The major story in last Friday's Guardian newspaper was that the food industry, led by Nestle, had managed to turn round Government policy on foot-and-mouth vaccination. The revelation was another demonstration of the real power that big corporate interests can wield with this Labour administration.
The story goes that back in April the Government, with Tony Blair taking the lead, had initially agreed with the supermarket chains and the food producers that vaccination was the best bet to curb the foot-and-mouth outbreak. The chief vet was in line, so was the food standards agency.
However, it appears that the Food & Drink Federation, whose president at the time was Nestle UK's chief executive Peter Blackburn, was not fully supportive. It began to lobby against, claiming vaccination could endanger UK food exports worth up to £8bn a year, and could lead to a permanent ban on UK meat and dairy products to non-EU markets. There was also a threat to a Nestle owned factory in Cumbria, and also an implied threat to the £5m chocolate business which uses UK milk products.
The Government appears to have caved in. Even the powerful Retail Consortium and Labour-insider Lord Haskins, the head of Northern Foods, appeared no match for the persuasion powers of the FDF and Nestle.
The intriguing aspect of the Guardian story is that nowhere in it is the UK's hospitality and restaurant industry, that other major user of food products, mentioned. Was it even involved in these discussions with government?
Where was the voice of tourism, which everyone now seems to agree has had more to lose from foot-and-mouth than any other industry?
Forget the ethics of business influencing Government û and Blair and his team does listen to business - this unfortunately appears another case of the hospitality, tourism and leisure business being off the pace. It again seems to live up to its reputation of punching below its weight.
This is not a new point, but the industry is conspicuous in relying almost totally on its trade bodies to lobby. Scottish & Newcastle boss Brian Stewart did hit out at over regulation last week, and, of course, Wetherspoon's chairman Tim Martin launched his anti-euro campaign across his pub estate, amid much media attention.
It is a pity that Tim Martin cherishes his loner reputation so much and prefers not to join the big industry clubs. Entrepreneurs like him need to join the big battalions of Six Continents, Whitbread, Hilton and S&N in taking the lead in the big industry issues.
This is not an argument about creating one industry body, which is really an irrelevance. It is about united and concerted effort from individuals on the issues that matter and the willingness of the big names to put their heads above the parapet.
The story goes that back in April the Government, with Tony Blair taking the lead, had initially agreed with the supermarket chains and the food producers that vaccination was the best bet to curb the foot-and-mouth outbreak. The chief vet was in line, so was the food standards agency.
However, it appears that the Food & Drink Federation, whose president at the time was Nestle UK's chief executive Peter Blackburn, was not fully supportive. It began to lobby against, claiming vaccination could endanger UK food exports worth up to £8bn a year, and could lead to a permanent ban on UK meat and dairy products to non-EU markets. There was also a threat to a Nestle owned factory in Cumbria, and also an implied threat to the £5m chocolate business which uses UK milk products.
The Government appears to have caved in. Even the powerful Retail Consortium and Labour-insider Lord Haskins, the head of Northern Foods, appeared no match for the persuasion powers of the FDF and Nestle.
The intriguing aspect of the Guardian story is that nowhere in it is the UK's hospitality and restaurant industry, that other major user of food products, mentioned. Was it even involved in these discussions with government?
Where was the voice of tourism, which everyone now seems to agree has had more to lose from foot-and-mouth than any other industry?
Forget the ethics of business influencing Government û and Blair and his team does listen to business - this unfortunately appears another case of the hospitality, tourism and leisure business being off the pace. It again seems to live up to its reputation of punching below its weight.
This is not a new point, but the industry is conspicuous in relying almost totally on its trade bodies to lobby. Scottish & Newcastle boss Brian Stewart did hit out at over regulation last week, and, of course, Wetherspoon's chairman Tim Martin launched his anti-euro campaign across his pub estate, amid much media attention.
It is a pity that Tim Martin cherishes his loner reputation so much and prefers not to join the big industry clubs. Entrepreneurs like him need to join the big battalions of Six Continents, Whitbread, Hilton and S&N in taking the lead in the big industry issues.
This is not an argument about creating one industry body, which is really an irrelevance. It is about united and concerted effort from individuals on the issues that matter and the willingness of the big names to put their heads above the parapet.
