who is minette batters husband
She turned freelance in 1977 but continued to write for magazines to cover her bills. Minette Batters (MB): Well, George has been in Defra a long time. If we dont do that, we will see things rotting in the fields, simply because we havent got the capability to pick them. In this conversation. What we feel is that the dialogue must bring a pragmatic solution at some stage. So, we kicked off this campaign. UKICE: Just on that, the Government has also moved to be more flexible on using neonicotinoids than it was before-. I dont think that agriculture and food have been given, effectively, the opportunity to empower a UK workforce. DB6031P06 LOCAL farmer Minette Batters gives us an insight into daily life on her farm near Downton with UKICE: Weve heard about asparagus rotting in the fields, strawberries unpicked, daffodils unpicked. Given he was one of the greatest proponents in the Brexit debate, of isnt it great, food is going to be cheaper. 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. She won well over 30 races in her own right which included racing at MB: I think weve always recognised, from day one, how difficult Ireland is. Boris Johnson was operating from a seismic majority, and so they have the power base to do whatever they want. It was a formidable coalition. 21 February 2023 Minette Batters: Food cannot be the poor relation to the environment Minette Batters, head of the National Farmers Union (NFU), doubles down on food security in the face of green farm subsidy reforms. And I think George Eustice described this as seeing me have a sort of nuclear moment, where I nearly erupted through the ceiling. That is going to be, I think, quite a challenge, especially on the back of Covid, in terms of making the case for future investment. What we are seeing played out and its showing more with fish is that groupage is really difficult. In her role as If government is going to introduce legislation on higher welfare, it needs to effectively put its money where its mouth is, and make sure that our procurement is only sourcing at those standards. 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. They still are. That worked, because everybody opened the doors and said, Really? Or was it like the rest of the population, where views seemed to be fairly entrenched? NFU President. MB: I did. But I was well aware that wed burnt quite a lot of bridges with people, who felt that the NFU had behaved badly. Five generations of her family have run the farm but, like the new NFU president, she is the first woman to take the reins. All rights reserved. We are really asking Defra to keep looking at the impact assessments. MB: Really concerned. It means that the future absolutely has to be got right, and delivery has to work. We convened our council, our sovereign body, again, at a special meeting in London. Minette Batters, who is the president of the National Farmers Union (NFU) of England and Wales and has been called the most powerful farmer in the UK, was 48-52% was always going to be challenging, divisive, but to have another referendum, we didnt believe would have made any difference at all. We knew that, during Theresa Mays time at the Home Office, she ended the global scheme, and that had been an exemplar scheme. So, there is a lot of water, I would say, to go under the bridge before that question can be answered. Find ratings and reviews for the newest movie and TV shows. Trade is such dry policy, that a lot of people, particularly in the media, were not taking the time to understand it. Did you go back and say to the NFU, This is what we now need to do? Worst of all, you didnt know whether you had a market. Wales is almost in a slightly more similar position to England. Minette met her husband Alec Walters while she was at Durham and they married in 1978. Again, it was the engagement with Number 10 that got the global seasonal scheme of 30,000 over the line. MB: No, its a massively significant issue. Actually, Lord Plumb joined the discussion and Sir David Naish joined that discussion, as well as other previous Presidents. We decided that in order to be compliant with the Electoral Commission rules, which of course had limited spending for unregistered bodies to 10,000, that we would need to take a position to comply with those rules. UKICE: The perception, for those of us that dont know, is that a lot of farmers did vote Leave, partly because they just hated the bureaucracy of the Common Agricultural Policy, and thought it got in their way. Michael didnt know that we were going to say that, nobody in Defra knew that we were going to say it. 