Sir,
I read with interest Chris Rundle’s latest column in the Western Daily Press (May 13th) and I feel that, yet again, he may be letting his imagination get away with the facts.
In his latest column he criticises the NFU for organising a gathering of farming organisations and leaders on the Monday evening following the election. Chris Rundle though, has chosen to concoct his own version of the event. To begin with, Mr Rundle says it was organised to ‘celebrate the election of a Conservative Government’. The event was planned three months in advance, is he really suggesting the NFU knew months ago when we sent the invitations out that there would be a Conservative majority government? We like to think that we have our finger on the pulse, but even Mystic Meg didn’t predict that one! For the record, the NFU is a non-political organisation and we work with MPs of all parties.
We have just conducted hustings around the country where representatives from all the political parties were invited to attend. The reception on Monday was not a political event. It could never have been described as ‘lavish’ either, despite what Chris Rundle has imagined, the event was held in our offices in London – the most ‘lavish’ thing on display was a colour photocopier. He said that ‘Moet’ was being poured down politicians’ necks. I am beginning to wonder whether Chris Rundle is thinking of a completely separate event which I’m unaware of. Just to be clear, there was no Moet – indeed, no champagne of any branding - and there were no politicians. What I can say is that the event was well attended by over 20 farming organisations who are all keen to work together to ensure that British farming and food production is seen as a core priority by the new government.
So let’s get back to the real world where we can all work together to represent farming and have real impact on creating a profitable and sustainable future for British food production. As a lobbying organisation this is what we do - with notable success (many farmers will now be benefitting from five-year-tax averaging because of the lobbying work of the NFU). We have a clear objective which is to get some real positive outcomes for farming and food production. I’m not sure what Chris Rundle’s objective is, but as we’ve seen time and time again, negative campaigning or sniping never does anybody any favours in the long term. If Chris Rundle wants to follow best journalistic practice in the future he would be advised to check his facts before going to print, we are happy to help him with that.
Fran Barnes
NFU director of communications
02476 858686