But I think, as the farming unions, we were all in the same place of wanting an approach that kept the UK internal market functioning fairly, and that there werent winners and losers. Born on 1967 in Unknown, Minette Batters So that, with as free and frictionless trade as could be achieved, was something that we all believed in then and we all believe in now. Weve got to be able to look at, actually, how we enable these growers to have access to the workforce that they need. She runs the farm largely on her own, and her husband works in another industry. WebChanging The Way The World Views Construction. The National Farmers' Union (NFU) is demanding a written guarantee from the government that Brexit won't undermine British farming standards. 48-52% was always going to be challenging, divisive, but to have another referendum, we didnt believe would have made any difference at all. Did you get a sense they had very different priorities for the future? We established that body, because we realised this was going to be massive, it was going to mean change, and we would have to think and operate differently, in order to satisfy our members needs for knowledge on all of this. But Defra, government, really only focused on bail-out packages in a no deal scenario, that would allow farmers to effectively restructure. WebMinette Batters NFU President Minette runs a tenanted family farm in Wiltshire. I mean, a big, big difference, and it continues to grow. And of course, goods have proved, with Agri-food in capital letters, to be the problem child in all of this. Minette joined IPC Magazines as a sub-editor in 1972 and became an editor of Womans Weekly Library the following year. abril 26, 2023 0 Visualizaes jason elliott, newsom. Or was it like the rest of the population, where views seemed to be fairly entrenched? That was a manifesto commitment, dont forget, in the 2019 election not to undermine our farmers in future FTAs. IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. BBC Radio 4 - Great Lives, Minette Batters on Henry Plumb minette batters Did it make a difference having Andrea Leadsom there? Walters joined IPC Magazines as a sub-editor in I still believe that in the longer term, we will have to find ways with the EU to deliver less friction, because less friction equals less cost and thats to the benefit of both sides. With Theresa May, it was about trying to say, Were here, dont forget agriculture, because its going to be the complex area. 72 Minette Batters Premium High Res Photos - Getty Images But weve got to be able to do it in a way that has the right policies in place to deliver whats needed. MB: It was a worry in the context of how it was set out. With no series character tying her to particular people, places or times, she moves freely around settings a sink estate (Acid Row), a Dorset village (Fox Evil), a suburb of London (The Shape of Snakes) although every setting is 'claustrophobic' to encourage the characters 'to turn on each other'. And I was going out, putting on the radio, listening to Radio 4 and saying the same thing, going back in, looking at the television, thinking, This cant be right. Minette Batters, better known by her family name Minette Bridget Batters, is a popular British farmer and trade unionist. So, that is why we want you to be part of the SPS area. Suddenly, the environment was rising up the agenda and everybody wanted a slice of it, and he was running the show. UKICE: Had you anticipated the Leave vote, from where you live and from all the meetings youd been having during the referendum campaign? WebBrowse 72 minette batters photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more photos and images. What we have to recognise is none of these things can be done in isolation. Youve got Defra, effectively, leading on border controls and things like export health certificates. So, once youd gone by those, you were into a no deal scenario by default. minette batters family. Her second novel, The Sculptress, which was inspired in part by an encounter Walters had as a volunteer prison visitor, won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award. But what I did see very quickly with Michael was someone who was very prepared to dive down into every area of technical detail and grasp it. And Australias big, offensive asks on beef, certainly, maybe lamb. Its a massively significant employer. Did you go back and say to the NFU, This is what we now need to do? Walters was the first crime/thriller writer to win three major prizes with her first three books. We needed to be able to work together, to shape what the future needed to look like. What does that look like?. The government was clear it would not countenance food price inflation, so the Temporary Tariff Regime was conceived. On that basis, it was catastrophic. What we are seeing played out and its showing more with fish is that groupage is really difficult. Stephen Sackur talks to Minette Batters, UKICE: Rather intriguingly, George Eustice, given his background, put down one of the indicative votes proposing UK accession to EFTA. Weve got to make sure that we build what I would call bridges to more mechanisation, more automation. Again, it was the engagement with Number 10 that got the global seasonal scheme of 30,000 over the line. UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE): Were