed and soon. Surely it does not take 3 – 6 months of committee discussions to sort this out
Where are our Union Jack’s on food products. I see Union Jacks on British beef but where else ? I see that Sainsburys wrapping of Best of British apples is in bold type across the face of the wrapping and has a design of a thin portion of the Union Jack on it but it may well have been a new art design. No sign of the Union Jack. Produced in Kent and tasty.
A tin of Green Lentils from Sainsburys tells me Pruduced in the U
K for Sainsburys but where is the Union Jack. If you want to buy British then it takes forever to read the very small print on labels and even then it is not always clear. Where is the Union Jack ?
A Flora container ( alternative spread to butter ) tells me that Flora UK is in London ( assumed registered office ) and Upfield Spreads is in Dublin ( assumed manufactured there ) but where is the product actually made and/or packaged. Is it British or EU. If I cannot find out easily then I feel I am being hoodwinked. Convenient for the EU.
Mazola grape seed oil – the label tells me Customer Care, Princes Ltd, Liverpool and Princes Foods, Rotterdam, The Netherlands so presumably the product comes from The Netherlands. But why place
Liverpool first ? Is this a marketing ploy ? The same applies to Flora above and to tins of Heinz tomato soup.
From memory some Lidl products have both UK and Dublin addresses but where is the product produced and packaged, UK or EU ? We need to know.
We need to tell the EU that we want different labels showing clearly the place of origin. As a consumer I might wish to place my own embargo on undemocratic organisations and countries and need more information than the percentage of energy in the product purchased.
If we were extreme we could mark items as British with a Union Jack followed by 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 100% depending on what percentage of the product was British. This might have the effect of encouraging the sale of British goods in the UK and helping exporters negotiate EU rules of origin.
We need a d want the Union Jack to appear on British products.
January 23, 2021
I’ve also seen the apples in Sainsburys with British clearly written across the package. I picked them straight away and very good they are too. We need more products like this. We need an advertising campaign in supermarkets encouraging people to buy British.
January 23, 2021
“The answers I have been getting from DEFRA are worrying. – and so too are your recent posts for if the Government was behaving you would not need to make them.
The Government has lost its way badly.
January 23, 2021
Good point.
January 23, 2021
DEFRA’s ultra green pitch is certainly worrying, fed by not only its own staff but also by ministers. Perhaps of even greater concern are some of the other departments and their Net Zero inspired pitches. No support for export of anything fossil fuel related, presumably including Rolls Royce engines and gas compressors and turbines, ICE engines and vehicles including JCBs etc. Plans to force expensive experiments on parts of industry with zero carbon techniques that require large subsidy and are not internationally competitive. Plans to force parts of industry not able to go zero carbon to shut down and offshore. Plans to impose massive carbon tariffs on imports that are sure to result in retaliation and an end to free trade. Plans to impoverish us all, to the point where the economy could simply implode altogether. It’s completely nuts.
January 23, 2021
Farmers and landowners are fortunate to have Defra if they are truly doing what they say their purpose is: âFrom the food we eat to the water we drink and the air we breathe â we exist to protect the environment and help the rural economy thrive. Our work ranges from supporting the UKâs world-leading food, farming and fishing industries to providing robust defences against natural threats.â
I read they have a ÂŁ2.2bn annual budget. â Now, as we help navigate the challenges of delivering a successful EU Exit, we are immersed in a period of change. Our focus is on working in a transformative way, and we are embracing every opportunity to become more agile, efficient, focused and innovative than ever before.â
They have known this Brexit was happening since June 2016, so four years of budget, what have they spent it on in these four years? In what ways have they been 1. Agile, 2. Efficient, 3. Focused and 4. Innovative. Who checks up on them to see that they have achieved their objectives.
Why didnât they find more markets for British Lamb if it is now too difficult to export to the EU, was this not anticipated at all? Why not just ask them what support they have provided to the sheep farmers to prepare for this in the past four years? Who in government is supposed to hold them to account. On the outside weâre fed up being told what we canât do not what these people we employ have prepared to make available a wide open worldwide market including the EU.
We have been told for years that the EU are going to âpunishâ the UK. That they werenât going to make any transition âeasyâ. The British did for the Irish, giving them a common travel area, allowing them to trade freely, well the papers did say the EU werenât amenable and these government departments run by Conservative MPs should have prepared, setting up connections to supermarkets, fishmongers, butchers, and other worldwide trade opportunities.
