Alliance forum draws Liberal Democrat Conference crowd

The Liberal Democrat Party Conference in Bournemouth finished this week, but one of its earliest sessions on Saturday 23 September saw a full house of delegates gather for the fringe event hosted by The Countryside Alliance Foundation. 

The event, entitled ‘Future of the countryside: the Liberal Democrat vision?’, featured a panel of the Liberal Democrats’ Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesman Tim Farron MP, North Shropshire by-election winner Helen Morgan MP, Penrith and Solway candidate and former Uplands Alliance chair Prof. Julia Aglionby, and the Party’s Food and Farming Working Group chair and former NFU Deputy President Stuart Roberts. 

Helen Morgan opened with a wide-ranging presentation on the issues faced by rural communities. She talked about deficiencies in public transport infrastructure, home insulation and the need for an economic plan to address the cost-of-living crisis and the rural premium. She also highlighted the difficulties that arise from poor mobile reception and broadband connections in the modern world, funding for councils to deliver services and the need for better housing stock. 

Stuart Roberts urged delegates to look to the opportunities the countryside presents as well as the challenges. While there are some people who think it should only be used for the environment and others who want to abandon all environmental interests and turn the clock back to the 1970s, for him the future must mean the countryside producing both food and environmental improvement in a symbiotic relationship – and many farmers around the country are already doing that. 

Julia Aglionby said that flourishing communities require services that work for them, such as effective transport, efficient heating and good jobs and opportunities. With a quarter of England designated as National Parks or Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, there is an opportunity for the Liberal Democrats to serve these communities that, she argued, are currently being ignored. The Liberal Democrats, she said, are the only party that has committed to raising the agriculture budget. 

Tim Farron began by celebrating the two rural businesses in his constituency that were successful in last year’s Countryside Alliance Awards and expressed gratitude to the Alliance for its work, and for attending the conference. Turning to politics, he said that in large parts of rural England the Liberal Democrats have the opportunity to be the other horse in a two-horse race, and it can do that by listening to rural communities and showing how it values them. Rural services, he said, cost more per head to deliver, so the government must accept that and invest what is needed. He also criticised the government for squandering the Brexit opportunity to replace the Common Agricultural Policy with a better alternative by failing in implementing policies that are good on paper. 

There followed a lively discussion with the floor, with housing looming large. Tim Farron argued that councils must be empowered and funded to build more homes, not just set targets. Helen Morgan agreed, expressing frustration at the number of constituents she had had to see at her surgeries complaining about sub-standard housing that she was currently unable to resolve.  

Another question concerned whether we, as a country, need to be eating less meat. Julia Aglionby said that of the protein intake of the average UK adult, 2% is derived from lamb and 6% from beef, so campaigns targeting red meat are attacking a miniscule issue. We should instead encourage nature-friendly farming. Stuart Robert agreed that the narrative that says ‘meat is bad and plants are good’ is simplistic and wrong. Large swathes of the country are only capable of growing grass, which humans cannot eat; livestock grazing is the only means by which that land can produce food.

We are grateful to the panellists and delegates for their thoughtful contributions and look forward to the rest of the party conference season.