now about five months into the end of the transition, five months into the new global migration scheme. Are you convinced that theyve got the capacity to make this work? UKICE: And were there any sensible preparations that you could do, or that you were talking about Defra doing, in that eventuality? Knowing where the Treasury had been, having made clear over the last 11 years that if there was the chance, they would remove direct support payments to farmers, we also wanted to know what that would look like. It would help if we could speak to those who are leading these discussions. Agricultural Acts dont come along very often 1947, 1920 its over a 70-year gap. Get personalized recommendations, and learn where to watch across hundreds of After a pause of 10 years in which she wrote two novellas, Walters has decided to write historical novels. What was not to like? UKICE: Were you at all worried that he seemed to be establishing a rather surprisingly good relationship with the green lobby, who I think probably had a similar, oh my God, moment when he was appointed. I can remember, it was either Justin Webb or John Humphreys, saying, This isnt the Agricultural Bill, this is the Environment Bill. As part of the British project Quick Reads, to encourage literacy amongst adults with reading difficulties, she wrote a 20,000-word novella called Chickenfeed. Boris Johnson was operating from a seismic majority, and so they have the power base to do whatever they want. Have you been pressurising government-? MB: I think innovation and research and development, effectively, are at the heart of everything, and certainly at the heart of getting to net zero. Theyve got a lot to do. That is still ongoing, and we still dont know what the future of checks is going to look like. In 2019 Minette was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset. Well, we still dont actually know, publicly, what trade policy is. Britain's most powerful farmer says dad would be Has farming and agriculture gone up the government agenda in prominence, now that its not just an obscure Agriculture Council that nobody really can understand, that comes back with a protected budget that gets implemented? WebAccording to the latest Twitter stat on 2023-02-11, Minette Batters has a total favourites count of 10625 on the Twitter account and Minette Batters has 22.3 Thousand followers What we wanted for this country should be, and still should be and must be, about what we want from other countries too. We wanted government to put its money where its mouth was. What we feel is that the dialogue must bring a pragmatic solution at some stage. I think its essential that we can meet with him, bearing in mind weve still got active engagement with member states trying to resolve these issues. So, I went to bed, went to sleep, woke up the following morning, and it was one of those situations Ive never done it before, Ill probably never do it again whereby you did not believe the television. And why did you decide on your ultimate tactic, as we headed towards the referendum? Where the UK/ GB exporters face the full battery of checks going into the EU, and EU exporters are waved through at the UK border. There have been challenges. UKICE: Weve got Defra about to implement the new farm payment scheme. As the May Government was starting to develop its vision of its Brexit, we had ministers, not least Liam Fox, talking about doing trade deals with the US, and the big summer 2017 bust-up over chlorinated chicken. How worried were you that the Government was very keen on a deal with the US? But his way of operating is what I would call big tent politics. As part of the British project 'Quick Reads', to encourage literacy amongst adults with reading difficulties, Walters wrote a 20,000-word novella called Chickenfeed. Michael Gove was perhaps not in his most ideal Cabinet seat, but I think he did manage to rebrand himself with what had been deemed to be a graveyard department, to the benefit of the department. Minette Batters (MB): Well, George has been in Defra a long time. Within four months, it had won the Crime Writers Association John Creasey award for best first novel and had been snapped up by 11 foreign publishers. Ultimately, when we look at the delinking process, you are going to see 50% of direct support that will be capped in four years. DB6031P06 LOCAL farmer Minette Batters gives us an insight into daily life on her farm near Downton with EXECUTIVE PROFILE: Minette Batters, President of NFU That was primarily because of the WTOs Most Favoured Nations rules, where you cant have one rule for the EU and one rule for the rest of the world. UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE): You have a Conservative leadership battle that ends up with Theresa May becoming Prime Minister. And I remember her saying to me, I had no idea how complicated Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) rules were. Of course, dont forget, then Covid-19 is hogging the news agenda, so its even harder to get your voice heard. From my point of view, I wanted to keep the market, the business, alive, bearing in mind that these are perishable products that we are dealing with. Still, the same Chequers discussions are being played out. We do have to be all things to all men, whether its arable, livestock, dairy, horticulture