Letters from the Bishop of Warwick

A letter published in The Sunday Times on 21st June 2020

Already the Government is sitting lightly to its manifesto pledge that 'in all our trade negotiations we will not compromise our high environmental protection, animal and food standards'. Parliament, likewise, sadly is now complicit. In this country the British have every reason to be proud of standards of the animal welfare and food standards that are currently mandatory. But as Neil Parish MP puts it 'There is no point having world-leading standards in the UK if we do not expect trade partners to reciprocate.' It seems we are already on this slippery slope. This is not simply an economic issue to be determined on the basis of financial calculus in isolation, as Robert Colvile advocates. Protection of the environment and animal welfare are moral issues. Business decisions - and farming is a business - taken on the basis of the bottom line only, without regard to values are actually in the end bad business decisions. Values drive business success as evidenced compellingly in 'The Blue Line Imperative: What Managing for Value really means', (Kaiser and Young).

The Right Revd John Stroyan