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Rural Communities (Recession)

I, too, would like to express my disappointment at the absence from the debate of the Secretary of State. That reflects rather poorly, perhaps, on the Government's commitment to these issues. However, I would not want that to detract from my warm welcome to the Minister to his new job. I look forward to being able to nobble him on hill farm allowance, dairy farming and rural housing issues in the lift in Norman Shaw, to which I am sure he equally looks forward. I spent—profitably, I hope—much of the recent recess calling on businesses in my constituency unannounced. I am sure they were exceptionally grateful. I spoke to 400 businesses in a dozen towns and villages around my very rural constituency, and I got a range of messages. There is a mixed picture out there. Clearly, there were some good news stories and some exceptionally bad news stories, but the modal response was something like, "Things are about where they were a year ago, but we have had to work twice as hard and think twice as hard to make sure that they stayed that way." Thomas Jefferson was once accused by a rival of being lucky. His response to that charge was, "It's interesting. The harder I work, the luckier I get." Speaking for my communities, I would say that although the downturn is a reality, there is also a strong sense of defiance and of being determined to make their own luck. The problem remains that the rural community is nevertheless in a vulnerable position, largely because of Government failure over the past three decades to support our communities. That is reflected by the closure of 8,000 post offices under the Conservatives first and now under Labour, with the biggest impact falling upon the countryside; the reckless and irresponsible selling-off of the majority of rural affordable housing under the Conservatives, followed by the Labour Government's abject failure to address the crisis that that created; the loss of community, owing to the unsustainable growth in second home ownership in many villages in rural Britain; the loss of hospital services under Labour; the increased exploitation of our farmers by the supermarkets and the processors; and the way in which decisions that affect us in rural Britain appear to be taken by Labour Ministers cloistered in Whitehall, with little or no regard for the impact of those decisions on the communities that they affect. The Conservative motion contains nothing with which I would disagree, but it is laced with irony. I wonder who sold off all the affordable rural housing. I wonder who encouraged the unsustainable growth in second home ownership. I wonder who were the high priests of the free market fundamentalism that led to the banking collapse and the recession in the first place. Given that Members have become rather adept at contrition recently, I wonder whether anyone on the Conservative Benches might consider disarming those of us who are a tiny bit sceptical by saying sorry. There is nothing wrong with irony so long as one understands that it is irony, and as such we support the motion. We are concerned about the lack of any solutions presented within, however, and that is why we tabled an amendment in an attempt to provide some substance and to strengthen the hand of farmers and growers, who are so often forced to take poverty rates for their produce by much more powerful operators in the food market—chiefly, those on the retail side. Following the tragic collapse of Dairy Farmers of Britain, to which many Members have already referred, many stricken farmers have been exploited by buyers offering, in some cases, as little as 10p a litre—14p below the cost price—for their milk. Almost 1 billion litres of milk production capacity has been lost over the past three years, and it is immoral and counter-productive to treat dairy farmers in that way. A food market regulator would give farmers a champion who would intervene and ensure that they were not exploited. Is it not ironic also that so many people wander down one aisle in the supermarket and buy fair trade coffee, but wander down the next aisle and buy to put in that coffee milk that was taken from an exploited local dairy farmer at below cost price? Our amendment sought to ensure fair trade for farmers and growers in Colombia and Cumbria. The loss of production capacity in many areas of British farming is a clear example, as other Members have noted, of the failure of the unfettered and unfair market. John Maynard Keynes—