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, who is the president of the National Farmers Union (NFU) of England and Wales and has been called the most powerful farmer in the UK, was Beat government by ten years? Some of which, like David Frost, its been impossible to meet. It wasnt actually needed in the end, because the weather changed. Do you think the Government has yet worked out beyond some of the things youve been worried about like the ban on live animal exports the opportunities of post-Brexit Britain, on regulating differently, more smartly, being more pro-innovation? Weve now got the two licences in place for that. Minette Batters (MB): Its a really odd bubble that were living in at the moment. We wanted government to put its money where its mouth was. Minette Batters on her farm near Downton. It runs, I think, central government and its departments for under a month. Yet were hearing about a race to achieve a trade deal with Australia before the G7 Summit in Cornwall in June. I have to say, at that time, that was so needed, because we had to work through a process. Views expressed in this piece are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of UK in a Changing Europe. Her father died from kidney failure in 1960. Vegan celebrities like Joaquin Phoenix who speak out about animal agriculture have been accused of hurting livestock farmers mental health.. Minette Batters, president of the National Farmers Union (NFU), has accused Phoenix of hurting the mental wellbeing of farmers as a result of his vegan advocacy. UKICE: Rather intriguingly, George Eustice, given his background, put down one of the indicative votes proposing UK accession to EFTA. She was first elected to the post in 2018 for two years, and was re-elected in March 2020. The Department for International Trade, of course, is focused on getting trade deals done. Minette Batters (MB): In the run-up, I think we were beginning to think, This is pretty difficult for a membership organisation. She runs the farm largely on her own, and her husband works in another industry. Which means there were nearly a billion less eggs produced in 2022 compared to 2019. It was quite a new way of working, I think, in the department. But ultimately, there were two sides to all of this, and the UK wasnt the only party in the negotiations. In order to work through a process, people had to understand the technical detail that underpinned all of this. But then he left. So, I am enormously worried, because the Government has committed, publicly, time and time again, that it will not undermine our farmers. 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. And of course, a lot of European workers were working within the food and farming sector, so that very quickly became, like trade, one of the things that we had taken for granted, that we were now very aware we couldnt take for granted anymore. Youve got to have agriculture as a key part of trade policy. So, that was really compelling. They, of course, looked at the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) impact assessment in 2018, so were very much wanting them to look at that again. We also knew that campaigning on either side, for a membership organisation, would be really counter-productive. Of course, getting your voice heard in all of this was quite a challenge, I think, for the goods sector. 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. Theyve got a lot to do. Straight away she ruled out being part of the Single Market, and we had those big speeches at Lancaster House, Mansion House, that were hard-line Brexit positions. 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. Or did you wait to see what on earth the Government did, to fill in this void? Her novels are often set against real backgrounds and real events to draw her readers into the 'reality' of what she is writing about. And of course, we still had the Wageningen work, which proved to be pivotal in having those discussions, and the principles. Chequers, if Im honest, allowed that to happen. So, we had a very good discussion at NFU Council in April 2016. My predecessor, Lord Henry Plumb, had taken a position when we entered the Common Market in 1973. The end of this will be judged in the years to come. National Farmers' Union president Minette Batters has urged ministers to tackle an absolute crisis in the food sector, saying that she is determined to solve this situation. You were planting crops and you were making business decisions, having no idea whether you had a market or not. And we established some principles of what we were looking for, going forward, whether it was Leave or Remain. The romantic novelettes were written in approximately two weeks and published under a pseudonym that remains a secret. What is needed?. WebBrowse 72 minette batters photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more photos and images. I havent been able to get a meeting with Lord Frost yet. 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. UKICE: Weve got Defra about to implement the new farm payment scheme. Chequers, I think brought a level of understanding. That was quite a moment of recognition for me. Within six months of that new government I was conscious that wed led the standards campaign. During a gap year between school and Durham University, 1968, Walters volunteered in Israel with The Bridge in Britain, working on a kibbutz and in a delinquent boys' home in Jerusalem. I went out to the Republic of Ireland to the massive ploughing match that they have, talked with the Irish Farmers Association, as we have done for our entire time, within COPA-COGECA, and also visited the Northern Ireland border and our colleagues in UFU. MB: Yes. For some sectors, if you take upland livestock, youre looking at an 80% drop in farm business