More of Margaret Beckett
- June 2005
This Opinion was featured in the June 2005 issue of the the Anglia Farmer
The reappointment of DEFRA secretary is of little comfort to hard pressed farmers, says David Walker.
The general election result should not have been a surprise to anyone. That Margaret Beckett, the Secretary of State for the Department of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) was not moved onto greener pastures in the post election cabinet shuffle, however, was almost certainly a surprise to most farmers.
From an industry perspective, and to put it kindly, she seems to have been particularly "accident prone." But from the government’s perspective she has been just as successful in lowering the profile of farming. And that is quite something to be said of a minister responsible for promoting the interests of the industry within government.
Beckett was appointed in June 2001 in the last post election cabinet shuffle at a time when farming had more than its fair share of the headlines, and for the wrong reasons. In retrospect Beckett’s and the government’s strategy for agriculture was soon evident. Indeed it was, of course, evident in her appointment, with agriculture sharing the billing with other issues and being lost entirely in the title.
By early August questions were being asked about why Beckett had to be recalled from a holiday in France scheduled to last into September to announce the government’s post mortem plans on the foot and mouth outbreak, a very high profile issue. Or more to the point how deep her commitment to her new portfolio really was.
A reluctance to leave Westminister, except one would suppose for holidays, and talk to the industry was soon evident. It was not long before a life size cardboard effigy of Beckett was making the rounds of farm meetings as a substitute for the minister herself who seemed to have better things to do than communicate with the industry.
But her attitude towards the countryside was best illustrated by her response to the 400,000 plus strong Countryside Alliance march to Westminister in September 2002. Having left the response to a junior minister, Beckett seemingly busied herself with a news release promoting further regulation of livestock movement!
It would be tedious to catalogue all the challenges faced by the minister over the last four years, but it is evident that her attitude to them has changed very little. The Manchester Guardian in the run up to the election in a feature on Margaret Beckett listed one of her two proudest achievements since being in charge at DEFRA as "securing reform of the CAP." And this was at a time when this very process seemed to be coming apart at the seams due to administrative bungling for which she was responsible. Was she aware of what was going on in her department, or did she not really care?
It might be tempting to suggest while Beckett was ultimately responsible for the short comings of DEFRA and its agencies, she was far from being totally to blame. The reality is, of course, that once she had lost the confidence of the industry there was a tendency for the industry to work at, rather than to try to cover over, cracks as they appeared. This must have been far from comfortable for her.
But her four years of discomfort was certainly matched by that of farmers. And that she has been reappointed is unfortunately of little comfort in terms of the future fortune of farmers.
June 2005
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