It is a great honour to be elected President of the CLA - and I am looking forward to getting my teeth stuck into the difficult issues.

Debates on the post-2013 CAP will move up a gear and we will build on our work on Food and Environmental Security. The Government’s low carbon transition plan sets us all a challenge and our concern is to keep heavy-handed regulation on this at bay. 

 

And the general election next spring may provide us with new opportunities. However, we can all see that the scale of public debt will mean we have to work even harder to defend rural interests where they require public expenditure, as, for example, in flood defences, agricultural and rural support.  

 

I would also like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to my predecessor, Henry Aubrey-Fletcher. He has done sterling work for the Association not only in the past two years, but over the 12 years that he has been involved at the top of the CLA. We owe Henry our thanks for working tirelessly on our behalf and, of course, for being the first President brave enough to write a blog!  

 

As your new President, I relish the challenges ahead.

 

You will be able to read them on my blog - so log on regularly and let me know your news and views!

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