January 23, 2021
Glad to see you raising this issue. We have for too long run a trade deficit, particularly with the EU. Some might argue as a consequence of our membership of the EU. This has to be balanced off by borrowing from abroad or selling our assets to foreigners. Neither is particularly good for us.
January 23, 2021
I have never understood why the UK has not made limited FTA or perhaps Memorandum of Understandings if those are easier to put into place with say developing countries with smaller economies for products we don’t or cannot produce such as oranges from South Africa subject to democratic and racial equalities? This would send a message to Spain ( Gibralter ) and the EU. The UK could do the same with many other countries including the USA if we were to initially base a limited FTA on cars, again sending a message to EU and Germany. The FTA or Memorandum with the USA could then be developed over time. The same applies to food production – a specific FTA on food followed by further development of the FTA over time. Hit the French agriculture and send a message to the EU. Surely limited FTA should be easy to agree based on the UK’s needs with provisos of regular reviews, less than 12 months, and subject to further negotiations over time to make any agreements more permanent.
January 23, 2021
I am not surprised that DEFRA has no desire to use the freedoms we have gained. Like most civil servants they want us to remain a colony of the EU empire, so they will be obstructive.
January 23, 2021
They are not the only ones being obstructive, France and others in the EU are too, stepping up their punishment. ‘Boris’ does nothing and there are many in government and in the Tory party who are happy with that we are being threatened and abused. Stand up for us? Not the done thing old boy.
January 23, 2021
I have raised the pedantic mentality of the RPA, which sits under DEFRA, a couple of times on your blog. From my experience of them, I get the overwhelming impression the management, which consists of a ridiculous number of tiers, starting with team leaders (of only 8 people) upwards who are focussed on a ‘why have is simple when we can make complicated ‘jobs worth’ mentality’. Those above supervisors level are ‘castle builders’. I will leave you and fellow bloggers to suss out why. However, I give you one clue, look at their salary, perks and pension .
The only way to get any sort of dynamic results from the civil service would be to contract in managers from the private sector, only those with a track record of success of at least 15 years (none are personal friends of politicians or recommended by someone in the civil service). Put one into every department to set up a cost efficient common sense process and clear out the excess and useless dross that resides in there, including the management that complains when their castles are removed.
January 23, 2021
Could you arrange for something similar in the NHS please, J Bush?
January 23, 2021
The focus of DEFRA’s on the ‘environment’ is due to the soaking of the Deep Green ideology from the 1970s onwards, Agenda 21, Sustainable Development Goal 15, the unelected but great power of the UN Environment Programme, the aim to de-industrialise the West inherent in our Friends of the Earth influenced Climate Change Act 2008 and in Scotland 2009 and the fact that we lost British peasants in the 18th century and had the Agricultural Revolution which benefitted large landowners. Then the CAP came along. So it will take time for small farmers, locally and consumer-focussed farming culture and practices to thrive.
January 23, 2021
Are any of us surprised ?
I suspect that the Sir Humphries at all levels of DEFRA are entrenched Remainers who want nothing more than to see Brexit fail.
Ministers need to shake up the Civil Service and remind them who they work for.
They will probably get some kickback similar to that experienced by Prity Patel, but they should not let that stop them.
The Civil Service obviously didn’t want to do anything about building our new fleet of fishing boats in the run up to 31st December for fear of upsetting the French. Yet we’ve all known they were needed for the last five years and it would appear that we haven’t yet even started to play catch-up !
January 23, 2021
I think Alex belfield has called it correct on his YouTube channel about the covid lockdown, the country has had enough, the politicians have lost the plot, people are not going to put up with this indefinitely, and nor should they. strongly suggest somebody shows Boris this kind of view, as he is clearly getting poor advice.
January 23, 2021
I said much the same on this here blog / diary. People were willing because the sun was shining and the danger seemed real. Now people are better informed and are facing some grim prospects they are not going to go along with things now.
January 23, 2021
same-same same-same….its as though the remain side won, or maybe its just that the remain side are dictating the pace of change
January 23, 2021
Remain are in power. The fact that we Leavers never recognised this and thought that they would go along with it shows our naivety.
January 23, 2021
Oh no. The leave side won. You have lots of rotting fish and pointless paperwork to prove it.
