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Last week I attended the last ever Royal Show. This has always been the premier rural gathering of the year but it has dwindled in importance to its now sad demise. In past years a trip to “The Royal” was a pre-harvest must for country people. Buses would take people from an area like Newbury to join massive crowds from all over the world. The Royal was the place serious farmers would go to find out about innovations in agriculture and others would go for a good day out or to shop. Farming has changed. Today there are fewer farmers and their needs and those of the wider public are more often served by specialist shows or regional events like the Newbury Show.
This year’s Royal was still the premier gathering for showing farm animals. The bloodlines of many herds of cattle around the world come from Britain and it is a wonderful spectacle to see these vast animals being primed and prepped for their moment in the ring.
I was there to help launch my Party’s rural manifesto. There is so much more to the countryside than just farming. Our document covers the needs of rural communities, accessibility to broadband, rural schools, education in the countryside and much more. However, farming remains the core activity that forms and protects the countryside that everyone values. The words “food security” are now on the lips of many people. There is real worry about Britain’s ability to feed itself in the future. This means, in a few years time, we may never have valued our farmers more since the times of the U-Boat blockade. We need farmers to be able to innovate and to thrive for all our sakes.
Before I left the Royal Show for the last time I thought I should support the hard pressed agricultural machinery sector so I bought a tractor. It was about six inches long and cost me a tenner; it has gone down very well with its new owner.
In Parliament I am coming to the end of the Committee stage of the scrutiny of the Marine and Coastal Access Bill. In leading for my Party I have been on my feet day after day and have managed to get to the last few sections without ever using the word “stakeholder”. I am determined not to fall into the lexicon of government speak. For me, schools will never become “settings”, pupils will never become “learning units” and I will never, ever, talk of “coterminous stakeholder engagements”.
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