Livestock production in firing line

By Joe Watson

Published:

THE UK Government's farcical vision for cost and responsibility sharing has at last been revealed.

The draft animal health bill delivered by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn on Monday make astonishing reading – much like a J.K. Rowling novel and whose Harry Potter character bears a striking resemblance to the vegetarian farming minister.

Mr Benn's proposals are no more than a tax on livestock farming, a sector that Gordon Brown’s government seems determined to destroy given the Department of Health's very embarrassing – and subsequently withdrawn – remarks in December that if a third of the cattle and sheep were removed the planet and the nation’s health would be saved.

Mr Benn's plan is to give industry an alleged say in deciding animal health policy and the defence of the nation's borders against a whole range of nasty exotic diseases that infect livestock, horses and pets.

He does that through giving agriculture a place on the board of a new quango that from 2012 could take over animal health issues from government.

Strange that animal welfare – integrally linked to health – is to remain in the government's domain. But then that is hardly surprising as it prevents farmers from ordering the cull of badgers that are widely acknowledged for spreading bovine tuberculosis (bTB), a disease that is now endemic in parts of England and Wales and which last year resulted in 40,000 cattle being compulsorily slaughtered at the taxpayers' expense. Obviously Whitehall loves badgers more than farmers.

The plan appears all good. But then the sting in the tail are the levies Mr Benn wants to impose to cover disease costs, including the spiralling bill for bTB which his government has helped spread through its inaction.

The Treasury is responsible for deciding the size of levy, but has yet to publish the finance bill needed to bring them into place. You can, however, be sure they will be at the upper end of the expected £20-£98million annual cost.

In all the guff that came out on Monday was a line from Mr Benn who trumpeted the handling of the bluetongue virus in England as the inspiration for the half-baked cost and responsibility agenda. That it delivered results is, however, open to question as it was far from the success the rose-tinted spectacle wearing Hilary believes.

It was England's decision to voluntarily vaccinate livestock against bluetongue that forced Scotland into a compulsorily regime to protect animals here at a cost of £7million as our border was at risk because only 20% of stock in northern England were jabbed.

England’s industry is furious at the quango and levy plan, and rightly so as it puts Britain ahead of European Commission proposals on the issue. Cost and responsibility sharing has a place. Whitehall’s vision is, however, one that should be culled, a bit like the badgers that spread bTB.