income, which is enormous. What did you think of that process, working with the Government on getting people ready for a whole bunch of really complicated border formalities that they havent had to bother with, to nearly as great an extent, over the last 45 years? I think there was a sort of realisation then that, actually, they hadnt got this quite right, and they needed to be talking about farmers, about food production. Im not so sure. Do you think it signalled a significant change of direction? UKICE: Did you get a sense that government actually appreciated the lengths of those lead times in farming? Minette Batters (MB): It was interesting, wasnt it, when Theresa May came in? MB: Youve absolutely hit the nail on the head, because nobody did understand it. Walters was the first crime/thriller writer to win three major prizes with her first three books. So, a no deal and I will stand by it forever and a day would have been absolutely disastrous for British agriculture. Australia is the sort of precedent FTA because that will be the first one, potentially, that is concluded. And this, I think, still remains a very complex political issue. When that government came in in December 2019, there was, I felt, quite a bit of rebuilding to do with backbench MPs because of Brexit. 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. UKICE: We saw the very hostile reaction from EU political leaders to Chequers, but I wondered whether you got any sense from your sister bodies in France, Denmark, Netherlands, places that were concerned about UK lowering standards and the implications for that on agri-food farming, that they thought Chequers was quite a clever wheeze? 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. And we got that. 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. How worried were you that the Government was very keen on a deal with the US? MB: No, I think its an enormous challenge within government. That was the frustration. Contact: Agent | Publisher | General inquiries. But it was always going to need a bespoke model. We did still have the practical issue though to register as either Remain or Leave with the Electoral Commission so as not to fall foul of the impending spending limits on our activity. MB: Covid, in many ways, with food supply, helped, actually, because the engagement was there with agriculture and food and government. We recognised how split they were, but all sides were united in that they had a complete thirst for information. Are those scare stories, or is there a significant issue with labour shortages? So, that is all good. Its not perfect by any means. Minette Batters - President, National Farmers Union of England and Wales. Exports are down though, with specialist cheesemakers and products such as fresh cream taking a massive hit. We have commissioned some independent research to look at the viability of the new schemes, of how much will be lost, effectively, from BPS, and how much can be made up through either the agri-environment schemes or through the sustainable farming incentive. And everybody was adamant that we could not have a border on the island of Ireland. On that basis, it was catastrophic. 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. We havent prioritised different skill sets of job opportunity in the UK. 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. We didnt want farmers to go out of business. Real life consequences But it isnt an opportunity if we lose access to the EU market. Its a massively significant employer. [13], Walters' first five books were adapted for television by the BBC and her eighth book, Acid Row, is currently[when?] Tom Bradshaw NFU Deputy President Tom farms in partnership with his wife, Emily, and his parents in North Essex. Weve got to make sure that we build what I would call bridges to more mechanisation, more automation. The first country to implement animal welfare legislation was the UK. Webshreveport obituaries minette batters family. Walters's second novel, The Sculptress, which was inspired in part by an encounter Walters had as a volunteer prison visitor,[2] won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award. MB: I think the biggest challenge, if Im honest, is the number of different departments, different people, dealing with different things. Have you been pressurising government-? Walters joined IPC Magazines as a sub-editor in 1972 and became an editor of Woman's Weekly Library the following year. So, for us to have stayed on the fence without a position would have, I think, looked quite extraordinary. There is a lot to lose if we dont get it right, and there is a lot to gain if we do it well. I think it poses big questions for international trade. So, lets talk about food, lets talk about the environment, animal welfare. They have two sons: Roland, who is married to Charlotte, and Philip, who is married to Sarah: and three granddaughters: Madeleine, Martha and Hermione. That was a manifesto commitment, dont forget, in the 2019 election not to undermine our farmers in future FTAs. MB: It was a worry in the context of how it was set out. Wedding and Corporate events venue. Bring everybody into the room, have a massive discussion, and