Common Agricultural Policy

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 9:45 pm on 15 May 1996.

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Photo of Mr Gwilym Jones Mr Gwilym Jones , Cardiff North 9:45, 15 May 1996

I shall try to answer the questions that hon. Members have asked. I know that my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the hon. Member for Tiverton (Mrs. Browning), wants to address several issues tomorrow.

I like to think that the hon. Member for Edinburgh, East is essentially a nice man. I know that he is aware of the Labour party's problem of being irresponsible on this issue and unfit to govern in general. I prefer to think that he is a nice man, and that he has the awful spectre of the hon. Member for Peckham (Ms Harman) hanging over him—she has done so much to create chaos on this subject.

However, the hon. Member for Peckham is not the only hon. Member to have created chaos in this regard. If hon. Members doubt that, I refer them to what the hon. Member for Carmarthen (Mr. Williams) said this afternoon. The hon. Member for East Londonderry (Mr. Ross) made a necessary intervention on the hon. Gentleman and reminded him to be more temperate in his language, as it was being recorded in Hansard.

I hoped that, when the hon. Member for Carmarthen spoke about the multiplier effect, he would be as conscious as I am of the situation in west Wales and what has happened there as a result of the Sea Empress disaster. Indeed, I imagined that he would be the type of person who would want to put the sticker that I have in my hand on the back of his car. It states, "I'm still eating British beef." I obtained the stickers in west Wales last week from the Pembrokeshire Women's Farmers Union. They are now being displayed on my official car and on my private car. I hope that all hon. Members will take the opportunity to hit home that message.

The hon. Member for Carmarthen talked about the Government going to Europe with contrition and remorse. It was then that I realised that he was being unrealistic. He said that the Government should do that if they were serious about eradicating BSE—in fact, it would be a disservice to the farming community and to Britain in general. My hon. Friend the Member for North Dorset (Mr. Baker) was being sarcastic when he described the hon. Gentleman as a distinguished scientist. When the hon. Gentleman told the House about the number of farmers in his constituency, I thought that his remarks would benefit the Conservative candidate there. He brought home the way in which the Labour party is writing off the rural vote in Wales—and the rural vote elsewhere in the United Kingdom.