Have you seen where they are talking of introducing three new bank holidays?

Perhaps the Government will look on favourably on the extra public holidays as opportunities to slip out controversial proposals, bad news or embarrassing climbdowns.

Last Friday afternoon, as most people were planning a bit of rest and recreation over the long weekend, the Department of Agriculture released the CAP draft strategic plan. On bank holiday Monday, the final version of Food Vision 2030 was prepared for a midnight launch.

Two of the three key pieces of Government policy for the coming decade being slipped out together brings Oscar Wilde to mind. One might be forgiven, but two looks orchestrated.

It is People Before Profit who are proposing the extra three days off. For full-time farmers whose incomes are languishing way behind the average industrial wage, extra bank holidays will just leave them feeling more left behind. ??

There’s an old silly joke that 70 lads were piled into a bus, and the driver said: “Hang on, there’s a second bus after arriving, we can all get home safely.” So the 70 lads proceeded to cram into the second bus.

There’s a danger that we’ll do something similar with CAP reform. For decades, the CAP encouraged production through market and price supports and later coupled payments. Not enough attention was paid to the environmental footprint of farming.

The new CAP has set out to change the balance of supports towards farming’s relationship with the environment.

They are leaving production to the free market. The problem is, the market isn’t free. It’s rigged. And farmers can’t afford to produce food out of their own pockets.

EU farmers have struggled to compete in an unprotected marketplace since barriers and tariffs were largely dismantled. Our higher standards of production and certification impose costs we cannot pass on to the people we sell to. That rigged marketplace has not been tackled, and there’s no real plan to start soon.

Are the Commission and Government assuming that farmers will continue to maximise production despite all incentivisation to do so being stripped away? They seem to be hoping farming will wind down in some places, but production might drop in all the wrong places.

With prices buoyant at present, that might seem reasonable, but it is a dangerous assumption. Security of food supply, like our environment mightn’t concern many politicians until the damage is done. Out of the fire and into the empty frying pan.