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Lochhead and [Elin] Jones survive elections

FARMERS GUARDIAN
6 May 2011 | By Alistair Driver

FORMER Scottish and Welsh Environment Ministers, Richard Lochhead and Elin Jones have both been re-elected, but face very different prospects in terms of their Ministerial careers.

Mr Lochhead’s re-election in Moray contributed to an astonishing electoral triumph for the Scottish National Party (SNP).

Led by Alex Salmond the SNP had reached 65 seats in the 129-seat parliament, with some counts still to declare, by the middle of Thursday afternoon. This will enable it to form Scotland’s first ever majority Government, after years of coalition in Holyrood.

The SNP victory came largely at the expense of Labour seats in former heartlands while the Liberal Democrat vote collapsed in Scotland, as it has done nationwide.

But while the Scottish result paves the way for continuity as far as the farming portfolio is concerned - with Mr Lochhead or an SNP colleague seemingly certain to get the rural affairs brief, the outcome in Wales was very different.

Ms Jones retained her place in the Welsh Assembly but her Plaid Cymru Party suffered at the hands of a resurgent Labour Party, which fell just one seat short of the 31 needed for an overall majority. The Conservatives won 14 seats, Plaid Cymru just 11 and Liberal Democrats, which again suffered big losses, five.

Labour, led by First Minister Carwyn Jones, are now talking about installing a ‘Labour-led’ Government by next week, which could mean an alliance with another party.

Whatever the outcome, the likelihood of Ms Jones, the driving force behind the planned Welsh badger cull, returning to her old post appear slim.

“We lost the chance to break Labour’s hold on Wales in 2007. Libs bottled it and 3 parties suffering now! Nothing lasts forever!” Ms Jones wrote on Twitter.

One of the first questions facing a Labour Rural Affairs Ministers, if appointed, would be whether they were prepared to pursue Ms Jones’ policies on bovine TB, in particular the west Wales badger cull.

NFU Scotland chief executive James Withers described the result in Scotland as ‘pretty astonishing’ but said it was unlikely to have a significant impact on rural policy.

“For a party to achieve an overall majority in an electoral system largely designed to prevent that was not something I ever expected I would see,” he said.

“In some ways, the election was ‘rural-proofed’, with little to separate the SNP, Tories and Lib Dems in rural policy terms and those policies looked pretty smart.

“SNP have five years of majority government ahead of them now. Their relationship with the industry has been first-rate, even though there isn’t agreement on everything. Those hope is there is now a platform to make real progress over the next few years - not least on CAP and supply chain issues.”

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