By Richard Griffiths, chief executive, British Poultry Council
In July 2024 we all hoped that the car-crash reality TV style of politics was over. That sensible, grown-up people now held the levers of power and were about the govern the country, not pander to party politics. We were wrong, again. The calming words about growth, consistency, and fiscal rules have not translated into policies that deliver for the nation. The political missteps that have happened, such as inheritance tax on farms, could have been avoided or walked back but politics now has a need to win, and every hesitation is failure in the eyes of the opposition and social media. We therefore find ourselves once again facing months of inactivity while political parties’ internal schisms drive any chance of progress off the road. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, as the French might say.
Of course politics should never be dry, soulless, or without conflict. It is the arena in which ideas are tested and viewpoints collide. The democratic process allows politics to be messy while allowing for new directions, changes of policy, and transfer of power to happen without violence. What they have all lost sight of is that the country needs continuity beyond a single Parliament, a single Prime Minister, or a single sound-bite. Every new ascension to power is accompanied by the demolition of the previous incumbent’s policies, whether they were helpful and working as expected, and regardless of whether the need for them still exists.
This is where the poultry sector, and food more broadly, sits right now. Society has a fundamental need for food, and we see the pressures building from climate change or geopolitical shocks that will impact our domestic production. We also see what needs to change through new Government policy for new farm space, an SPS agreement, disease control, trade deals, and many more issues that have to be solved if we are to successfully feed the nation. Yet every time politics decides to implode everything is reset and progress is lost. New Ministers land in a portfolio utterly alien to them and we have to start over again to bring them to a point where a decision might possibly be considered at a point in the near future.
That is not to say that every Minister must be a subject expert, but the minimum expectation should be an appreciation of how systems work, what society needs, what options are politically possible, and what they must leave for the next person in that post. Every Government, every Minister must accept the responsibility for leaving the country governable at the end of their tenure. That does not seem like too much to ask.
Throughout the last decade we have spent a lot of time waiting for Governments and political parties to come up with food and farming policies that will give us the continuity we need, and if we are honest none of them have succeeded. I think it is time to change the script and start saying what we expect of our politicians, to talk about the attitudes and behaviour of those whose decisions (or lack thereof) will materially affect our future. We need people in Government who are capable of seeing beyond their own time in post, and who will take the responsibility of building something that the next person – who may be a detested political rival – can deliver without feeling the need to burn down the house.