BY NEXT week there should be meat on the bones of the UK policy to support agriculture in the post-Brexit era.
This week’s meeting between Defra lead minister Andrea Leadsom and the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, will be crucial to framing a policy.
It is to be hoped that all will have put political point scoring to one side and agreed a common blueprint from which negotiations can begin, not only to extricate ourselves from the EU, but, just as crucially, how to build a framework for trade negotiations across the rest of the world.
A big fear here in Scotland is that the US will win free access to our market for hormone-fed beef. Ms Leadsom, speaking at this week’s English NFU agm, appeared to rule this out. Whether or not her bosses at the Treasury will over-rule her is another matter.
Certainly, the industry in Scotland and the rest of the UK must stand united on this one. If ever there was a need to draw a line in the sand, then this surely must be it.
At the English meeting, Ms Leadsom was making all the right noises. Rhetoric, however, is easy. This Conservative government will be judged by farmers on the action it takes to preserve the UK’s food and drinks industry. Sacrificing it for the economic community in London will be an unpardonable sin!