Opinion: Ministerial ‘musical chairs’ is damaging for farming
Ben Harman © Tim Scrivener The Roman writer Petronius Arbiter sums up our current situation well, which is remarkable given he was born nearly 2,000 years ago.
He is said to have written: “Every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we were reorganised.
“I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising, and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while actually producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation.”
See also: Opinion – farming on edge of the city has more ups than downs
About the author
A few weeks ago I sat down with Dame Angela Eagle, minister of state for food and farming. It wasn’t my first encounter with the minister, and I felt we were establishing somewhat of a rapport.
The Bridlington-born Oxford graduate, MP for Wallasey for 24 years, has a wealth of experience in parliamentary roles but, sadly, no agricultural experience at all.
Importance of beef industry
I felt it was at least in part my job to help the minister understand the importance of the beef industry to communities, the economy, wildlife and human health. I was impressed by both her firm grasp of the brief and her appetite for information.
We agreed to meet again, and I looked forward to deepening her understanding of farming as a cornerstone of British life and of how the Great British countryside has been shaped by generations of farmers and custodians.
Such meetings are an opportunity, not necessarily to shape policy itself, but to push against the siloed view of rural life that has been the bedrock of the disastrous first two years of this government.
However, within a couple of weeks it had become plain that this would be the last time we met, as the ninth minister in as many years gave way to the ersatz tenth. Following a Cabinet reshuffle, the Right Honourable Stephen Morgan from the well-known rural constituency of – checks notes – Portsmouth South takes the hot seat.
Further changes
It seems inevitable that the new broom headed to Westminster will sweep him away to some other allegedly “suitable” role, and we will move on to the eleventh, because nothing builds confidence in rural policy quite like treating ministerial responsibility as a parliamentary game of musical chairs.
Indeed he seems unlikely to exceed the permanence of the unfortunate Robert Goodwill – remember him? No, me neither – who held the post for a paltry four-and-a-half months.
The farming portfolio seems to be like the ministerial equivalent of the seat at a family wedding that the least-favoured uncle or aunt might be given. Still invited, but placed far enough away from the top table so as to be out of the eyeline of the bride and groom.
The intention is clear: don’t drop the china or say anything offensive and maybe you’ll be rewarded with a better table at the christening.
Back to Petronius Arbiter, then, whose words have rarely rung truer. We have confusion, presumably from an urban MP who has never set foot on a farm, but finds themself bewildered to be in charge of farming.
We have inefficiency from the vanishingly small part of Defra attempting to focus on food production and rural matters, which itself must now learn to dance a new set of steps to the tune of Mr Morgan, former lord commissioner of the Treasury.
And, finally, we have demoralisation from a farming community shown once again just how little it matters to the erstwhile prime minister.