Does the Prime Minister not regret that during the recess he failed to visit an agricultural area, so that he could appreciate for himself the nature and degree of the Crisis in the Livestock Industry?

I shall not touch on agriculture today save to say that there is a desperate Crisis in the Livestock Industry.

The Government's total approach to agriculture shows that we have a real commitment, and that is demonstrated by our discussions in Europe, by our commitment to pay additional compensation to relieve the present Crisis in the Livestock Industry and by the way in which we are promoting other initiatives, such as the agri-environmental scheme and our various food promotion schemes.

I am a member of the Welsh Affairs Committee, which produced a report on the Crisis in the Livestock Industry in Wales.

The Welsh Affairs Select Committee looked into the Crisis in the Livestock Industry.

The Crisis in the Livestock Industry is manifest.

I look forward to discussing that and other matters with the Minister when he comes before the Agriculture Committee the week after next to discuss the Crisis in the Livestock Industry.

In its report, "The current Crisis in the Livestock Industry", published in December, the Agriculture Committee stated:we also have sympathy with the farmers who were led by the headline figure to expect extra money in their pocket, rather than a notional decrease in the amount that would be taken from them.

At this time of Crisis in the Livestock Industry, we should not forget that, as has been made clear, the pig producers of East Anglia have previously been here, and not all that long ago.

The right reverend Prelate and the noble Lord, Lord Livsey, gave a dramatic account of the Crisis in the Livestock Industry and I shall not seek to follow either of them down that track.