Wednesday’s unprecedented coming together of dairy farmers in London was notable on a number of levels.
The sheer volume of farmers and supporters from the allied industries – nearly 3,000 united in anger and a desire to force real change – crammed into Westminster’s imposing Methodist Central Hall made for an electric atmosphere.
There was the coming together of UK farming organisations and with simple, clear messages. Enough is enough. Farmers are here in their masses because they can take no more. ‘We’ – all of us – will be out in force in protest August, unless things change rapidly.
And then there was the car crash that was Farming Minister Jim Paice’s appearance.
Over the years, Labour Ministers routinely received a (metaphorical) battering at the hands of angry farmers. But Mr Paice, a farmer by background and at heart, has grown used to being the farmer’s friend during his years in Opposition and – for the most part – in Government.
Which is why Wednesday must have felt like a hammer blow for the Minister, who has just suffered his worst week in office.
The event had begun in barnstorming fashion. NFU deputy president Meurig Raymond, standing for Peter Kendall, stranded at a French airport, earned a raucous ovation for a passionately delivered speech ending with the call to ‘back our dairy farmers’.
Farmers For Action’s David Handley, the ultimate crowd-pleaser – farming’s Mick Jagger but without the wrinkles – topped it with a speech of raw passion, aggression and humour ending with a call to action. ‘Cancel your holidays in August,’ he pleaded. No excuses. Everyone knew what he meant.
Mr Paice started on the back foot when his turn came. He was greeted with a mixture boos and applause. “I don’t mind being booed but wait until I have finished something,” he responded, little realising how his words would come to haunt him.
He had already had a bad day in Tuesday, after admitting in a radio interview that he didn’t know the price of a pint of milk, as ‘my wife does the shopping’, a gaffe had generated glee and ridicule.
But he handled the situation superbly, holding up a pint of milk ‘I know that this costs, 49p’, followed by a bottle of water, ‘I also know that THIS cost, 53p. I know which is better value-for-money. I know which cost far more to produce. I know which is more nutritious and which is more important to the UK economy.”
Big applause. Back on track.
And he continued to make a decent enough impression, empathising with farmers, criticising the failings of the supply chain and outlining what the Government was doing to help, including new helpful announcements on nitrate regulations and progress on a voluntary code of practice to bring about a fairer deal for farmers. He sought to stress the limits of what politicians can do. “Governments can’t fix prices,” he said.
Fair enough. But then it all went wrong.
“And it involves all of you, too.” Silence. “Are you sure you are doing all you can do reduce your production costs?” Angry murmur from audience, rapidly turning into loud boos. Some heckled loudly.
Mr Paice stopped in his tracks, the surprise etched over his face captured in our video round up of the event. “You see how easy it is to lose friends,” he said. Nobody laughed.
From that moment, the mood of the entire event had turned.
It became a cycle of farmers standing up to berate Mr Paice, rather than the processors and supermarkets that are paying them so little, and the Minister trying, in vain, to dig himself out of the hole. The rest of the panel of industry leaders was effectively bypassed.
As the heckling grew louder, Mr Paice initially tried to meet fire with fire. “If you think shouting me down is going to help you, forget it.”
He asked farmers why they had allowed themselves to be pushed around by the rest of the food chain, a reference to the lack of collaboration among UK dairy farmers. The farmers did not like it one little bit.
“I used to think Jim Paice was quiet sensible, until I heard him today,” came a barb from Cornwall.
“How do you want to be remembered Mr Paice? As the doctor who put things right or the undertaker?” asked another from the floor.
There were many more like it.
As his mood visibly darkened, Mr Paice told the audience he was the best friend they had in Parliament. The irony is, he was probably right.
And then came the killer blow as a member of the audience – I didn’t catch her name – accused Mr Paice of ‘patronising farmers’, the very farmers who so readily vote Conservative.
Mr Paice finally stepped back, apologising if he had offended or patronised them and insisting that had not been his intention.
But it was too late. He had lost his audience.
His misjudgement was not to question whether farmers, themselves – along with processors, supermarkets, law makers and trade organisations – could do more to help themselves.
It was to do it in that way, in that venue and in front of that audience. A battered audience on the edge and on its knees. An audience that didn’t want friends, advice or rhetoric. They wanted help and more money for their milk.
It was never going to be easy but Mr Paice did not need to make it so hard. He is a strong politician and will recover to fight better days.
The real pity was that the battle of ‘One Minister versus 3,000 dairy farmers’ ultimately deflated some – but by no means all – of the hugely positive energy generated by the event.
But the direction has been set and that is all likely to change in the next few weeks as the industry sets aside August in this wet, miserable Olympic summer to target – with one voice and one goal – the real source of their fury.
As Dave Handley said afterwards: “There’s an awful lot of people in the retail and processing industry who should be very, very worried.”
The UK is historically perceived as being on the periphery of EU negotiations on key issues like the euro, the budget or the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
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