SOUTH
WEST FIRST
LETTER
FROM DEVON MAY 2001
NOT TO BE
There was no 'Letter' in April
because the plenary session
was in the first week of the month, we had only just sent out the
previous one in late March, and I reckoned that we would all shortly be
immersed in a General Election campaign.
DITHERING
AND DELAY
I admit Tony Blair surprised me
by deviating from his master plan for re-election with his gesture to
the farming and rural communities to delay his triumph by one month.
I overlooked his desire to be liked by everyone and it will cost
me the bottle of champagne I wagered that May 3rd would be
the date!
DEVON'S
DISASTER
I now expect the next Strasbourg
week in May will fall within the campaign period so am taking this
opportunity to do a Letter from Devon about April, the phoney war and
the real battle against foot and mouth disease (FMD).
WHO
IS CONTROLLING WHO?
They tell us the Government has
the situation under control now that Tony Blair (or is it Alistair
Campbell) has taken personal control.
If Downing Street over-ruling MAFF or a competition between
Defence, Environment and Culture Departments to make announcements about
"the need to avoid going anywhere near livestock farms but the
countryside is open really", amounts to control, then who do they
think they are fooling?
THE
TRUE PICTURE
It certainly doesn't look that
good on the ground. On a
constituency day of visits and meetings the week after Easter, I had a
better picture of some of the problems people face.
REDUCED
TURNOVER
I met Rick Turner who runs The
Big Sheep in north Devon. They
are a good example of a family farm that has diversified into being a
major tourist attraction employing 65 people with over 100,000 visitors
in a normal year. This
spring, their turnover dropped by 87% in the worst week and has settled
at a 50-55% fall in April compared with last year.
EMPTY
PROMISES
You don't have to be a genius or
walk on water to figure out that this represents a short cut to
bankruptcy, as was specifically pointed out in a presentation by South
West tourism industry leaders to Tony Blair in London.
He promised to "do everything in my power for top businesses
like this to survive this crisis".
So far either the power or the promise don't amount to a row of
beans!
HEAVY
BURDEN
I visited the farmers' Help
Centre at Hatherleigh being run by Carmel Franconi for the Council for
Voluntary Services and Citizens Advice Bureau with a find band of
volunteers. I heard more
tales of cash problems for farmers unable to move animals ready for
sale, as well as the distress of those with a lifetime's work building
up a herd, slaughtered overnight, and then having to wait days and days
for the carcasses to be dealt with.
TOURISM
AFFECTED
I met a group of farmers and
tourism business operators affected by the crisis in different ways.
Jenny King faces close down because a small wedge of her farm
lies within culling range of an outbreak, so, despite her livestock
being kept well outside the 3km radius, they had to be slaughtered and
her catering and accommodation is prohibited to open for months.
MAFF
MUDDLES ON
Another farmer who had had his
livestock slaughtered was now being chased by MAFF for his annual IACS
return, yet officialdom refuses to help advise on the dilemma of what to
do. Return zero animals and
lose grant, guess how many animals he might have back on the farm before
the end of the year to March 2002, or what? How can he know?
PROMOTING
DEVON
Two common themes of need
emerged. The first and more
urgent was the desperate need of all the businesses affected by the
crisis for cash to tide them over until after the outbreak.
The second was for a concerted plan after the outbreak to
pump-prime the recovery through promoting Devon in particular, and the
countryside in general, as a tourist destination once more.
TOO
LITTLE, TOO LATE
Government proposals
to defer PAYE, NIC and business rates were widely viewed as
inadequate in the circumstances, particularly before an Inland Revenue
threat to charge interest was withdrawn. Time and again people pointed to the Chancellor's large
fiscal surplus and called for interest free cash loans allowable against
future corporation or profits tax liabilities.
HIDDEN
AGENDA
One person half-joked that
signing on a student loan was the sort of scheme that would help. Another told me they believed the government had leaned on
the High Street banks to extend overdrafts and delay foreclosures that
would dump the problem in the lap of the Benefits Agency.
I am moved to ask, does anyone really believe the statistics put
out by MAFF?
IS
PHOENIX MORE POPULAR!
I met the vet who urged a change
of culling policy, yet it took appealing photographs of Phoenix the calf
to
budge Downing Street.
Finally, my son and some pals from his university went to the
Trafalgar Square 'Mandela' concert and celebration.
He told me that Blair was booed by the crowd. Interesting.
GILES CHICHESTER MEP
|