Remarks visiting Saltash (local farm)

Document type:	Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue:	Shillingham Farm, Saltash, Cornwall
Source:	Western Morning News, 23 February 1976
Journalist:	A.J. Butcher, Western Morning News, reporting
Editorial comments:	1100. The Western Evening Herald, 21 February 1976, adds that MT assured the farmer that she was not nervous of cows. "There’s a stall there for you," she told one Friesian. Posing with calves, she praised the condition of their coats and warned, "The flash will get in your eyes, sweetie". The press was excluded from the principal event on this visit (a discussion with local farmers).
Importance ranking:	Minor
Word count:	570

TORIES GO SECRET DOWN ON THE FARM

Everything was going well at Shillingham Manor, near Saltash, on Saturday morning. Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Leader, had been greeted by the owner, Mr. John Hosking, chairman of Saltash branch of the N.F.U. and had been taken on a tour of the farm by his son, Stephen.

But as soon as Mrs. Thatcher had gone inside the farmhouse to talk to Mr. Robert Hicks, M.P., the-chairman of the Tory Agricultural Committee, and South-West farming leaders the front door of Shillingham Manor, which farmer Hosking and his wife had hospitably left open, was firmly shut in the face of the Press.

The Press had been previously told that it would be quite in order to sit in on the agricultural get-together, but a Tory vigilante from Mrs. Thatcher's entourage stood at the front door carefully vetting all who went through. When I got there I was told that it was a private meeting and the gentleman “didn't know who had told you that it was not.”

Top secret subjects that Mrs. Thatcher discussed with farmers were taxation, milk production, the problems of hill farmers, agriculture within the context of the E.E.C., fair trading within the Common Market, and so on.

She impressed the farmers with her knowledge, and pointed out how inappropriate was the phrase “fixed costs” in a climate of continuing inflation—an observation which the farmers were quick to commend.

She also made the very fair point that defence was secondary to food.

Again an acute observation, but not one that needed a security blanket wrapped round it.

I got the impression, talking to the farmers afterwards, that Mrs. Thatcher was well able to hold her own in matters agricultural, and she did not need the protection of a private discussion.

“She was cool and concise, and did not fluff her comment,” said one of the farmers. And, indeed, Mrs. Thatcher does know quite a bit about the practical side of farming, her sister is married to a farmer in East Anglia.

Donning a ladylike pair of Wellies, and with her hair carefully wrapped in a scarf, she inspected John Hosking 's farm, and his herd of 120 Friesians with the air of someone who knows what it is all about.

“You look far more like city gents,” she quipped to a row of well-dressed Cornish farming personalities waiting to be presented to her. She went into the well of the 12–12 milking parlour, read the “Cowman's Code” over the 450-gallon bulk milk tank, and then told Mr. Hosking: “It works—that is why you make such jolly good profits.”

There was quite a bit of good-natured banter—right up to the very moment that Mrs. Thatcher disappeared inside the farmhouse and the door was shut very firmly on the Press.

Mr. Robert Hicks introduced her to Robin Gallup, chairman of The National Milk and Dairies Committee, N.F.U.; Douglas Smith, chairman, Cornwall N.F.U.; Tony Robathan, Cornwall County Secretary, N.F.U.; John Pendray, county chairman, Cornwall N.F.U.; Jack Bolitho, Cornwall representative of the Hill Farming Committee; Neil Cradock, a young dairy farmer; Bill Evans, vice-chairman of Saltash branch of the N.F.U.; and John Reed, N.F.U. Executive Committee.