One of the joys of the summer for Jan and I is to campaign her thoroughbred horse (large show hack) at shows throughout southern England, which she has done successfully once againthis year. Some of the shows are just equestrian shows, but some are part of larger agricultural shows and these are our favourites.
These include the New Forest Show, Three Counties (Great Malvern), Bath and West and Edenbridge and Oxted, as well as our own Devon and Royal Cornwall shows. We stay over in our old lorry, which gives us the opportunity to wander around the showground the night before looking at the cattle and other animals that will be shown the following day. It is always a delight to watch the farmers preparing their cattle for the highly competitive classes in the morning, washing and blow drying their coats! Many of them sleep alongside their animals all night to make sure they are settled.
This has been going on for generations and is the backbone of our rural way of life. It is inspiring to see young people, men and woman, coming through and engaging just as fully in these important activities. These vital husbandry skills are being handed down the generations.
One of the toughest challenges of the current government will be to put in place a modern and effective support system for British farming to replace the Common Agricultural Policy. This is both an opportunity and a threat. Farming has greater political support on the continent than it does in the UK which has meant that strong financial support has been in place for the past 50 years. This has changed from time to time fromsupporting production to encouraging stewardship. The legal agreements with farmers have often been complicated and slow to change as circumstances change.
We have to put in place a scheme that supports efficient food production that leads the UK towards greater food security, insists on high standards of animal welfare, encourages good stewardship of the natural environment, does not allowimports of cheap food produced at much lower standards, meets the needs of hill farmers on Dartmoor as much as the large arable farmers of East Anglia, encourages young people into the industry, simplifies the contractual arrangements and is sustainable with widespread political and public support. It is clearly a tall ask.
We have eighteen months to come up with such a scheme. The government is currently consulting.