Time and money squandered – and still no progress

Comment Brian Henderson

In February I wrote a light-hearted piece about the turf war over who would hold the power – and the pursestrings – over farm policy and support in the postbrexit world.

At the time the Scottish Government was saying they would have to hold these powers but admitted there was still a need to have some umbrella issues decided at a UK level, while the UK Government was claiming it should hold the powers to set the umbrella issues then devolve powers to Scotland and Wales.

This reminded me of the TV advert for Twix, where the enmity between two feuding brothers saw one producing the left Twix by lavishing caramel on a biscuit while the other produced the right Twix by topping a biscuit with caramel, with only their competitiveness preventing them from seeing they’re doing exactly the same thing – and co-operating.

However, seven months down the line, the joke has worn a bit thin and, for the industry, the consequences of this intransigence are no laughing matter.

With the clock ticking, far too much time has been squandered not getting round the table and thrashing out a solution.

While there was perhaps a “phoney” Brexit for a while, with the country still a bit stunned about what it had voted for, the triggering of Article 50 in March should have given the sense of urgency required to knuckle down to the huge job ahead. But apparently not. Similarly the replacement of the lacklustre Andrea Leadsom as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural

0 Farmers are still waiting for answers to questions of cash Affairs by one of the political big fish and leading Brexiteer, Michael Gove, raised hopes that there might be some progress.

But again, despite being parachuted into the Royal Highland Show shortly after his appointment, there have been no signs of getting the sleeves rolled up and getting the job done.

There might have been half-formed promises over support levels until 2022 and some half-hearted meetings between the politicians but we’re really no further forward in terms of what the future holds than we were during the referendum campaign, when the Brexiteers were promising everything to everyone.

So, last Friday’s roundtable meeting between the farming industry and Mr Gove in Aberdeen might have been expected to galvanise some advance and reveal a broad outline of what was planned. But, again, no progress. Farming leaders aren’t usually openly critical of the politicians they have to deal with, but after the meeting NFU Scotland pointedly made their view plain by stating: “Frustratingly, future UK agricultural policy and where the levers of power will sit remains the main area of political conflict.

“What we need is clarity and that requires political posturing to come to an end and all parties to sit down as soon as possible for proper discussion with industry representatives on what is sensible at a UK level and what is needed at a devolved level to meet our industry’s needs.”

Some misguided souls might still believe that the integrity of the political process will see us right in the end, but Mr Gove’s refusal to be pinned down on any details of the promises he had made was worrying.

And while many, including myself, roll their eyes every time the old chestnut of the convergence uplift cash is raised, in 2014 we were given not only a promise but a cast-iron guarantee by UK ministers that the allocation would be reviewed. However, Mr Gove appeared to dismiss this firmest of promises out of hand with a “you can’t unscramble an omelette” – and in that single act cast doubt over all the other promises that are all the industry has to cling to.

Lest you fear any political bias, though, the Scottish Government is not without fault. Although last week’s announcement of yet another loan scheme for farmers was undoubtedly a welcome and pragmatic answer to an underlying problem, the utter fiasco of the IT system just refuses to go away.

While this issue must be addressed, you have to ask where we might now be if all the manpower, headhunted experts, energy and finances squandered on sorting this out had, instead, been deployed on formulating a policy for the industry.