then he would leave the room and you were never quite sure as to who had been listened to. In 2019 Minette was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset. WebMinette runs a tenanted family farm in Wiltshire. Michael was very bought into that. Joanna Partridge NFU president Minette Batters on her farm in south Wiltshire with her Simmental cross cattle and dog, Basil. We had an extraordinary meeting of our council, which is our sovereign body, made up of two representatives, effectively, from every county across England and Wales. What we have to recognise is none of these things can be done in isolation. Minette 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. Well, that will be really, really damaging. Did you target any of the backbenchers who were holding out? Well, we still dont actually know, publicly, what trade policy is. MB: I think it was a phenomenal rebrand for the department, really. 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. Its a tense time right now. 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? The daffodil-growers in Cornwall will have faced enormous losses. Her third historical novel, The Swift and the Harrier, was published in 2021. Home; Service. And how is the state going to be able to pay for them to effectively just plant trees? 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. To get to wholesale ways of trading, whereby you have one truck full of one thing, is going to be easier to resolve. I suppose you can say that, in the end, the voice was heard, even if it took three botched attempts to avoid it. They have two sons, Roland and Philip. That, above all else, United Kingdom farmers remained the number one supplier of choice to their own marketplace. WebMinette met her husband Alec Walters while she was at Durham and they married in 1978. After a pause of 10 years in which she wrote two novellas, Walters has decided to write historical novels. What was your expectation about how the Government would involve farming representatives in the development of their position on Brexit, going forward? That is still ongoing, and we still dont know what the future of checks is going to look like. I think we were quite at arms length, I would say, from influencing the European thinking. MB: There is a lot of talk that says farmers voted unanimously Leave, but I dont think they were any different to anyone else at all. Dont get me wrong, I think the NFU is really optimistic about the future, we really believe we can be leaders in climate-friendly food production. You have to go there with what I used to describe to Michael a magpie moment, the glittery jewel that makes government think, Oh yes, that looks exciting. But do bear in mind that a precedent had already been set. I had a call the other day, with COPA-COGECA, listening to the Commission and DG SANTE. And a support aid budget of 3bn, a lot of talk is made about that. Minette Batters could not have chosen a more difficult time to become the first female president of the National Farmers Union (NFU). What were your early engagements with the new May administration like? [5] The first of these novels is The Last Hours, set during the Black Death, followed by a sequel, The Turn of Midnight. 30 Apr 2023 11:52:44 And, as someone quite well known to you, were you relieved that it was someone who had a track record on farming? And at the moment, what we are finding is that there are so many moving parts to the level of engagement with different trading partners. Do not just go to government with X, Y and Z as a problem. Batterss 17-year-old twins, who are studying for their A-levels, havent decided if they will take over running the farm, but it remains a family business. 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. UKICE: But this was a government that made very clear that it was willing to contemplate no deal, to get out by 31 October. buss type w 30 amp fuse replacement; Books. But Defra, government, really only focused on bail-out packages in a no deal scenario, that would allow farmers to effectively restructure. dune fremen language translator. +(91)-9821210096 | paula deen meatloaf with brown gravy. Its worth pointing out that, at that time, there was not even one side of policy on A4 of what leaving the EU would look like. And its still not resolved, which just shows how complex it is. UKICE: In terms of getting ready, we had the negotiations going on, but there was a need to prepare for a rather uncertain change of regime at the end of 2020, when the transition ended. Menu. We wanted MPs to be able to know all aspects of those free trade agreements, what was in them, what the impact would be, and we wanted them, ultimately, to have the final say. Its really key, though, to say on the information available, to remain in the EU. Youve got all the challenges with Stranraer and other places about access points. Walters was born in Bishop's Stortford in 1949 to Samuel Jebb and Colleen Jebb. Covid-19 has probably really shone a light on our diets, that a lot of them are not good diets, and we all need to have more fruit and veg in them. I cant speak for the Ulster Farmers Union. I have very good engagement with the Department for International Trade at all levels, and with Defra at all levels. I always remember Faisal Islam saying that agriculture had managed to beat the rest of manufacturing in getting its voice heard in this arena. 