Owen Paterson issues press release saying ‘impact only now being seen’
Paterson…reaffirms dangers of sensorally challenged Ministers
Not that it matters overmuch, but some time back I posted a brief piece to the effect that the lousy weather must be having an effect on the European food chain…and I wondered why nobody in authority hahahaha, sorry about that, was discussing what we should do about it. As I’ve said before, I am no climate/weather expert, but I have this astonishing ability to feel cold, observe snow falling in May, notice rain and clouds – even read a thermometer. It’s a gift, and I just thank God for it, she’s a very clever girl.
In the Guardian this morning – for some reason under ‘environment’ – there is a piece saying, you’ll never guess, that Britain is now going to have to import tons of flour/wheat to make up the shortfall. The Guardianista’s dislike of any business producer group is so ingrained under Rusbridger the Mad March Trot, the headline couldn’t resist saying, ‘Farmers fail to feed UK after extreme weather hits wheat crop’. Silly Farmer Giles not having control over the weather and all, but I rather think fingers should be pointing elsewhere re this one.
For a start, I’m afraid they must point at Owen Paterson. This is a shame, because Defra wasn’t Patercake’s idea, and anyway he strikes me as a bloke with blind spots but the best of intentions (far more than you can say for the rest of the Cabinet). His real brief should be to take a view on longer term environmental evidence and data, not be the Kommissar for the Kollektives of Kamerlot Produktion. But thanks to some harebrained consultant or Sir Humphrey from the past looking to empire-build, the f in Defra does stand for food. So: frightfully sorry Owen old top, but you’re in the frame for this one.
My questions are threefold:
1. Once February had passed – and the forecast until at least April was utterly dire – did anyone at Defra think about trying to buy Wheat futures ahead at a better price than now? And a subsidiary here: did Defra alert the Treasury to the potential impact on deficit balancing strategy?
2. Over at the Treasury (where I hear black armbands are de rigueur since Hester got the chop) have the owners of four wrong economic forecasts in a row had the nous to do this anyway?
3. Do we think that this disaster in the making might start to persuade Camerlot to take the land laid to food issue more seriously, rather than spouting the usual bollocks about there being nothing they can do?
There’s a clue in the Guardian column – in the shape of an arse-covering release from Defra (my emphasis):
‘The full impact of the hard winter is only now being seen, according to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Its latest analysis says the total income from farming decreased by £737m in 2012 to £4.7bn, with farmers facing both crop losses and higher costs to feed their animals.’
So I rather suspect the answers are ‘no’, ‘no’ and thrice ‘no’. But then, a bigotry based on experience is coming into play here, in that I have reached the conclusion – too slowly, I suspect – that almost everyone in a senior position throughout Whitehall and Westminster is a fornicating onanist.
I hope, if time allows in the 36 hours remaining, to make the West-to-White deficiences the subject of the Saturday Essay this week. In the meantime, what does anyone know about this issue? Usual rules apply please: I’d like answers from folks who know something, not everything….to jawslog@gmail.com.
I have a German friend who says to me “The British are surprised by every eventuality”. Sadly, he’s right.
The Slog 