Editor’s View: New minister takes honeymoon at Sheep Event
Farming minister Daniel Zeichner © National Sheep Association To the NSA Sheep Event this week for a first glimpse of Daniel Zeichner since he joined the government.
He is former farming minister Mark Spencer’s replacement at Defra but has a new title: minister for food security and rural affairs.
A subtle shift of emphasis? Or more honesty than his predecessors? After all, preserving farmer numbers was only important to the Tories in word, rather than deed.
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The slogan this year from rural protesters may be “no farmers, no food”, but the decades-long experiment to see how many food producers this nation can shed before it has a catastrophic effect on domestic food production goes on.
In the ministerial fashion stakes at the Three Counties Showground it was out with the Tory tweed jacket and in with the Labour linen suit.
The Cambridgeshire MP was top to toe in fabric that would be described by you or me as pale yellow, but perhaps on a fancy colour chart would be “champagne socialist”.
And how appropriate to be in the shade of that most celebratory of drinks as he described the moment he punched the air with delight upon learning he had got the job he has spent so long shadowing.
Who can blame him: out and about with the sun beaming down upon him; two freshly appointed ministerial aides to fling open doors and fend off meddlesome journalists.
One was so Jack Russell-esque in his determination to resist my pleadings for a one-to-one interview that I thought my ankles were in danger of a nip.
Truly these are the long days of summer for all freshly minted ministers.
It is the halcyon period where everyone is pleased to meet you and difficult decisions – with the resentments they foster – all lie in the future.
NSA chief executive Phil Stocker may have a reputation as a tenacious backroom operator, but at the panel discussion his questions – and the response to the answers received – were as gentle as a mother elephant’s trunk caressing a newborn calf.
Was the minister aware of the unhappiness felt by many in the uplands about SFI?
He was indeed, describing the new environmental schemes as a “very sophisticated tool, with many levers”, which civil servants had occasionally yanked without fully appreciating what the result would be.
Soon enough the skies will darken with the clouds of responsibility. Decisions will press in and battles arise.
Would the minister look into the alarming flow of meat in unchilled vans, some from regions with foot-and-mouth disease or African swine fever, coming through Dover?
Of course he would, and indeed he has already asked some pretty serious questions on that topic.
What of the malfunctioning animal vaccine industry that has miserably failed to keep up with demand for all manner of products?
Again, deserving of serious consideration.
So it continued in that vein for some time, until lobbyists, farmers and the politician departed, satisfied with this opening skirmish.
Let beverage, attire and mood all be champagne. For the lamb trade is decent, disease is (mostly) dormant and the sun shines.
Soon enough the skies will darken with the clouds of responsibility. Decisions will press in and battles arise.
The fizz of power always goes flat sooner or later.