By Brian Henderson

Well, unless there’s a veritable flood of information in the remaining few days before the election, for the farming world at least the promised focus on Brexit doesn’t seem to have materialised.

As many have said, with agriculture being one of the areas which has been most closely integrated into the EU, you might have thought that we would have merited a central place in the wider debate. 

But it would appear not.

And, if you discount the NFU’s national hustings in Lanark earlier this week, when you take a look at what has come out from the Westminster elite on the topic, the level of debate has been about as useful as a pair of sunglasses to a blind man with only one ear.

So there might be a big temptation out there to give in to voting fatigue and ask what the point is anyway.

But as someone pointed out this election will be the first time for 50 years – pretty much a whole generation – that we will be voting for people who will actually have a direct say in what agricultural policy will look like in the coming years.

Given the quality of some of the people who have been in charge of the issue in the Houses of Parliament, however, that might not necessarily be a good thing.

Interestingly, though, one of the possible upsides to the general election being picked up by farming commentators is the fact that we’re likely to see the back of Defra secretary, Andrea Leadsom.

While there might be a bit of a cheer from the assembled farming industry if she is indeed removed from what, at the time of her appointment, looked very much like a punishment posting, are we really likely to get anyone better?

For, let’s face facts, Leadsom’s immediate predecessor, Liz Truss, wasn’t much cop. In fact, when she was removed from the post at the last reshuffle one of the headlines ran ‘Justice for Truss’, which, for me at least, immediately conjured up the image of her buried up to her neck in a bog somewhere in deepest Cumbria, rather than her being appointed as justice secretary.

And I guess it would take somebody with a better memory than mine to recall when a politician of major standing viewed with gusto the opportunity to take up the agriculture position, be it under the Defra, MAFF or whatever acronym it was using at the time. 

Certainly, since Margaret Beckett was appointed back in the early years of this century the brief has been viewed as a graveyard posting.

So, if anyone thinks that there’s likely to be a large number of well-qualified, dynamic, far-seeing, sympathetic politicians with the sort of vision and integrity that the farming industry will require in its upcoming hour of need, queuing up for the role, all I can say is I ha’e ma doots.

Beyond that, though, I’m loathe to make predictions on the election or the Brexit issue – as I seem to recall about this time last year doing a light-hearted piece looking forward to the Queen’s 100th birthday celebrations – with Britain out of the EU and Donald Trump as American president. So I’ve learnt to be more careful what I joke about.

On a different subject altogether – and back-tracking immediately on my promise not to make any predictions – I suspect that once the election is out of the way the Brexit issue will be supplemented by a lot of Land Reform stuff in the farming press at least.

For, while things might appear to have gone a bit cold on this front, once the election purdah is over, Scotland’s new Land Commission, which commenced operations last month, will start to make its voice heard.

And the tenant farming commissioner, Bob McIntosh, is set to release the first codes of practice for the sector, on the so-called improvements amnesty and on dealings in the area of limited partnerships, first chance he gets.

But, based on the address given by – and the reaction to – the commission’s chairman, Andrew Thin, when he spoke at the recent RICS conference, things could be about to get interesting on this front. 

Thin, who acted as the Scottish Government’s special advisor on tenant farming issues before the commission was set up, certainly didn’t mince his words when he warned the assembled land agents to toe the line of the new codes – or face the consequences. 

While he warned that land agents shouldn’t underestimate the professional damage which would be caused to the businesses of anyone ‘named and shamed’ for not abiding by the spirit of the new codes, he said that if this approach didn’t prove effective then further sanctions would be introduced.

Thin was also highly critical of the way in which many long-term decisions on land management were currently taken. 

To the noise of feathers being ruffled in the audience, he made it plain that there was a need for a far higher degree of corporate social responsibility to be built into the process – and this would have to take into account the wishes of the wider area and local communities.

It was also announced last week that the Scottish Government had finally got round to awarding the contract to carry out the review into how the changeover to basing rents on productive capacity, rather than on comparables, would work in practice. 

While many had understandable concerns about the work being carried out by one of the big land agent companies, the inclusion of others in the consortium awarded the job was at least an attempt to quell the fears of the tenant sector.

So, plenty of controversy ahead. 

But while politics and policy making will always be divisive, there’s much afoot on the technical front as well, as the industry wisely seeks to put itself in the best position to cope with an unknown future. 

And, with farming standing on the cusp of major changes as a whole host of new developments and ideas are set to become commercial reality, after 30 years of writing Farmers Views I’m moving.

Not far though – just up the paper a bit to take up the offer of a fortnightly column in the SF’s arable pages.  

Hope to see you there.