January 24, 2021
âPointless paperworkâ will backfire on France and the Netherlands. They wonât see it yet, the quiet people are watching and changing their habits without a fanfare because of all of this vile politicking and there wonât be a thing the politicians can do to sort it out if they let this one sided reporting go too far. The government also need quid pro quo and stop giving French cheese and dairy manufacturers a free market here with no âpointless paperworkâ and charges if they ever want this silliness to end.
January 24, 2021
quid pro quo – we’ve given the EU an extra 6 months grace period with no paperwork
January 23, 2021
This sounds very worrying. It seems to me the Government is prioritising green issues and also wants to keep things as they are so as not to break any rules in the WA and so-called trade agreement. Iâve seen this in our Civil Service over many years where the status quo people get promoted and those with vision get held back. Itâs all very frustrating and until the people at the top are replaced nothing will change.
We may have got control back of our waters but we havenât got control back of our fish. We would have to pay huge compensation to the many foreign fishing vessels in our waters and the processing plants in EU countries if we tried to reduce their quotas. This Government has sold out the British people to keep us closely tied to the EU. Iâve had enough of their deceit, lies and inaction. If they didnât have a Brexit plan ready for us leaving then they have no intention of changing anything. Iâm hoping people see this and vote for The Reform Party in the May elections, if they go ahead.
January 23, 2021
Count me in.
January 23, 2021
Problem: the Environmental lobby in Defra is focussed on saving the planet to the detriment of food production? Solution: abolish Defra. Replace with Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whose remit is to make us self-sufficient in food as far as is possible. Problem: Too many house being built to accommodate all the new Britons the Tory party endlessly imports. Solution; Merge Environment with Housing, Communities and Local Government and give the Environmental lobby free reign to block the encroachment on our ancestral lands by third worlders.
January 23, 2021
You see the problem the Civil Service/Governments(labour and Conservative) don’t known how to run a country just a region of the EU following instructions. The only thing the diplomatic department of Government has done is to take away the diplomatic status of the EU. That really helps.
January 23, 2021
I’m not surprised either. The whole government apparatus wants to be able to say “told you so” about Brexit, so they will not be pro-active in taking advantage of the Brexit upsides.
Someone above said that they will have to be instructed to do it, that is a very good point.
So what is George Eustice telling them to do?
January 23, 2021
Sir John, you are absolutely right, BUT … what are you doing about it? Just asking the same old written and oral questions? We have all seen how you are fobbed off, so that achieves NOTHING. If you want to be effective you need to SHAME the government. How about an EDM saying you have no confidence in Useless Eustice? Or how about having a very public meeting with Nigel Farage to scare the whips?
As I have said before, the government needs a wartime-like urgency in developing vertical farms and robotic harvesting, so that these are available throughout the country without delay. We need a MASSIVE government investment in these technologies – at least ÂŁ5 BILLION THIS YEAR.
And we need to encourage greater consumption of British food:
How about a law that says that all pubic organisations – eg. schools, hospitals, the military, the civil service, local government, etc – can ONLY buy British food?
And a law making it compulsory for ALL food to say where it was GROWN on the label (not packaged – this is a con designed to deceive us into thinking foreign food is British!!).
January 23, 2021
Please include higher education into revised policy so land studies both Agriculture and Horticulture are seen at the heart of Gov drive for sustainable food production.
We need more young people to study land-based subjects.
Let’s make it more attractive for young people by promoting it. I’m not suggesting pumping lots of money into colleges, just getting it higher up the Political ladder
January 23, 2021
I am afraid what you say is no surprise. The leaflet I recently received about the proposed replacement of the Single Farm Payment included no reference whatsoever to the production of food. A new task for the ERG should be to hold Mr Eustice’s fingers to the flames.
January 23, 2021
It is most worrying to learn about the lackadaisical approach to farming by DEFRA and the Govt. Good on JR for uncovering it. This rot needs rooting out from the top down – Boris must act by firing the minister, and any obstructive senior civil servants.
This is damage under a “Conservative” govt – I dread to think what it would be like under a pro-EU Labour administration.
January 23, 2021
I have said before to get rid of solar farms that produce very little energy for the amount of land they consume, and use the sun’s energy to produce crops.
January 24, 2021
Solar and grazing, agrivoltaics- 2 income streams.
Mandatory country of origin labels. All import/ export & non trade barriers need to be reciprocated.
Watch where the government and police etc choose to exercise control or give it away and where they do not!
