Miliband courts farmers

TWO of Britain's top politicians, Defra secretary David Miliband and Tory leader David Cameron, are due to speak at a national conference on agriculture in Oxford today - and both are expected to express their confidence in the future of British farming and its farmers.

The messages are likely to be received with some scepticism by many in the audience - farming in the last decade has gone through it most difficult period for half a century - but there are signs that both politicians have begun to take agriculture seriously for the first time since New Labour came to power in 1997.

Miliband has been at Defra for only six months, having taken over from the disastrous leadership of Margaret Beckett, but he is showing signs of beginning to sort out the mess left by his predecessor when - to the astonishment of the political world - she was appointed Foreign Secretary.

In particular, there are signs that the chaotic Rural Payments Agency is beginning to catch up on the backlog of unpaid EU payments owed to thousands of farmers. He will tell the conference that he is "enthused" by his new relationship with agriculture and will do all he can to make it succeed in the future.

Cameron, on the other hand, has puzzled many Tory supporters in rural areas - many of them core Tory voters - because he seems to have concentrated most of his policy statements on urban issues like crime and anti-social behaviour.

His speech today is being seen as an attempt to re-connect with this traditional sector of his party's support.