EXHAUSTION, grief and rebooting was how a close friend described what standing down from the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) would feel like. After 10 years, I always knew leaving would be a rollercoaster of emotions. I can say now, my friends are right—it’s taking time to decompress. More than anything, I miss the people, staff and members alike.
When I was elected deputy president in 2014, it was a big news story: the first woman to become and remember being infuriated that it was all the media was interested in. I said at the time: ‘Success will happen when being a woman is no longer newsworthy!’ However, I joined two brilliant women as ‘firsts’: Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, then director-general of the CBI, and Frances O’Grady, TUC chief executive. We might have seemed an unlikely alliance, but we shared a common goal in achieving a ‘good Brexit’.
