Ross Murray: Rural MPs can make the case for the countryside

As business people, we generally crave political, fiscal and regulatory certainty and without any shadow of doubt we have been landed with the complete opposite.

It is shades of late 1974, with Irish border issues, a weakening pound – and that other running sore across the Channel – that now dominate the agenda while our Government tries to govern.

Amid all the hindsight offered by so many people about the wisdom of the PM calling the election, remember that the motivation was to bolster a secure base for the Brexit negotiations.

So the joke is now on us all, and we watch with fascination as to where this path leads us as a nation.

The Government is in uncharted waters, in a finely balanced position, with a Queen’s Speech that included several Brexit-related bills, including the Agriculture Bill.

However, the content of the speech was no doubt less ambitious than the Prime Minister had initially envisaged, and a rather cross and confused electorate looks on.

At least the Union is saved for now.

This reminds me that the first duty of the state is to protect its citizens, what you and I know as the duty of care.

Whether this be physical security, food security, or the home above your head, any number of permutations apply.

Labour supply, capital requirements, energy and environmental security all resonate too.

The tragedy of the fire at Grenfell Tower in London calls into question basic competence, and that is a stark place for any authority, local or central.

There is a view that this country, and particularly the countryside, runs despite government not because of it. And this applies equally to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland where they currently have no government and rely on Westminster.

Against this background, it is incumbent on the Country Land and Business Association to play its proper role. To be responsible, to play our part in seeking solutions, to guide the Government in its negotiations for Brexit that will work for agriculture and the rural economy, and then to work tirelessly over the next 10 years on the legislation that will repatriate European Union laws.

It will be back-breaking work, unglamorous and the stuff that you or I could not do as individuals. Legislative scrutiny to avoid the unintended consequences of bad law, and then pushing all the organs of the state into better administration across all functions.

Not just the Westminster and Cardiff governments and their departments, but multiple agencies with acronyms that are familiar to some but not all – EA, RPA, NRW, NE, HE, AHDB, LEPs, NPAs, LAs and so on.

You get the point. If the Chancellor wants a step change in productivity – his case for growth – the rural economy also needs to trade, to invest and to skill up through our own efforts but with the

help and support of the state where required.

This is why I welcomed the appointment of Michael Gove as Secretary of State at Defra. His

reforming zeal and intellectual prowess will challenge both us and his department at a time of change by necessity.

Expect some fireworks!

Our private interest can expect no special favours – arguments for public money have to be made with economic rationality, but in the contractual relationship between the citizen farmer and the state we expect reciprocity in return.

One of the under-reported electoral statistics is that MPs representing rural seats across the UK now form the majority within the Conservative Parliamentary Party.

Add to them the rural-facing Democratic Unionist Party members and that means a fresh opportunity to make the case for agriculture and rural

policies.

And so the CLA will do its duty in the lobbies as the summer progresses, to be a strong voice for our membership, and to visibly demonstrate that the countryside matters, and to us all.

Ross Murray is president of the Country Land and Business Association.