Farming Like broken drains politicians’ visits leave a bad smell

Comment Brian Henderson

What do politicians and field drains have in common I found myself wondering the other day as, spade in hand, I climbed out of another boggy digger hole?

The first thought which sprang to mind was that I’d seen rather too much of both over the past couple of weeks, with a hired excavator accounting for one and the annual round of AGMS accounting for the other.

But I guess both politicians and drains also both need a good prod and rattle now and then to make sure that they’re doing their job properly - and I guess they’re both prone to exuding a good deal of the brown sticky stuff before they get into gear as well.

There is yet another other similarity in the additional complications and confusion which occurs if two different systems are imposed on the same area - making it almost impossible to work out which one is to blame for the big swampy hole in which you, or indeed the whole industry, risks getting mired.

In truth, though, the biggest similarity is that when things are working nicely as they should, then you should just be able to let them get on with their job without fretting over specific issues, digging them up and taking a set of draining rods to them.

So while it might simply be the time of year for the politicians to do the rounds of the farming meetings, the fact that so many have been popping up leads me to the conclusion that there is some impediment to the normal invisible process of good governance.

And I guess like those long matted tails of fibrous roots which seems so keen

0 Michael Gove at Stirling bull sales to block up the drains, Brexit seems to have resulted in a similar damming of policy flow.

But the industry has had the opportunity to take the plunger to a fair number of politicos in fairly smart order over the past few weeks.

We’ve seen Scotland’s rural economy secretary, Fergus Ewing appearing at NFU Scotland’s annual conference, secretary of state for Scotland, David Mundell appearing at the SRUC Brexit debate in Dumfries, his undersecretary, Lord Ian Duncan, addressing Scotland’s National Sheep Association’s annual dinner and the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, Michael Gove, popping up at various venues in central Scotland, including the Stirling bull sales.

Curiously though for a man who has a background in the media and is usually more than happy to provide comment, Gove pointedly chose not to speak to Scotland’s farming press, including those from the very paper which started his writing career. And while it might be unfair to think it, his reluctance to chat to some of his erstwhile colleagues might have indicated that the visit was actually less of a charm offensive and more of a hiding out in deepest Stirlingshire on a weekend when rumours abounded of a joint plot with Boris Johnson to oust Prime Minister, Theresa May.

But this minor aberration apart, all of these politicos exhibited great affability to the industry – and, making the right kind of acceptable, soothing noises promised not to ignore the major and highly complex issues which face the farming sector as it enters the unchartered waters of life outside the EU.

They all also promised to ensure that we continued to have enough migrant labour to keep the wheels of our industry turning.

And similar undertakings were given on trade deals - as Scotland’s farmers were flattered with promises that they would continued to be able to market their “worldrenowned” produce not only to their largest existing market in the form of the EU, but also in increasing quantities to new and evolving markets elsewhere in the world.

And, of course while much of the debate at UK level had centred around environmental payments, farmers were given an assurance that food production would continue to remain at the heart of the policy and support measures for the foreseeable future.

Sadly though, just like the reassuring gurgling noises you sometimes here coming from the other end of 25 draining rods, while these sounds are prone to filling you with hope and expectation of things to come, nothing has so far actually emanated from the end of the pipe…