The farming community was hoping, until a few days ago, that Michael Gove might be moved to pastures new in the reshuffle that hardly happened on Monday. One Yorkshire neighbour of mine with a big muckspreader used to refer to the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs as ‘the Grim Reaper’. But in Gove’s speech to the Oxford Farming Conference last week, he seems to have pulled off the political trick of winning headlines about ‘delivering a Green Brexit’ that pleased the urban middle classes but might previously have had farmers reaching for their pitchforks — while in fact reassuring most of them that, contrary to previous indications, he has their interests at heart and understands the need to cut red tape, promote high standards and reward conservation in a balanced way.
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Hardeep Singh
What’s the real reason Labour is reluctant to hold a grooming gangs inquiry?
Welcome news was that UK farm subsidies of £3 billion from Brussels will be matched until 2022, but in future will no longer be paid in proportion to size — a system that absurdly favours wealthy landowners such as the Duke of Westminster, Sir James Dyson and the racehorse breeder Prince Khalid bin Abdullah al Saud, without encouraging better practice.
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