Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 26 August 2020
Agriculture is the beating heart of our rural economy and we must never tire of promoting farming as a good, in and of itself. To break or weaken the connection between farming and our rural communities is to accept as inevitable rural depopulation and a managed decline in our countryside.
In that context, farm and rural support payments remain central to the future not only of Scottish agriculture but of rural Scotland. It is disappointing, as we enter the final stage of this legislative process, that the bill does little better than scrape over the low technical bar that was set for it.
It is doubly disappointing that that is combined with the fact that we have not yet seen the future policy group’s report, which I feel today joins a long list of missed opportunities for the Scottish National Party Government to chart a course for rural Scotland. Fortunately though, for the cabinet secretary, the clock is ticking and we agree that the bill must be supported—but not without some regret.
We think that the bill and the cabinet secretary fail to recognise that policy and process are often linked, which is why we have heard heated discussion about some amendments today. Rather than enabling ministers to take key decisions later, we could have been setting a clearer direction of travel and giving our farmers the stability and security that they are looking for.
At stage 3, Parliament and the many voices that it represents should have been considering matters through the prism of the report of the farming and food production future policy group. I will give up some of my speaking time if the cabinet secretary can give a firmer indication of when we expect to see that long-awaited report.
I do not think that there will be an intervention.
Without that report, we are left with little choice but to hand powers to ministers to kick the can a little further down the road. I hope that they have the energy and commitment to use those powers well. For example, as I said during the stage 3 debates on amendments, we share the fear of farmers that a future SNP Government might well siphon money out of the rural budget to support other projects.
Farmers deserve clarity on what any capping of individual payments would look like. Like NFU Scotland, we are absolutely crystal clear that any funds that are saved through capping must remain within the agriculture portfolio. I would welcome the cabinet secretary standing up and making that guarantee, rather than twisting my words, because that guarantee is sadly lacking.
To use the new powers to cut back on rural funding would represent an unforgivable betrayal of our rural communities. It is alarming that the SNP Government was not able to support Peter Chapman.
It is fast becoming clear that, rather than the manufactured grievance of a UK power grab, the biggest risk of Brexit is an SNP budget grab that would mean that Scottish farmers would be the losers.
The power to set a ceiling on individual payments dispels another myth that we hear too often in the chamber. That is just one example of the many serious decision-making powers that are returning to Scotland from Brussels. Indeed, the very need for the bill in the first place should confirm that we are getting a power surge.
There is nowhere left to hide. The big choices and the big decisions that lie ahead will be taken in Scotland. It does a disservice to the Scottish Government for it to suggest otherwise.