Meaty issues need to be chewed over by new QMS chair
Comment Andrew Arbuckle
There will be more than a few Scottish livestock producers who, having seen the advertisement for a chairman of Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) and realising that the job pays around about £30,000 per annum, will think ‘I could do that.’
“After feeding the cattle in the morning, I will just slip off the wellies, give the shoes a bit of a wipe to remove most of the sharn and then set off to Edinburgh to do the chairing.
“Must remember to look over the hedge just to make sure all the ewes are right side up. Then head straight to the Rural Centre where I am sure there will be coffee and biscuits.”
Hold that day dreaming right there. This is no sinecure. Don’t slip further down the slide of unadulterated optimism. Here is the reality.
The opportunity has arisen because Jim Mclaren, the present incumbent, completes his stint as chairman of QMS later this summer. The organisation is now scouting for a replacement.
Being the top dog in this organisation will pay the aforementioned £30,000 for approximately two days’ work per week which, unless you are a top footballer, successful pop star or involved in selling social media secrets, sounds a pretty good reward.
However, it is not just a case of popping into the QMS Rural Centre headquarters from time to time and collecting the cash. Chairmanship of this meat promotional body comes with a number of warnings.
If you believe the old
0 Outgoing chairman Jim Mclaren ran a pretty tight ship farming adage that it is better to go into a rundown farm and work it up, then QMS is not for you. Mclaren and the staff under previous chief executive Uel Morton and current boss, Alan Clarke have run a pretty tight ship with few, if any, slip ups in recent times. It will therefore be easier to slip back than it would be to drive forward.
Also, as anyone who has ever been employed ‘part time’ will confirm, the reality is you get paid on that basis but you carry the weight of the job full time. For example, when the phone rings at home at night, you cannot tell the irate producer, processor or butcher that you have already completed your two days that week and could he/she phone back next Tuesday when you will be back on duty.
The above are minor matters compared with the big issues QMS will face under the next chairmanship. Brexit looms and the organisation is going into uncharted waters. This past week has demonstrated just how quickly and ruthlessly a primary industry – fishing – can be a pawn in the wheeling dealing world of leaving Europe.
UK trade minister Liam Fox gives the impression he would trade his granny to get an agreement. Allowing something like a few thousand tonnes of hormone filled American beef to seal a deal would be a mere detail to him.
Also, before you fill in the application form to become chairman, look at the current links QMS has with the EU. Having done so, you can see how vulnerable the organisation is to a bad deal.
The loss of even part of the current lamb export trade to Europe will knock the Scottish sheep sector quite severely. Looking at it from Europe, if you are a French or Spanish sheep producer you will not be giving Agneau Ecossais any leeway in the future.
Remember also that as a chairman of a non departmental public body, which is the official description of QMS, it does not give you free rein on meaty issues. You are largely required to keep out of political matters, leaving that to the NFUS and to Scottish Ministers.
If after all that, you still want to throw your hat in the ring, you must realise that, unlike being in a democracy where popularity might reward you with the top seat, this is not the case with QMS.
Despite the majority of the promotional body’s income coming from levy payers namely livestock producers, processors or butchers, they have no say in who chairs. The decision is down to one man – Fergus Ewing, the Cabinet Secretary. In a denial of democracy, he and he alone will decide.