Do you think he had his Barbour wellies on whilst saying this? And nice to see he got a publicity shot in for his developer friends at Crealy!
South-west Agriculture and Fishing
– in Westminster Hall at 4:38 pm on 19th October 2016.
“I pay tribute to my hon. Friend Scott Mann for securing the debate, which is particularly timely for me because I have my catch-up with the National Farmers Union at Crealy park in East Devon on Friday. We will hear a lot over the coming months and years about the threats and opportunities of Brexiting and it is up to us as parliamentarians to ensure that the opportunities trump the threats.
The threats are pretty obvious to the farming and fishing sectors. There are threats of access to markets—we do not know what shape they will take—and we have heard about freedom of movement issues, and of labour in particular, in the south-west, be that for people working in the poultry business or picking vegetables or daffodils further west. However, it seems to me that none of us will lament the passing of the common agricultural policy or the EU common fisheries policy.
We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to answer the question: does farming have a future? That is a question that, if we get it right, we will no longer have to ask ourselves. This is a time to shape our farming, shape our fishing and shape our countryside, to show people that there is indeed a future. It is self-evident, of course, that we continue with arrangements as they are for now. It does need the Secretary of State to confirm this; we can continue with the status quo until we sign the decree absolute in the divorce from the EU. It is what happens after that is important, as we change the existing legislation to reflect what we want for UK policy.
I think this is genuinely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our farming industries and I very much hope that Ministers in the Department will not spend the next few months or years talking to lobbyists or large organisations, but talking to the practitioners on the ground. I hope they will talk to the supermarkets and finally get some sense out of them in promoting British products at fair prices. I hope they will talk to the Environment Agency and Natural England and other organisations to ensure they are refocused to support a farmed countryside, not the sanitised version of the countryside as evidenced weekly by programmes that the BBC so loves, such as “Countryfile”— or, even worse, by the absurd Chris Packham.”
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2016-10-19a.375.0&s=speaker%3A1
East Devon Watch 
I am surprised that Hugo is so scathing about someone he has probably never met face-to-face (as well as scathing about a BBC programme that gets more votes every week than he did in the election as well as the BBC itself – well we know that given a free hand the Tories would dismantle the BBC as well as the NHS). Hugo is not explicit but the implication is that Chris Packham works on Countryfile, but of course this is simply factually incorrect – Chris is best known for his 10 years presenting the BBC’s Spring/Autumn/Winter Watch, but doesn’t AFAIK work on Countryfile at all. I would assume that this snide comment is presumably Hugo’s revenge for Chris Packham calling the Huntin’ & Shootin’ set the “Nasty Brigade”. Honestly, Chris Packham knows nothing – it is not the Huntin’ & Shootin’ clique that should be called that. (Anyone who follows my comments will know who I believe should be called the Nasty Brigade – and I don’t mean Donald Trump.) And of course Hugo’s comments were made with his full knowledge that they were said under Parliamentary Privilege – so unlike Packham who is now being hunted by the Countryside Alliance for what he said, Hugo can make such comments with complete and utter impunity.
But perhaps the best answer to Hugo’s snide comment is a comparison of CVs between Chris Packham and Hugo Swire:
Chris Packham: University degree BSc in Zoology, University of Southampton. Honorary Doctor of Science for 40 years study of wildlife.
Hugo Swire: University dropout
Chris Packham: Lives and works in the countryside, right amongst the issues that he is passionate about.
Hugo Swire: Lives and works in London, completely remote from the countryside and the issues that he is never really passionate about. He doesn’t live in his constituency and is on record as saying he views time here as “a visit”.
Chris Packham: Expertise based on 45+ years focused work on nature, conservation and the environment, including several published academic papers on kestrels.
Hugo Swire: Erm … well … possibly an expert on international air travel having spent several years jetting around the world at taxpayers expense to see his mates in Hong Kong etc. Possibly also an expert on Fine Art – which is obviously of great relevance to East Devon’s current issues.
Chris Packham: Campaigns on issues he is passionate about, leading from the front as an active campaigner (e.g. against plans for a new port in Dibden in the New Forest). Says what he believes (like the “Nasty Brigade” comment, or his controversial comments abut letting Pandas die out etc.) regardless of the consequences.
Hugo Swire: Makes nice sounding sound-bites in Parliament – or at least he has recently even if he didn’t for the previous 7 years – but so far at least these have been lack-lustre and defeatist (wringing his hands with an assumption that decisions have already been irrevocably made rather than campaigning vociferously against his government’s calamitous plans) and achieved by quoting other people’s investigations and analysis and campaigning. A fair-weather campaigner at best – or possibly only campaigning when he feels under threat from a credible opponent at the next election who has already been leading the fight locally for a year or more.
Chris Packham: Several awards on Merit – a BAFTA for BBC’s the Really Wild Show (eat your heart out Donald Trump), and the Dilys Breese BTO Medal for ‘his outstanding work in promoting science to new audiences’. In December 2014, Chris Packham was voted “Conservation Hero of the Year” by readers of Birdwatch magazine in association with the online BirdGuides website for his work in publicising the illegal slaughter in Malta of millions of migrating birds.
Hugo Swire: A knighthood from his friend Dodgy Dave for a few years jet-setting or more realistically probably for being a good Tory MP and supporting his mate Dave and the government on every possible occasion regardless of merit. (Is that a very sun tanned nose he has?)
Chris Packham: Vice President of the RSPB, President of the Hawk Conservancy Trust, Vice President of the Wildlife Trusts, Vice President of the Butterfly Conservation Trust, Vice President of the Brent Lodge Bird & Wildlife Trust, Patron of Population Matters and the Woolston Eyes Conservation Group, all related to Nature and Conservation which he is publicly passionate about.
Hugo Swire: Returning Chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council (funded in part by Saudi Arabia who buy arms from the UK, who support ISIS and who have a somewhat questionable record on human rights), Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Patron of Kennaway House in Sidmouth, Vice President of the WESC Foundation – The Specialist Care Centre for Visual Impairment, Trustee of the Jurassic Coast Trust, Patron of Devon Link Up and also Trustee for the Fund for Refugees (though we haven’t found details of any activities he does for most of these).
Chris Packham: Says what he thinks, regardless of the consequences
Hugo Swire: Says what other people think and what he thinks other people want to hear, knowing that there will be no consequences.
Sources:
http://www.chrispackham.co.uk/chris-packhams-biography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Packham
https://www.hugoswire.org.uk/about-hugo
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37010827
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