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Peter Kendall cuts teeth on calf exports

Live calf exports make a good start for the new man who was put on the spot to defend the resumption of this trade. Preceeded by an impassioned interview with the mother of a protestor who died in a demo ten years ago, Peter Kendall had a media tight-rope to walk.
With the nation's movers and shakers listening to his every nuance over their Corn Flakes, the general consensus in the FARM IDEAS office was a bare 6 / 10. Peppered with "you knows", the universal litmus test of waffle and insecurity, he assured listeners that the trade had changed and conditions were much better than ten years ago. It sounded as if his main conern was to neither upset the Compassion in World Farming listener, or the interviewer, and so he said very little.
Farmers need a robust representative, and I guess some farmer listeners might be regretting that the activist David Handley was not in the hot seat.
Maybe he would have grasped the mike that bit firmer. Maybe he would have thought of setting up a simple exhibition so all involved, including the poor demonstrator's mother, could actually see the trucks and transport conditions for themselves. Maybe he could have spelt out the economics of the job - the UK market price of Freisian bulls and other suitable calves compared with their price on the continent. Perhaps he could have told listeners just how long the average journey was, and how much the cost of the calf ticket was, and it would be simply bad business to allow calves to deteriorate on the journey. These facts might have cut a bit more ice, with farmers and other listeners as well.
Kendall needs to learn quickly that wooly assurances are no substitute for figures, and he has a big enough organisation to get the facts and figures together in front of a programme as important as this.