TALKING POINT
TALKING POINT
THE days are getting longer. Slugs are getting active again, so spring must be on its way. And what does the arrival of spring mean? Well, theres panic as we remember that the drill needs a new set of tyres (thatll teach me to buy a model with rubbler press wheels). Theres the rush on Barbie dolls in central Hampshire as Dianas birthday approaches.
Its also time to pay the NFU subs. Time to umm and ahh, time to put it to the Flindt Towers financial steering committee over porridge and Honey Nut Loops. Were a biggish farm, so our subscription is not small. In fact, its a couple of new back tyres for the CS150.
We always end up paying it, though, and Im never exactly sure why. These days, the more I think about it and discuss the NFU with other farmers, the more I think Im out of step.
First, because I want to be a member in the first place. It would be easy to save the best part of £1000 and still get all the benefits of NFU membership. After all, when they negotiate a bit more payment here, or derogation there, all farmers benefit – not just fully paid-up NFU members.
Second, because I am a fully paid-up member. I sit down and declare my full acreage. There are some, I gather, who think nothing of keeping the area figure down to minimise the fee, using a smaller holding as their area, or just fibbing when filling in the form.
What about Farmers For Action? What David Handley and his men lack is the NFUs polished approach to dealing with politicians: The "A-word-in-your-ear- minister" technique, the moving effortlessly through the corridors of power.
But what the FFA lacks in subtle lobbying it more than makes up with guts, bravado and clever targeting of blockades and pickets. It amazes me how well they have trodden the thin line that separates winning public support and alienating it. The group seems to do just enough to persuade Tescos top brass to agree to talks without blackening the name of British farmers.
There are two things I cant stand. One, as I said through the haze of his cigar smoke, to Max Hastings, the outgoing editor of The Standard newspaper, is name-dropping. The other is generalising. But let us, at the risk of upsetting both the NFU and FFA, generalise for a moment.
NFU members tend to be the gentleman farmer type. They wear a tie to work more often than not, they have Land Rovers with clean interiors and they can attend daytime NFU meetings. The NFU big guns are easily mistaken for politicians, because they end up speaking politico-babble, wear smart suits and work in nice offices.
FFA members are much more the hands-on type. If the time came to blockade the M3 with tractors, they would know how to drive the tractors. They can attend FFA meetings in the evenings, because theyre out on the farm during the day.
Let there be no mistake: I think the NFU is a splendid organisation. It helped me out with a couple of sticky problems over the past few years, and I have no doubt that it has earned my membership fee with the lobbying it has done on agrimonetary this and compensatory that. But when I hear Mr Handley in full cry, I cant help thinking that perhaps he is more representative of the British farmer of the future, and the NFU would do well to take a leaf or two from his book.
As NFUsubs time
approaches, could
the union take a leaf
or two out of the
Farmers For Action
book? Charlie Flindt
ruminates…