Tories should not take rural voters for granted

We have left the UK and are down in the Dordogne, France for a few days; the weather is warm and a few degrees above West Sussex. The crops look good, the trees are in leaf and everything is generally ahead, as one would expect. Getting across from Dover to Calais was not as easy as it normally is due to the shortage of ferries. We were told to be at the port an hour before sailing but chose to start very early and be there a good three hours beforehand and, despite that, only got on our allotted ferry with 10 mins to spare!

It was full of people who should have caught an earlier one, some two and a half hours earlier. With P&O now subjected to endless health and safety checks and other measures involving red tape, I rather doubt they will sail over Easter as our government and its agencies quite rightly need to be assured, but I suspect they are punishing them for breaking our laws, behaving in a despicable manner towards British crews and handling the sordid saga very poorly indeed.

When we left Sussex, some farming sectors were still in difficulties as labour shortages continued, leaving farmers and workers exhausted and stressed, according to the farming press. This was based on a damning report from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (Efra), which accused ministers of failing to understand the issues which have led to a lack of staffing in the horticulture, meat processing, poultry and logistics supply chain – warning that there needs to be a ‘radical shift in attitude’ to resolve things.

They reserved a special mention for the pig industry, which is being devastated by the shortages, and that further food inflation will be the outcome. Failure to do something will export more of our food production and jobs abroad.

This column has repeatedly drawn attention to this and the plight of the pig farmer, pointing out that food security should be taken rather more seriously by this cloth-eared government.

A poll taken by the Country Landowners Association warns the Conservatives that traditional support for their party in the countryside is waning as traditional supporters become disillusioned by government policy and are looking towards the Labour Party. Any government which produces a credible and ambitious plan for the countryside and grow the rural economy would do well and when polled the counties in question all agreed that this government is not doing enough, seems bereft of ideas and has presided over the decline of rural areas.

Twelve million voters live in the countryside and they are concerned, especially with the lack of prospects for young people. This is a significant vote which the Conservatives have largely taken for granted, but they would be wise to think again. Many traditional Conservatives, who have voted for no other party, tell me they do not recognise the present incumbents as Conservatives, feel that the party has made terrible mistakes and that this is going to end badly.

Russia now threatens to use food exports as a weapon against countries who they consider as enemies, branding food as a quiet weapon. While the UK does not have much in the way of trading links with Russia, the impact will be felt here too as global supplies are disrupted and importing countries such as the UK will be affected by availability and prices.

In France there is oilseed rape to be seen everywhere, much needed as sunflower oils rationing has already started due to the war in Ukraine. The UK grows less these days due to the ban on plant protection chemicals, namely neonicotinoids. Scientific evidence is not clear on this and it will be interesting to see if derogations will allow this crop, which happens to be a very useful break crop for wheat and produces valuable oil, to be grown in larger quantities again.

The EU itself is in turmoil over the war in Ukraine, with Germany in particular seen to have got its policies and general direction badly wrong under Angela Merkel. Not only did they shut down perfectly good, working coal and nuclear power stations, making them totally reliant on Russian gas and oil, but plan two more shutdowns this autumn. Merkel was heavily influenced by the Greens latterly of course and we see a big turnaround now under Olaf Scholz.

Another crazy EU target in farming of late is to see organic farming rise from eight per cent to 25 per cent – a sure way of getting it wrong when market demand is not there. Furthermore, to legislate more against conventional farming will affect food supply and the timing for that is badly miscalculated. The cost of food is rising fast and any policies such as these, or the fanatical rush to plant trees and re-wild Britain, is going to come badly unstuck once the real costs work their way through supply chains.

We had elections here in France at the weekend and it’s going to be a two-horse race between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le

Pen, who now presents herself as a moderate given that someone else stood for the even more radical right. She is still a dangerous populist candidate who promises to spend and look after everyone while the president has to be constrained with his promises.

Like Macron or hate him, he has certainly changed France, not unlike Margaret Thatcher did in the UK. He has changed employment laws which gave every worker total security making it almost impossible to get rid of people, resulting in businesses not hiring and employees to slack. Macron moved France towards a more market-based economy, lowering taxes, cut the cost of firing people and tightened eligibility criteria for benefits.

The ‘Gilets Jaunes’ movement did their best to destabilise the country but failed and unemployment is now at its lowest level for 13 years. However, there are plenty of people who dislike the president but, given that he did what he said he would do, it is likely that with the results for all to see he will be re-elected. If one compares, it is not difficult to see that France nowadays has better roads, far better trains and more fast broadband connections than we have in the UK.

France is also in possession of good power production and, unlike Germany, has not gone down the green route without transition. It finds itself the clear leader in the EU these days as it is a much more confident country and very much on the front foot compared to what has happened in Germany.

I see that an escaped bullock in Devon was rescued from a swimming pool! Three fire crews took almost four hours to lift it out, having partially emptied the pool. It reminded me of one of our milking cows many years ago when they escaped out of the field, running across the garden at the main house at Crouchlands Farm and ending up in the swimming pool.

Fortunately it was silage time and I had a large industrial loader on hire. With the aid of some sturdy slings I managed to slip them around the cow in the shallow end, lifting her out and leaving the pool a paler shade of brown! Pic: Getty