DAVID RICHARDSON
DAVID RICHARDSON
AS Ben Gill writes in a conclusion (oddly titled an envoi) to Lord Henry Plumbs autobiography* Lord Plumb, is a man with the common touch. "Rarely can you find someone," he says, "who is at ease with the smallest farmers and equally at home in the City with leading financiers or in Downing Street with the Prime Minister." Anyone who has known Henry, as I have for nigh on 40 years, will agree with that. Just as impressive is his ability to remember the names and backgrounds of people has not met for years. He is universally recognised as a "nice bloke", and those social qualities have stood him in good stead throughout the remarkable career he outlines in his book.
To record all his titles and involvements would take up the page. But some of the most notable include: NFU president from 1969-1979; president of COPA 1975-1977; MEP for the Cotswolds 1979-1999; president of the European Parliament 1987-1989, and so on. Along the way he was knighted and later made a life peer. Not bad for a boy who left school at the age of 15 during the Second World War to help his father work the family farm.
Like many farm lads at the time, and for several years after the war, Henry felt his place was on the farm helping to produce food for the nation. Shortages and ration books made it an honourable thing to do. His "university" was the Young Farmers Club where, among other skills, he learned public speaking – and hes "never stopped since" (his words, not mine). He took a great deal from the YFC, including Marjorie, his wife of more than 50 years, who was Warwickshire county organiser.
But a few years later his world collapsed around him when his father died suddenly at the age of only 58. He was "thrown in at the deep end" – an experience which was to be repeated many times during his career.
For a while he concentrated on running the farm and rearing a family. But he was soon persuaded by older Warwickshire farmers to become involved in the NFU. In 1959 he was elected to the council and four years later became the youngest ever vice-president. The rest, as they say, is history.
Reading his book brought back many half forgotten memories of farming in those days. For instance, the foot-and-mouth epidemic of 1967 and the Northumberland Report written about it. Henry Plumb was a member of the committee. They wrote firm recommendations on the handling of any future epidemic. His frustrations at the present generation of government officials and their apparent inability to learn the lessons of 1967 come through loud and clear.
Another parallel between his time in NFU office and the present was the serious decline in farm incomes by 1970. Those were the days of Farm Price Reviews negotiated in Whitehall between MAFF and the NFU, when the government held the purse strings of agriculture even more than they do now. He makes the point, as he did in the negotiations that year "- in the 10 years to 1969, average real incomes had increased by 46% while farm incomes had increased only 7%". So, whats new?
He was NFU president when Britain joined the Common Market, soon after which British guaranteed prices were being paid in green £s. This complex device enabled the rest of EU to be insulated from the inflation rate in Britain that was 22% by 1975. Its effect was to cut the value of UK farm prices, compared with most of the other member states, by up to 30%. In demanding better treatment for agriculture he says: "We were not asking the government to enrich the British farmer – we were imploring it to safeguard the nations larder" – sentiments that are just as relevant today.
Green £s have gone. Instead we now have currency differences that also cut the value of UK farm prices by about 30%. Moreover, if you think back through the years of Britains membership of the European Club, British farmers have been disadvantaged by one or another such scheme for most of them. So, whats new again?
In spite of those problems with European membership, which Henry blames more on successive British governments, of both blue and red persuasions, than he does on Brussels; he has always been a committed Europhile. He still believes Britain, and its farmers, are better off in than out. He further believes that eventual membership of the k is inevitable and necessary. Meanwhile, he is convinced that British farmers have been penalised by our cool relationship with the EU. In other words, he may call himself a Conservative, but he does not support the European stance of his Party leaders.
Nor do his political affiliations stop him recounting some irreverent observations about the shortcomings of European (and UK) political figures. The book is full of the anecdotes and down-to-earth observations of the farmer Henry Plumb has always been, in his mind, in spite of reaching the very pinnacle of the political ladder. Whats more, its a good read.
*The Plumb Line is published by the Greycoat Press (18.99).
The autobiography of
Lord Henry Plumb is
rich in farming wisdom
and insights…and its
a jolly good read