It's Harvest Time

Well, it has only taken them about 15 years. The Major Government wanted to abolish the Agricultural Wages Board, but a combination of the National Farmers’ Union and the old T&G put paid to that wicked scheme. Today, barely noticed, that abolition was announced at last.

Most NFU members may be tribal Tories, but their union has never needed any explanation that being a tribal Tory certainly need not mean being an uncritical supporter of a Conservative Government. Very far from it, in fact. Margaret Thatcher used to listen to Farming Today while having her hair done, and she maintained that by the end of that 15 minutes, it was standing up of its own accord. It is time to give back a voice to those who could have the same effect on, for example, Caroline Spelman.

In the tradition of those who have resisted enclosure, clearances, exorbitant rents, absentee landlordism, and a whole host of other abuses of the rural population down to the present day. Those who organised farm labourers, smallholders, crofters and others in order to secure radical reforms. Those who obtained, and who continue to defend, rural amenities such as schools, medical facilities, Post Offices, and so on. The county divisions that predominated among safe Labour seats when such first became identifiable in the 1920s. The working farmers who sat as Labour MPs between the Wars and subsequently. The Attlee Government’s creation of the Green Belt and the National Parks. And those who opposed the destruction of the national rail and bus networks, and who continue to demand that those services be restored.

In the tradition of those who have seen, and who still see, real agriculture as the mainstay of strong communities, environmental responsibility and animal welfare (leading to safe, healthy and inexpensive food) as against “factory farming”, and as a clear example of the importance of central and local government action in safeguarding and delivering social, cultural, political and environmental goods against the ravages of the “free” market.

In the tradition of those who have fought, and who continue to fight, for affordable housing in the countryside, and for planning laws and procedures that take proper account of rural needs. Those who object in principle to government without the clear electoral mandate of rural as well as of urban and suburban areas. Those who have been and who are concerned that any electoral reform be sensitive to the need for effective rural representation. Distributism and the related tendencies. And those who are conservationist rather than environmentalist.

Sharpen the tools.