Time of year for who should be on nice or naughty lists

It was a positive this week that the UKinflation rate dropped back to 3.9 per cent, but beware of politicians trying to take credit for this outcome. The fall is down to lower fuel and food prices and those are global events rather than anything the UK government can control. Not wishing to spoil good news at this time of year, but the rate is still twice the Bank of England target inflation rate of two per cent; it is also a full percentage point higher than the average eurozone rate and two points higher than the American rate. On that basic it is unlikely to deliver any easing of interest rates before mid-2024, which confirms we are not yet out of the inflationary woods.So, better economic fortunes for Christmas, but not yet what we hadhoped for to match others.Good news also came at from the EU agriculture commissioner, JanuszWojiechowski, who told farm ministers agricultural markets are more stable now than they have been for two years. That was when Russia invaded Ukraine and triggered a global food crisis, because of markets dislocation. The commissioner said market uncertainty was now more related to climate change linked weather events than the continuing, but now better managed, fallout from war in Ukraine. On cereals he said that despite weather problems the EU harvest had come in around the samelevel as in 2022, although it remained five per cent down on the five-year average. On dairy he said there were signs that markets were improving, with buyers again prepared to hold stocks, because of concerns about southern hemisphere supply problems linked to weather events.This is the time of year for decisions on who should be on nice or naughty lists. Farmers across all enterprises have earned their place on the nice list. They ensured food security through a time of global food market insecurity; they avoided exploiting food price inflation by hiking prices more than their rise in costs and have faced severe price cuts in recent months, while others along the food chain continued ramping up food prices.What would be welcome would be greater public recognition of the value of food security. Through Covid and the shock waves from the war in Ukraine farmers ensured the food supply here and across Europe was never at risk. Few, if any, politicians would make it onto my nice list if I were advising Santa. One exception might be the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. In major speeches this year she has gone to great lengths to praise farmers for delivering a high quality, secure food supply every day to 350 million EU citizens and for helping ensure food exports are a key driver of the eurozone economy. This contrasts with the position at Westminster, where not only are farmers not praised, they are ignored and undermined by trade policies more about cheap imports than local food. That alone puts swathes of politicians on the naughty list. There they are joined by the many others who fail to see that green outcomes can be a by-product of food production, rather than the result of policies demanded by armchair environmental warriors with no understanding of how a living countryside has to work.Very definitely on the Santa nice list would be every farm lobby organisation, from the giants of the farm unions to specialist groups, all fighting for the industry. Brexit has certainly made life more difficult for the mainstream farm unions. They face disinterested politicians at Westminster and sadly even in the devolved regions.

Their power and influence has waned because they are no longer part of the more vociferous European farming lobby, which pursued and secured farmer friendly policies that had to be implemented by successive UK governments. The UK farm lobby continues to do the job for members, while knowing politicians neither understand the industry, or care about what happens to it as a food producer and driver of economic potential for an ailing UK economy. Farmers everywhere must not only be on the nice list, but well rewarded with a present they can pour, sit back and enjoy despite still working over Christmas when the rest of the world stops.