Changes at Defra Print E-mail
Thursday, 18 June 2009

Promoting meat farming as a vegetarian?Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Simon Hart analyses the recent reshuffle and its impact at Defra: Gordon Brown's recent reshuffle and associated ministerial resignations have dominated the headlines in the last couple of weeks. Amongst the fevered speculation about whether the Prime Minister would survive and what each sentence of each resignation letter actually meant there has been very little comment on who, if anyone, is left running the country. In the case of Defra the answer seems to be: a surprise lot.

Hilary Benn remains Secretary of State for Environment and we were glad to see that Huw Irranca-Davies retained his role as a junior minister. Jane Kennedy's resignation as Minister for Food, Farming and Environment was disappointing given the commitment she had shown to the role in the short time she had held it. Her replacement (the fifth farming Minister since 2001) is Jim Fitzpatrick a Glasgow born vegetarian who is MP for an East London constituency. Mr Fitzpatrick has been promoted to Minister of State in part, presumably, as a reward for delivering the last round of Post Office closures. And before you ask, there is absolutely nothing wrong with vegetarianism, but I need a little persuading that it is not an ideal platform from which to champion our farming and meat industry.

“ ....there is absolutely nothing wrong with vegetarianism, but I need a little persuading that it is not an ideal platform from which to champion our farming and meat industry”
More surprising still is the appointment of the new Minister for Rural Affairs, Dan Norris. Mr Norris may not be a vegetarian, but he was one of the most vociferous supporters of the Hunting Act. His behaviour on the eve of the hunting ban, when he arrived in Badminton to gloat at the pain of that community, will not be forgotten in a hurry. More recently he arrived with animal rights activists uninvited and outside his constituency to 'monitor' the Blackmore and Sparkford Vale hunt, refusing to even speak with its members. This is surely the job of the police not our MPs?  Mr Norris has been an MP for 12 years and held no significant Government post until this moment.  After the last ministerial changes at Defra last year I wrote of the efforts that Defra Ministers were making and of: "a real opportunity here for Defra to re-focus on the issues that matter to those who live and work in the countryside". Mr Norris is now perfectly positioned to surprise us, and no one will be more delighted than I if he does.

Even in the Government's current state ministerial appointments still matter. It looks likely that there could be up to another 11 months until an election and during this time it will be Defra Ministers who are making the important decisions that affect our lives, our communities and our countryside. Given all of this it is with a sense of weary déjà vu that I read of an Early Day Motion put down this week by Labour MP David Taylor that: "calls on the Government to bring forward legislation at the earliest opportunity to prohibit the production of birds for sport shooting, in line with the ban introduced in Holland in 2002". They just don’t get it do they?
 

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