Fighting our corner
WE are not objects in a landscape, we are not characters in a film, or people in a painting,’ says new CLA president Victoria Vyvyan. ‘We have to fight back against any attempt to make us into a museum—this is a living, breathing economy and we could be so great.’
There’s no doubt among many, and certainly for Mrs Vyvyan, that the next year might be the most pivotal for farming since the Brexit vote in 2016. She is the 56th president of the CLA in its 116-year history and the first woman to hold the role. A countrywoman through and through, born and raised in the West Country and now chatelaine of Trelowarren, she is no stranger to the difficulties that the countryside and those who live and work in it face. ‘We’re doing it all for ourselves,’ she says. ‘We’re not getting any help from the Government at all that I can see, so what you observe in the countryside is that we’re the most innovative, entrepreneurial and imaginative demographic, because we have to be. Nobody’s stepping in and offering a helping hand.’
We need to step away from soundbites. We want to deliver more access, but what’s the sensible way to do it?
In the next two years, the length of her term, she’ll be a busy woman. The effects of climate change seem to become more pronounced with each passing month and, for the first time in 14 years, it is extremely likely that the country will have a Labour government under Sir Keir Starmer. One of the first battlegrounds, however,
