7/30/2019 Commentary on the 2012 Defra reshuffle

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In Defra, like many other departments, it was more 52 card pick up than a reshuffle, withboth Caroline Spelman and Jim Paice leaving the government to be replaced by Owen Pa-terson and David Heath.

The consequences of asking two new ministers to head a number of labyrinthine policiesat a critical time does not bode well for rural communities but more worryingly, the appoint-ment of our new true blue environment secretary signals the moment that the Tories gaveup on even bothering to pretend that they care about the environment at all.

Indeed, in this cabinet of contradictions, instead of having a Secretary of State for the Envi-ronment, we have been saddled with a Secretary of State against the Environment whofails to see that sustainability is the ally of growth, not the enemy. Recently ConservativeHome handily packaged Owen Patersons plan for economic growth into three points:

"Exemption of all micro businesses from red tape, following the model Ronald Reaganpursued in the early 1980s;

Ending of all energy subsidies and then fast-tracked exploitation of shale gas; Urgent review of airport policy to ensure Britain gets its full share of global trade."

This fetishisation of growth at all costs means that sustainability may very well be a merefootnote (if even that) at a critical time for rural communities. Given that reform of the Com-mon Agricultural Policy is nearing finalisation, fairer contracts for milk producers are crest-ing the horizon & a sweeping review of the EUs fisheries policy is on the way, the actionsof our new Defra team will alter the very fabric of rural areas for years to come.

With these responsibilities bearing down on the new ministers, certainly now is not the timeto shift towards a policy of farming against the environment, when in fact, we should befarming for the environment.

As MP for North Shropshire, Paterson has also been a brutal opponent of wind farms, and

at a time when energy bills have more than doubled in the past eight years, to suggest thatwe move away from energy subsidies and renewable technology is, to be blunt, stagger-ing.

Patersons strong views on hunting have also made media headlines, possibly marking areturn to rural communities only ever being debated politically through the sphere of eitherfoxes or badgers, hopelessly neglecting the criminal lack of affordable housing, soaringyouth unemployment in rural areas and public transport that is at best as complex as the

plot of Inception and at worst, non existent.

7/30/2019 Commentary on the 2012 Defra reshuffle

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Looking at the above evidence, its all too easy to sink into despair, but the Labour party isthere to make hope possible, not despair convincing, and from these titanic challenges tothe environmental cause, come great opportunities for our shadow Defra frontbench tofight for our rural communities.

Whilst there are always those who are intent on moving backwards, there will always bethose fighting for change and by highlighting the coalitions regressive ideology whilst offer-ing a vision of opportunity for rural areas, rural arguments will become Labour arguments.

We must offer a radical redesign of the agricultural economy which shifts food productionto the very nucleus of our society.

We must provide a vision that puts conservation at the core of our food policy and allows

agriculture to invest in technology at the very limits of human ingenuity.

And we must support our rural communities through pro-active policy on housing, transportand retirement, ensuring that young farmers have the opportunity to turn their passion intoprogress as well.

By pitting growth against sustainability, we have seen this government re-affirm its commit-ment to the politics of division, but the politics of conflict are not the politics of change. Anddespite being in opposition, we cannot stand idly by and watch this scorched earth policytake hold. The Labour party without the will to act is nothing and so we must act boldly todefend sustainability, defend conservation and defend our rural communities from thedeepest of coalition attacks.

Even though the stench of fossil fuel now billows out of this governments every pore andthe environment has been unceremoniously dumped from their priorities, the cause mustendure, the work must go on and we must continue to fight for an economy that instead ofpushing against the environment, embraces it.