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. Because of the size of our population, because of the size of the sector, food and farming employs one in eight people. Or was that something you thought was a big opportunity? So, the need for the NFU to get this right, to not drop a ball, to be focused on what is needed, to be the lobbyist extraordinaire ultimately, the weight of that falling on my shoulders has felt like a massive responsibility. UKICE: When you saw the Northern Ireland Protocol that the Prime Minister had agreed to, did you anticipate that it was going to cause what appeared to be quite a lot of problems for east-west trade in agrifood products? Its only when commodity prices are impacted, and the future support mechanism is changed- if that isnt right, that is when things will start to erupt, and that is what weve got to try and avoid. You didnt know what your workforce was going to look like, you didnt know what the future policy was going to look like. MB: Well, it was well known, my constant mantra on no deal being catastrophic for farmers. MB: From the very beginning, weve been part of what have been called the F4 Groups. But his way of operating is what I would call big tent politics. We knew that we had to be able to inform our members of facts. Or did they think it was just a completely unacceptable attempt to cherry-pick the single market? Were they particularly worried about that? Minettes goal is to make history as exciting and readable as any of her psychological crime thrillers. We ended up facing three no deals, essentially, in the end, all of which were avoided. UKICE: But its also consulting, isnt it, on gene editing and other issues like that, which the Government sees as a big new possibility to appear more open to innovation than the EU. He was there as Minister of State for Farming beforehand, under Michael, so we knew George We appointed Nick von Westenholz to head up a team of four specialist advisers to consider the implications and develop our strategy. You were looking at, I think it was David Dimbleby and at the arrows and thinking, No, that cant be right. To our minds, this had been a democratic decision of the nation. 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. minette batters familymilwaukee battery lights flashing back and forth minette batters family. There have been challenges. There isnt a silver bullet, but ignoring the situation and saying it isnt important is not a way forwards. It took two and a half years to write and was rejected by numerous publishing houses until Maria Rejt, Macmillan Publishers, bought it for 1250. I would pose the question what does that mean for government buying standards? They have two sons, Roland and Philip. The Australian head negotiator heads up the Trans-Pacific negotiations as well. Weve had endless statements, from the Prime Minister, from Liz Truss and others, about, Britains farmers will not be undermined in future trade agreements. Minette has written another entry in the Quick Reads series entitled A Dreadful Murder for World Book Day 2013. The coalition showed that this was about consumers, this was about everybody believing in it. We didnt want protection of our food standards written in blood, we just wanted it put in ink. She graduated from Trevelyan College, Durham in 1971 with a BA in French. So a no deal meant that we would be dealing with the EU the same way as we would be dealing with the rest of the world in the absence of any trade deals. In September 2007, Walters released her fourteenth book, The Chameleon's Shadow, in the UK. She supplemented her salary by writing romantic novelettes, short stories, and serials in her Checking everything against the principles was pretty key, because if you are leading an organisation, which I wasnt then, Meurig Raymond was, it is really critical to have that solid evidence based foundation from which to operate, and from which to build our policy and lobbying position from. Were you very engaged with what the UK was looking for in the TCA on that? Was the move to George Eustice an easy transition? 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. Minette Batters is the current president of the National Farmers Union (NFU) of England and Wales, a position she has held for three years. I think it is always challenging when you work with a majority government. Youve got Liz Truss leading on trade with the rest of the world. What we wanted to do primarily was to open doors, doors that were shut due to some seeing agriculture as a problem. UKICE: Are officials more accessible, if you cant get in to talk to Lord Frost? Its been very much about get a degree, go to university, work in services. So, it continues just to be a live issue that will have to be overcome, at some stage. Trying to make sure that we had all areas of our membership covered was absolutely critical. Defra had always been a slightly second, third, ranked department, partly because so much of its policy was run from Europe rather than domestically.