New faces in vital rural leadership

Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Tim Bonner writes:

This week saw the arrival of two new faces in vital rural leadership roles.

There can have been few moments in modern history when farming, and the rural communities that are shaped by it, has faced a challenge as great as Brexit. The new NFU President, Minette Batters, therefore takes on an extraordinary challenge with which we wish her every success. I have written before about the change that is coming to the countryside, not least as agricultural and rural policy become a wholly domestic political issues for the first time for a generation. There are few, if any, better qualified to lead farming through the coming years than Minette.

Meanwhile another great rural organisation, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), is also under new leadership as its new Chief Executive Ian Bell took up his role this week. BASC has its roots in wildfowling, but has grown to represent all forms of shooting and the Alliance is proud to work alongside it for shooting and the countryside. Whilst we might not always agree on every detail of policy our roles are increasingly complimentary, which benefits BASC members, the Alliance's supporters and those many (myself included) who are both.