This is one ‘day’ that we can all get behind

With the deferred Back British Farming Day now rescheduled for November 2, Bridgwater and Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger tells Defra Secretary Ranil Jayawardena that there has rarely been a time when UK producers have been more in need of support

DEAR Janil, I am not totally sure when we got into the habit of celebrating designated ‘days’ for various commodities, activities or bodily afflictions but there seem to be so many of them these days that it’s difficult to keep track.

Things were a lot simpler when we had the usual bank holidays plus one or two other semi-official events such as Armistice Day and Bonfire Night.

But now you can barely listen to the news or open a paper without being informed that it’s something’s special ‘day’.

Last week, for instance, I came to at the usual early hour to learn from the radio that it was World Porridge Day – but pulling back the curtains and peering skywards I observed no evidence of crushed oats falling from the heavens like so much manna, which was a bit of a disappointment.

Further perusal of the calendar revealed, however, that that particular celebration was falling neatly between UK Fungus Day (October 8) and World Egg Day (October 11). Both of which, I have to say, have come and gone without making an iota of difference to my demeanour, eating habits, dress sense or general wellbeing.

The undeniable fact, of course, is that these feasts are creations of the public relations industry and in most cases the only economic sector to derive any tangible benefits from them is – as you’ve probably guessed – the public relations industry.

So in effect St Dwynwen’s Day (January 25), World Candle Day (March 1), International Carrot Day (April 4) National Day for Play (August 3) and all the rest are in reality National (or World) Public Relations Days.

However, there is one such milepost on the calendar which does have genuine relevance to all of us and that’s Back British Farming Day, now scheduled for November 2 and when, among other things, our friends in the NFU will be in attendance at Westminster.

I do earnestly hope you will be able to find room in your diary to attend the event for a while because chances for politicians to meet and talk to real farmers face to face are few and far between unless you happen (like me) to be a shire MP.

And as the chap who has more influence than any other minister over farming policy in this country, I really think you would benefit from the contact. You might already have gathered that agriculture is not a simple, straightforward brief, any more than farming itself is a simple, straightforward occupation. There are far too many unpredictable and unmanageable influences constantly at play for it to be anything other than the equivalent of walking blindfold along a tightrope while juggling chainsaws.

Never more so than at the present when farmers are in a kind of limbo between the removal of EU support and the introduction of a replacement UK system designed (I hope) to keep them on course, on the land, and in business. I know from various soundings I have taken that public support for the people who still grow most of our food is on the increase, as is the public’s interest in buying direct from the thousands of producers who have now taken the short cut to market.

The thing everyone – not least the NFU and myself – wants to know is whether the Government, equally, is going to be just as supportive of one our greatest industries. Over to you. Yours ever,

Ian

> Public support for the people who still grow most of our food is on the increase, says Ian