Farmers in Carlow and Kilkenny are no doubt delighted with the news that Peter Mandelson the EU Trade Commissioner has switched his job.
It seems that Gordan Browne the British Prime Minister wants Mandelson, and as far as the vast majority of Irish farmers are concerned, he can have him with a heart and a half.
Twice sacked by the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, before he was eventually banished to Europe, Peter Madelson was hated by Irish farmers. They saw him as a European Commissioner who was quite willing to sell out Irish farming with his completely unbalanced proposals during the WTO talks.
When Jackie Cahill the president of the ICMSA heard the news he said that "Mandelson had systematically set out to cynically sacrifice Europe’s farmers in an attempt to serve the interests of the European financial, hi-tech, and engineering sectors in the world trade talks.
That he failed was more due to good fortune than anything else."It was generally agreed in farming circles in Ireland that if Mandelson’s unbalanced proposals for the WTO talks had been eventually agreed it would have completely changed the face of Irish agriculture. It was estimated that beef production would have been halved, and overall there would have been a loss of up to 50,000 jobs in agriculture. It was also widely believed that a similar number of jobs would have been lost in industry mainly concerned with the agriculture sector.
Both farming organisations had indicated at a critical stage during the talks that rural Ireland would have been decimated if the talks had succeeded with a large number of farmers not producing either beef or milk.
It was inded a very anxious time for Irish agriculture mainly brought about by Peter Mandelson’s quite reckless attempts to sell out Irish and European agriculture at almost any cost. At this stage, it is not known who will be replacing him, but hopefully he or she will have a better understanding of not alone Irish and European but also global agriculture.
At this stage, Peter Mandelson will be remembered as a failure in Europe. If he had not given away much more than his WTO mandate suggested, and instead used balanced proposals, he might have got an agreement. Also he might have been able to hold his head high, while being respected as a good British politican who did Europe well. However, he is now yesterday’s man.