plus all those cross-cutting issues of environment, land use, tenancy issues. When you look at this country, 70% of it is rural. It has got friction, where none existed before. Were you at all engaged in the discussions there, or were you very surprised when the Government suddenly unveiled that as its preferred approach? You know, weve got a government that now is saying its banning live animal exports, and it wants to have higher standards across the board of food production. We convened our council, our sovereign body, again, at a special meeting in London. Because whatever we allow Australia to do, dont forget weve then got New Zealand, weve got Canada, and of course, overlaying all of that, weve got the Trans-Pacific deals. Minette Batters During a gap year between school and Durham University, 1968, Minette volunteered in Israel with The Bridge in Britain, working on a kibbutz and in a delinquent boys home in Jerusalem. But it isnt an opportunity if we lose access to the EU market. 2001 The CWA Gold Dagger Award (shortlist): 2006 Quick Reads Learners' Favourite award: 2007 Coventry Inspiration Book Award: This page was last edited on 5 April 2023, at 20:13. Minette was the first crime/thriller writer to win three major prizes with her first three books. I think the EU member states were always going to be deeply suspicious of us lowering food standards. [2] Walters spent a year at the Abbey School in Reading, Berkshire, before winning a Foundation Scholarship at the Godolphin boarding school in Salisbury. UKICE: Did you have any qualms about becoming NFU President in the middle of this process? MB: In the end, as Deputy President of the NFU, I did take a public position, which was that, on the information we had, we would be better off remaining in the EU. Worst of all, you didnt know whether you had a market. All sorts of different people, in different places, dealing with different things. To get to wholesale ways of trading, whereby you have one truck full of one thing, is going to be easier to resolve. It is no good going to government, just saying, I want. The catastrophic part came from the fact that, with more than 70% of our exports going into the EU, we would face their very high tariff wall which, for agricultural products like beef and lamb and dairy, was an impossible economic ladder to climb and at the same time, as a nation we import more than 30% of the food we consume from the EU. The romantic novelettes were written in approximately two weeks and published under a pseudonym that remains a secret. The story contains many of the same themes that occur in her earlier books, and, along with its sequel, The Turn of Midnight, published in 2018, draws readers into the frightening reality of the Black Death. She graduated from Trevelyan College, Durham in 1971 with a BA in French. Those three things together, for a long-term business- I would say, if you werent worried then, you werent actively engaged. Go to them, saying, This is the solution to that problem. Whitehall has driven so much of EU rules and regulations for agriculture and the environment, so when we bring it back home, weve got to be able to make sure that it works across those four countries. Minette Batters Her novels are often set against real backgrounds and real events to draw her readers into the 'reality' of what she is writing about. Minette Batters The EU, of course, are taking that to say, Products are coming into the UK so easily, not getting checked, this is going to be your policy for the rest of the world. And of course, we still had the Wageningen work, which proved to be pivotal in having those discussions, and the principles. Yes, we did have very high-quality affordable food, the most affordable in Europe, the third most affordable in the world. UKICE: Whether or not it was a majority of farmers, some farmers at least were keen to leave the EU. It launched some plans for new tariffs, which were quite interesting, and it also made clear that it was prioritising regulatory autonomy, sovereignty, over removing friction. You know, vote for this, because it will be cheaper. So, having been the preferred destination for European seasonal workers to come to, we now had this huge challenge that we were going to pull up the drawbridge. And I think the likes of Daniel Kawczynski, too, supported it, on that very basis. And a support aid budget of 3bn, a lot of talk is made about that. That Wageningen piece of research was enormously helpful in how we continued to have the conversations with our members, across our democratic structure, because the NFU is totally democratic in the way that it operates and having independent economic analysis helped underpin the evidence base. Were talking about England only- are we going to have more complexity within the internal market? Will either one? Tom Bradshaw NFU Deputy President Tom farms in partnership with his wife, Emily, and his parents in North Essex. At the moment, I feel weve got a lot of warm words, and we just need to know the nuts and bolts of what the genuine ambition is for this country. Her first full-length novel, The Ice House, was published in 1992. I remember sitting opposite him at a Sector Food Council meeting and George Eustice remembers this, I might add, as clearly as I do, because he was in the room, and Liam Fox saying, Brexit