Rural redress

IT has become customary for leading politicians to hold forums with voters since Tony Blair began these electoral roadshows in the 1990s, and which David Cameron has since replicated. They provide a welcome opportunity for leaders to meet ordinary voters – and there have been occasions when the politician concerned has been caught off-guard by the unforeseen question.

This was one reason why Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman was in Yorkshire yesterday; she hopes her department’s new Rural Roadshows can perform an equally valuable role and help fill the void that will be created if the Commission for Rural Communities is wound up.

Yet, while such sessions are to be encouraged, and it is commendable that the Minister did not use the weather as an excuse for not visiting Yorkshire, as some of her predecessors might have done, they are no substitute for the level of scrutiny and research provided by the CRC on a range of environmental issues.

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For, while there is always a chance that Ministerial visits will be carefully choreographed affairs, with officials only showing their political bosses those individuals who might concur with Defra’s wishes, it is important that the CRC remains in a position to provide a robust response to those rural policies that transcend Whitehall departments.

It is pertinent when issues revolving around the countryside and Europe clash. Despite countless promises, the Rural Payments Agency, which distributes EU subsidies, is bedevilled by bureaucratic inefficiencies. And this is before the Common Agricultural Policy is renegotiated. That does not mean the CRC should be a costly enterprise. It does not have to be. But it has an important function to fulfil because Ministers, and their advisers, do not always know best.