The UK government needs to stop giving away its wealth for no benefit to the UK!
We need full spectrum self reliance , maybe reciprocal co-operation but never at the expense of being dependent or selling out UK people ,businesses or IP for ‘political benefits’.
Payments made to leave the EU. That needs a Public enquiry by itself. Can we have an honest government. That does not discriminate against its own people particularly the English to favor unknown interests. We need a raft of Public enquiries into many of these hidden or obfuscated deals.
There is no benefit to the UK of this EU association treaty over a clean WTO leave.
January 23, 2021
Sir John,
Every day I read of the beurocratic embargo on UK fishexports to France. There is very little we can do to prevent this, although we should apply the same tactics to their exports to the UK.
Even though we gladly eat a variety of seafood on holiday in the Med, that same seafood does not pass muster for domestic consumption, for example only three grades out of ten od Dover Sole are saleable in the UK.
We clearly need a special effort to market this delicious healthy food to our domestic market. Perhaps our government could put key players together, especially in preparing ‘oven ready’ packaged meals, with all that added value, for our very efficient supermarkets.
January 23, 2021
What JR is proposing here is that the taxpayer should pay to subsidize farming and fishing in order to somehow “promote” domestic consumption of UK production, instead of letting the free market decide what food should be exported and what imported.
This doesn’t just fly in the face of High School economics. It reverses Conservative policy on trade since the Free Trade debates of the Nineteenth century.
You actually want to pay more taxes to have a little Union Jack on your package of meat? You think that was what Brexit was all about? Seriously?
Reply Nonsense. farming was under the CAP. I wish to spend that money to better purpose.
January 23, 2021
One would need to be very dim not to understand that it is impossible to have a free market in food, because:
1. Our exports are being deliberately sabotaged by the EU (who, contrary to Boris’s constant, cretinous refrain, are NOT our “friends”, but our ENEMIES); and
2. Our imports are subject to too many vagaries, such as deliberate blockades, weather disruption, etc.
We therefore need to be 100% self-sufficient in all our basic necessities and able to feed ourselves without imports, if need be. Adequate food production is therefore a matter of survival, and cannot be left to chance. The government must therefore invest in this essential industry. There are also other, though admittedly less pressing reasons for this, such as environmental ones (food miles), animal welfare, food quality and safety, etc.
January 24, 2021
JR, you like to throw the “nonsense” word around a little too much. I am just quoting from your own words. First you talk about the UK “earning its living” and then you talk about Defra having policies that lead to us seeing Union Jack stickers on our meat..
You can’t have it both ways. Brexit is an opportunity to bring the best and cheapest food to the UK – from whatever source – and not to be trapped behind EU tariff barriers. It ought not to be a signal to go back in time and adopt our own protectionist policies by using taxpayer money – Defra – to protect domestic suppliers. That is just exchanging one version of protectionism for another.
Free markets are free markets. If you subsidize domestic producers, you are just perpetuating CAP under another name.
And in general, I would appreciate polite responses, not insults.
reply All countries protect agriculture. the U.K. promised to maintain EU levels of subsidy for the first five years after exit so I am arguing how best to distribute that money. I am not arguing for additional protectionism. Putting the U.K. flag on our food helps sell it here.
January 23, 2021
Sir John, I know Defra and I know farmers – they both have their own characteristic inertias! Why not suggest to the Minister a small, talented enterprise team is appointed, to spearhead and kick-start the much needed initiatives, and to bring the two together with a firm policy vision they can each fall behind? (The same is needed for fisheries.) Otherwise, I doubt much will happen.
January 23, 2021
Farmers are currently being paid in the Lake District to replace fields of sheep and cattle with trees. This is disastrous for the landscape and removes essential foodstuffs from our agricultural base. This policy must be urgently stopped as it will remove views, vIstas, openness and light, let alone the economic waste. The Lake District and its views is being destroyed at the altar of fraudulent fake environmentalism. It is a government funded scam.
January 23, 2021
The Civil Service, particulary the Senior Civil Service, is overwhelmingly ‘Remain’. Left to their own devices, the SCS will do everything to frustrate Brexit and secure a rejoining. Those who drag their feet in taking advantage of the options opened up by leaving should be let go.
January 25, 2021
It is clear that without the EU, DEFRA is in a policy wilderness.
We left the EU a year ago, what has DEFRA done in the meantime to take full advantage of our exit from the CAP?
Clearly nothing.