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Agricultural Policy

I agree entirely. It is a good example. The message of the NFU Cymru booklet and its agenda should be adopted more generally and across government. We must find a way to include that message in the mainstream debates in Parliament, too. Agriculture is not a fringe event; it is mainstream. If we are to get jobs and growth, it must be part of the economic drive. I do not think that there is a constituency in all of Wales that is not touched in some way or other either by the food production end or the landscape aspect of farming. In my own patch, nine out of 10 post offices are rural. It is a former coal mining area and, politically, it is—Government Members, excuse me for a moment—a die-hard red constituency. Coal mining is the background in my constituency, but so is farming. More than 40% of my constituency area is pure upland hill farming. In fact, just the last generation—not too long ago—combined their mining with their farming. That is what we did. We were always diversified, before Ministers found the word. There is a strong tradition of that throughout Wales; it is not a matter of city against urban. Wales particularly lends itself to that continuum—we are all inter-reliant on what we get out of the countryside and our fisheries and on how that creates jobs. I shall talk briefly about the Agricultural Wages Board. I hate to say it, but I have no doubt that we have lost the battle. We are fighting hard, but, from all the signals that the Minister is giving on the AWB, we will lose the battle in England and elsewhere. However, I want to make an appeal. The battle is not lost in Wales, nor should any of us give it up. Discussion is ongoing between Alun Davies and the Welsh Assembly Government, who are minded to retain the purpose of the board for the very reasons highlighted by the farming communities. As I have said, Wales is a different type of farming environment. The AWB is the ideal body, in some form or other—okay, make it a bit lighter—for small family farms with limited resources. It is ideal for dealing not only with wages, but with seasonality and with staff not working on some days for all the hours but on others working all the hours that God could possibly send, and more. Accommodation, holiday pay and other entitlements are linked to that. Frankly, those are the last things that full-time small farmers want to deal with on a person by person basis. They want someone there to say, ““This is the way it will happen,”” which is what the AWB has done. It is one reason why we should support and encourage—or pressure—the Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the right hon. Member for South East Cambridgeshire to work well with Alun Davies and the Welsh Assembly Government to ensure that there is a model at least for Wales, if not for anywhere else.