is going to be great, because we can bring in cheap raw ingredients and add value to them under the Union Jack. minette batters family To our minds, this had been a democratic decision of the nation. WebOn 19 April our Environmental Change & #FoodSecurity inquiry heard from @HenryDimbleby; @Minette_Batters, @NFUtweets; Peter Dawson, @dairyuk; @suepritch, @FFC_Commission; and Chris Brown, @asda. The first country to implement animal welfare legislation was the UK. So, Australia is really just the start of what this is going to look like. If you want to find a solution, youve got to pitch them as a solution and youve got to work out what that actually looks like. She turned freelance in 1977 but continued to write for magazines to cover her bills. There were challenges across Europe and here with the weather that we have in the winter, so there was an application put in for emergency use authorisation on Cruiser neonicotinoid. Then there was the permanent focus, bearing in mind that successive governments have driven people out of doing what are deemed not to be office-based jobs, I suppose. MB: I dont think we should underestimate the challenge you refer to of, not only piloting policy, but piloting delivery. So, influencing is going to be important. Yet were hearing about a race to achieve a trade deal with Australia before the G7 Summit in Cornwall in June. I think we all knew what problems were coming, but I think the challenge was, what was going to be done about them? [2] Walters turned freelance in 1977 but continued to write for magazines to cover her bills. So, I think we pretty soon realised that this was going to be difficult. MINETTE BATTERS: I have huge admiration for farmers across the world, not least our cousins in Australia and New Zealand. I guess its knowing that you are going into a period of enormous change, but that change hasnt actually happened yet. We knew that we had to be able to inform our members of facts. UKICE: If you look at the whole period together, farming is obviously one of those areas where the big decisions used to be taken in Brussels, but theyre now being taken in a mix of London, Cardiff, Edinburgh. UKICE: Just on that, the Government has also moved to be more flexible on using neonicotinoids than it was before-. Was the move to George Eustice an easy transition? NFU President. Well, that will be really, really damaging. Weve always maintained that, in the UK, we dont want to lower standards, but there has always been a concern as to what imports and the future of international trade will look like. UKICE: Did any of your members, who might have been inclined to support Leave before the referendum, have second thoughts? MINETTE BATTERS minette batters familymilwaukee battery lights flashing back and forth minette batters family. It was around that time, and certainly when I came in, that I said, Weve got to start talking food, because food is what resonates with people, farming doesnt. MB: There was an element of, Goodness, what is this going to look like? It was quite a new way of working, I think, in the department. You were planting crops and you were making business decisions, having no idea whether you had a market or not. I dont think DIT and Defra are aligned in their thinking. Given he was one of the greatest proponents in the Brexit debate, of isnt it great, food is going to be cheaper. Minette Batters - Her Salisbury Story MB: No, I think its an enormous challenge within government. So, lets talk about food, lets talk about the environment, animal welfare. Andrea Leadsom, a leading light of the Leave campaign, moves over to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), to replace Liz Truss, and the establishment of the Department for International Trade (DIT), to show that new trade deals were going to be a big thing for the new government. Covid, and the out-of-home sector being offline, is masking the issue at the moment, of what things will look like going forward. Youve got to have agriculture as a key part of trade policy. Im not so sure. Minette Batters could not have chosen a more difficult time to become the first female president of the National Farmers Union (NFU). MB: I think there were some. I think a lot of people were quite relieved to see George staying in the Department, with a level of continuity and knowledge of farming. Who's who at the NFU NFU President Minette Batters UK egg production has fallen to its lowest level in nine years. Her first full-length crime novel, The Ice House, was published in 1992. WebBrowse 72 minette batters photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more photos and images. Or did they think it was just a completely unacceptable attempt to cherry-pick the single market? I cant speak for the Ulster Farmers Union. I definitely felt that was a moment in time. Its been very much about get a degree, go to university, work in services. In competition with works by other best-selling authors, such as Ruth Rendell, Maeve Binchy and Joanna Trollope, Chickenfeed has won two awards as the best novella in the Quick Reads genre. So, the Government has got to stick to its word on this. We had implemented laws that were based on food values, and yet we werent prepared to look at that in other parts of the world. But its a classic case of, youve got to pitch people. Do you