February 15th, 2011 by Caroline Stocks
After the glamour of the Soil Association conference in Manchester last week, this week I’m at the NEC in Birmingham for the National Farmers Union’s annual meeting. With no general election on the immediate horizon, union president Peter Kendall in the hot seat for another year and a DEFRA team widely seen as sympathetic towards [...]
September 17th, 2010 by Caroline Stocks
Mr News Editor, Mr Chief Reporter and I went into London on Tuesday to have lunch with DEFRA farm minister Jim Paice. We were meeting him ahead of his official announcement about the possibility of allowing farmers to cull badgers to help combat bovine tuberculosis. The idea was we’d get the low-down on the consultation [...]
May 4th, 2010 by Caroline Stocks
So Gordon Brown’s the ‘worst Prime Minister ever’, according to Manish Sood, a prospective Labour MP from Norwich. If Mr Sood hadn’t realised before, he’s now learning that slating your prospective boss like that isn’t the way to make friends and get ahead. Yes, he might have endeared himself to a few voters in his [...]