Single Payment Scheme

I shall be brief because I have rehearsed the two points that I want to make. This has been a disaster and the hybrid idea should never have been allowed to be taken forward. To be fair, the hybrid did not come from the Government. It came because farming organisations looked at compromises in the systems that apply to different parts of the industry. I well remember receiving representations one week from the potato committee of the National Farmers Union which was desperate to have area payments in place. The following week I received representations from my dairy farmers who were desperate, particularly those in the south-west, to keep the historic model in place. I think the Government made a mistake. Fudges never work and this fudge has, with the benefit of hindsight, been an unmitigated disaster. I hope that we shall learn from that.