get the sense that this is a long-term policy, that the Government doesnt want to invest in the border? He was there as Minister of State for Farming beforehand, under Michael, so we knew George very, very well. Minette Batters is the current president of the National Farmers Union (NFU) of England and Wales, a position she has held for three years. Photograph: Adrian The Australian head negotiator heads up the Trans-Pacific negotiations as well. I dont think that agriculture and food have been given, effectively, the opportunity to empower a UK workforce. Minette Batters is the first female President of the National Farmers' Union in its 111-year history. So, I continue to hold them to account on that. That worked, because everybody opened the doors and said, Really? Brexit Witness Archive - Minette Batters - UK in a changing Europe What difference did it make to you in engaging with the Government when Michael Gove, on rehabilitation into the Cabinet, took over from Andrea Leadsom, and started to make a lot of noise about what post-Brexit policy might look like? So, there is a lot of water, I would say, to go under the bridge before that question can be answered. Walters describes herself as an exploratory writer who never uses a plot scheme, begins with simple premises, has no idea 'whodunit' until halfway through a story, but who remains excited about each novel because she, along with her reader, wants to know what happens next. Minette Batters The NFU wanted MPs to have more say on trade of agrifood. To undermine our farmers, when you want them to have regulation that costs a lot of money, and undermine them with cheap products coming in that dont even meet the first rung of the ladder, was going to do one thing, and that was going to put our farmers out of business. And what I learnt quite early on, and has subsequently become a key element of NFU work, was that if you have a problem, work up the solution. At the end of the day, you can have the best policy in the world, but if you cant deliver it, its a disaster for Treasury, its a disaster for farmers. Its obviously still a strange time, because weve still got Covid. So, he did, in the early days, in 2019, sign up to the importance of the Trade and Agriculture Commission, writing in ink that he agreed with the concept and would look to establish such a body. Some of which, like David Frost, its been impossible to meet. UKICE: You dont represent farmers in Northern Ireland, because theyre represented by the Ulster Farmers Union. The gnarly issues that remain today are still to be resolved, and who knows how we will resolve them. What was your expectation about how the Government would involve farming representatives in the development of their position on Brexit, going forward? I know where that negotiating team are, so, either one side or the other side has to capitulate between now and June. WebMinette met her husband Alec Walters while she was at Durham and they married in 1978. So, we kicked off this campaign. It was about saying that this needed to be fair and equitable to all. Scoops about National Farmers Union . Her husband, Malcolm, is not involved UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE): As David Cameron committed to having the 2016 referendum, first in the Bloomberg speech, but then after the success in the 2015 election, what was on farmers minds? We ended up facing three no deals, essentially, in the end, all of which were avoided. UKICE: At the moment, we have this sort of asymmetric border, dont we? The fundamentals that we had taken for granted free and frictionless access to the largest trading block in the world, and free movement of people, which gave us access to a competent and reliable workforce were front and centre. Were now in May, and looking at these changes coming in for 2022. UKICE: How did you think the Department was coping? Rain will drench Britain today as Met Office warns thunderstorms But I wondered what conversations you were having about the potential problems of what we now call east/west trade, and north/south trade, within the island of Ireland, if Brexit happened. Michael was very bought into that. MB: No, we immediately got our thinking together. In a farming business, when youre looking at the long-term, youre putting rams with the sheep, youre putting bulls with cows, youre planting crops, all of which are focused on the following year, so youre having to plan a long time ahead. airline pilot retirement age 70; what happened to mark reilly strong island; east carolina dean's list spring 2021; the frequency table shows the distribution of 1,200 students; lessons on stealing for students; Did you think, I need this like a hole in the head, I could just go back to my farm and live a quiet life, rather than get stuck into this political morass? Apr 13 2023. So, it continues just to be a live issue that will have to be overcome, at some stage. minette batters South West farmers say 'beef doesn't have to cost the earth WebMinette Batters is known for Midlands Today (1964), Kay Burley @Breakfast (2019) and Sky News Today (2001). I always remember Faisal Islam saying that agriculture had managed to beat the rest of manufacturing in getting its voice heard in this arena. minette batters Minette Batters net worth Feb, 2023 - People Ai Minette Batters, NFU President NFUonline