UK: Farming leaders pay tribute to Jim Paice
Mr Paice, who has been replaced by Liberal Democrat MP David Heath, was widely seen as a friend of the farming industry during his two years in the post.
He was the architect of the English badger cull policy, drove moves to cut farming red tape, took a hands-on role in improving the performance of the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) and pushed for the introduction of a Grocery Code Adjudicator.
While in some policy areas, notably CAP reform, he took positions that did not sit comfortably with farmers, the overall sentiment at the Livestock 2012 event in Birmingham, where Mr Paice had been when he received the fateful call, was one of loss.
NFU president Peter Kendall said, “I would like to say on behalf of the farming industry a big, big thank-you to Jim Paice for working hard for the farming industry. The challenge now is making sure we have really strong - and credible, courteous and consistent - working relationship with the new Secretary of State (Owen Paterson) and the new Farming Minister.”
Tenant Farmers Association chief executive George Dunn said: “Jim has been a tremendous force within Defra and it will certainly be an extremely sad loss but we have got to work with the new team.”
RABDF chairman David Cotton said Mr Paice’s departure was ‘disappointing’ and praised his work with the voluntary code. “We have had a good relationship with Jim Paice and we will look to the same with the new Ministers we are given,” he said.
Mr Paice, who, at 63, had been one of the oldest Ministers in David Cameron’s Government, had a long career in farming before becoming and MP in for South East Cambridgeshire in 1987 and still keeps a smallholding.
He held junior Ministerial roles in MAFF and the Department for Employment and Education while the Conservatives were in Government and then became a spokesman for agriculture when his party lost the 1997 election.
After shadow roles at the Home Office between 2001 and 2004 he served as Shadow Agriculture Minister until the formation of the coalition Government in May 2010 when he took up the post in Government.
Speaking at the Livestock 2012 event on Tuesday morning, Mr Paice admitted he was uncertain about his future but made it clear he wanted to stay in his post.
Source: www.farmersguardian.com