Every lobby group under the sun turns up at the Party Conferences so they are great networking opportunities.
Our friends from the NFU are here in Bournemouth and I went to their fringe meeting yesterday evening. It was hosted by Meurig Raymond, chaired by the always-amusing Lembit Opik and featured the Lib Dem Agriculture spokesperson Tim Farron.
The NFU have published their asks for the next General Election - have a look it's an interesting document. As befits a Trade Union (which is what I think the NFU really is) it's a good read. There's plenty in there about what the farming community apparently wants from all of us taxpayers - more money for research, more money for environment payments (hear hear to that!) but no cuts in the subsidy cheques that are now dressed up as single farm payments.
And what extra things does the NFU promise us we will get for our investment? Not much really - we are supposed to expect less in the form of less regulation and less red tape. As I said - just what you'd expect from a trade union but rather ambitious at a time when there are savage public spending cuts heading our way! And, I have to say, not really catching the mood of the time when many are losing their jobs, facing financial problems and worrying about their pensions (or tuition fees!) and yet the farming union thinks all those people should give more of their reduced income to farmers!
I was frankly disappointed that Tim Farron was so gushingly enthusiastic about the NFU document. I know he is in a marginal constituency with lots of farmers but come on! To describe the NFU document as 'the perfect blueprint for how the UK can move to a sustainable, secure supply of food while preserving a natural healthy environment.' is a bit over the top. I found it difficult to find the promises to deliver amongst the long list of asks! And there is precious little in here about sustainability. I can't see much in here that would be good news for farmland birds, water quality or reducing carbon emissions although we await with enthusiasm the launch of the Campaign for the Farmed Environment. No wonder Meurig, whom I like a lot, was looking like the farmer's cat who had got the taxpayers' cream!
And I don't think that the NFU document chimes very well with the LibDems' own policies - for example on CAP reform the NFU demands no cuts in Pillar 1 (the old subsidy money) and increases in Pillar 2 (agri-environment money) whereas the LibDems want all farm payments to deliver public goods (which I interpret as meaning a shift fromPillar 1 to Pillar 2). Likewise on coastal defence the NFU demands that productive farmland should be prioritised for protection when considering coastal erosion whereas the LibDems want local decison-making. The public usually pays for the sea walls and the farmer gets the money from the farmland (I can see why a barley baron would want this but someone made unemployed in another industry might not be so keen on seeing public money spent in this way). And the NFU are keen on biofuels grown in the UK neatly ignoring the knock-on impacts on food supply and extinctions elsewhere in the world that are likely to result. The LibDems have criticised current government policy as 'crude and simplisic' but the NFU support it. I'll stop there, but a more considered LibDem to agriculture is needed.