Tim Yeo
What do farmers want from politicians?
What do farmers want from politicians? Sympathetic speeches? Pie-in-the-sky pep talks on diversification? Hearty best wishes for the coming year? I doubt it. Farmers have had too many hard years to want more soft words from Cardiff and Westminster.
Tough times demand tough action. So when William Hague visited the Royal Welsh Show in July he made clear just what a Conservative Government would actually do to ensure the survival of farming as an important Welsh industry.
We will slash bureaucracy so farmers can get on with what they're good at instead of filling in forms in triplicate. We will make a bonfire of the red tape that does so much to hold Welsh agriculture back. As Minister of Agriculture I would refuse to enforce European regulations any faster than other EU countries do and I'll do my damnedest to stop pointless regulations from being introduced in the first place.
It is a scandal that a leg of lamb produced in France can be legally labelled as British just because it has been packaged here. The next Conservative Government will introduce honesty in labelling laws to put a stop to this. All food sold in Britain will be labelled by country of origin and method of production. And you can be sure that food labelled as Welsh really will be Welsh.
We will defend the high standards of our own agriculture, particularly those that underpin the health of consumers and our excellent record on animal welfare. It is farmers that uphold these standards and they deserve to be protected against a flood of substandard food imports. The next Conservative Government will block the import of food produced by means that would be illegal in this country.
Action on unfair imports, honesty in labelling and a bonfire of red tape: these are the main themes in our Fair Deal for Farmers. And we make many other commitments, including a retirement scheme for tenant farmers and real reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. In particular we want to see our armed forces eating good Welsh lamb rather than South American mutton.
I know there are other issues which worry Welsh farmers. The Welsh countryside is beautiful but it is also remote, and people depend on their vehicles for their lives and livelihoods. This is why Labour's fuel taxes are so unfair. The Chancellor says he is cutting three pence off ‘ultra low sulphur petrol'. But can you buy this at your local garage? The next Conservative Government will cut at least three pence off fuel for everyone.
It is the same dramatic Welsh landscape that makes support for hill farmers so important. By fiddling around with the Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowance, Labour has put this all at risk. I know there are environmental reasons for a move to an area based system, but Labour must understand that any change that drives hill farmers off the land will be a disaster for the environment as well as for the farmers. Who will look after the land if farmers disappear from the hills?
Sadly Labour just doesn't care. In Wales, many people have looked to the Assembly, but with the Liberals are propping up Labour there's not been much support for agriculture.
After three years of crisis farmers may feel they are running out of allies and options. The best hope now is a change of Government. The Conservative Party believe the survival of agriculture is important to the farmers of Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom. However bad things look; farmers will still have at least choice open to them, and a chance to make it at the next election.
