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How did your political career with jobs, and the money to start? Did you always want to provide public services. be an MP? Were you one of Thatcher’s I was born in Whitchurch. devotees? During the election before last, Yes. She totally turned the I put on my website that I had whole country around. The high, the lows never lived more than 15 miles I started in business in the from where I was born, and 1980s and Britain was a someone put ‘Sad man, should complete joke. For instance, I get out more...’ grew up with laughable cars – OWEN PATERSON has had I was a tanner for 20, 25 years remember the Austin Allegro, quite a career in politics. He In his own – we had a family leather with a square steering wheel. has held some high-powered business and tanneries, and I The way they built them, they positions in the government, took the business from 15 per were guaranteed to have 40 Today, exclusively in the and has never been afraid to Advertizer, the North cent export to 95 per cent things wrong with every car. speak his mind. export. I left Cambridge Forty! Shropshire MP talks frankly Now, though, he is about his career – the University in 1978 – I studied To see how we’ve somewhat on the outside history – and worked there transformed things, I drove positions of office he had looking in. held, the day he was through the late 70s, the 80s past Halewood yesterday. They David Cameron likes to be and early 90s. used to produce the joke car of thumped by a constituent, surrounded by like minds. and how he first fell out with I went to the National Ford, the Escort, now are And Mr Paterson, with his Leathersellers College and producing Britain’s most David Cameron. forthright views on Europe, is He spoke about about learned a little about tanning. successful exported car, the most certainly not that. But am I a tanner? Well, I was Land Rover Evoque. It’s Europe in last week’s Tizer, so So what is life like now for a we have stayed away from mainly involved in sales and astonishing the way we’ve Conservative MP used to running the business. turned the country around. that subject today. But he still positions of power? had plenty of topics to That took me all over the In the 1980s there were real He’s not bitter –far from it. world. The industry had gone lessons to be learned from choose from. He’s still outspoken, he still We have also stayed away over a cliff in Europe and we Germany, the States and has firm views on the had to find new markets and Taiwan – it was very marked from party politics. This environment, on fisheries, on about Owen Paterson the MP go rapidly upmarket. which countries were Northern Ireland ... and, yes, That was extraordinarily succeeding and which weren’t. – not about the colour of the he’s particularly forthright rosette he wears at election interesting. about Europe. How did you first get Owen Paterson in his early years as an MP time. What did the business involved in politics? actually do? In the 1987 election I helped We were turning raw hide John Biffen here – he was a From there, I was asked to to reply to your letters, and It was building up to the Iraq dead fish that were very into leather, which was then long-standing MP and I helped join the Institute of there is a bit of networking. war and I went with him and healthy that are now rotting at chopped up for other him for three weeks. In 1992, I Orthopaedics which is their met President Bush – I dealt the bottom of the ocean as products. stood in Wrexham, where I got research organisation. They What was it like as a with Bush’s team, who were pollution. It’s idiotic. No-one So, for example, Rolls-Royce 18,114 votes – and was had been given a big bequest backbencher in the early days? very concerned about the vote else in the world runs such a needs leather for its cars – the thumped in the face, which to put up the Arthritis Centre, in the House of Commons. stupid policy. It’s a disaster. seats and interior. Is that the caused a lot of national and I ended up in charge of I was very busy doing Then Iain was deposed and I kind of customer you would exposure. that. questions. In those days, John emerged from the wreckage But the policy got in the way supply leather to? There were all sorts of Bercow and I used to sit next to and Michael Howard became of your relationship with David Well, actually, we did Who thumped you? A complicated Treasury rules each other and we’d have the leader. Cameron... indirectly supply Rolls-Royce constituent? that meant we couldn’t get competitions – who could ask for a long time. We supplied access to the significant the most questions, the What role did you have then? It was a bit of a sticking point. half-processed leather to other Well, they were shouting ‘We donation – I think it was about shortest question, which I He was head of policy at the people who would finish off are Labour, we are Labour’ £1 million – and we were in won.... I was sent off to be the junior time, and I worked with him the leather for Rolls-Royce and which was a bit of an danger of getting stuck and Shadow Minister for on the Paper – he changed only Jaguar and people like that. We indication of their political losing the whole lot. In the end What was the question? Agriculture and Fisheries. I the political bits, not the ended up dealing with the best allegiances... we drove it through, and we took up the case of bovine TB – technical bits. But when he of the best – people like I had put some flags on my got the Arthritis Centre up on It was ‘Who pays for this?’ I asked more questions on one became a candidate for leader Vuitton, Hermès, those sort of Land Rover – a couple of Red time and pretty much to Betty Boothroyd slapped her subject than any one MP in in 2005, he made it clear he guys. Dragons and Union Jacks – and budget, and it’s still there now. thigh and said ‘Marvellous, I history, which was more than was going to drop the fisheries they had torn them off. It led to love these short questions...’ 600 Parliamentary Questions paper. So how did that tie in with a court case, which I won... And politics? on bovine TB. I went to I had met a couple of politics? It was tough, though, being Michigan and Washington to hundred fishermen at our Labour won in Wrexham, so Well, around the autumn of in opposition? see what they were doing with conference and I had promised My work took me all over the your Westminster dream was 1996 John Biffen rang me and bovine TB and talked to their them I would not vote for any world – I was abroad for about dashed... said this was the call you didn’t I think we had fewer Tory vets. We needed to follow the leadership candidate who did one-third of every year. We want to hear – he was retiring. I MPs than the Labour majority, examples of Australia, New not stand by my fishing paper. were trading in just about I then got involved with two put in – along with 198 other so we were going nowhere and Zealand, the USA, France, We had a ridiculous stand-off every country where free trade big charity projects. There was people – and I was lucky in complete disarray. It fell on Germany and Ireland and with the Cameron team, who was allowed. I ended up as a move to close a number of enough to be selected. the 32 new MPs to do a lot of remove diseased wildlife. In were very keen for me to president of the European cottage hospitals in Shropshire the work. We were always those countries it was wild support them. On the last Tanners’ Confederation. To and I was involved in the Really? 198 others? being asked to speak in water buffalo, possums and night we had some late votes show how much the world has Ellesmere campaign. I debates, put on a Bill white-tailed deer, while here it and I said we needed to resolve changed, I took Japan, remember going to a I think nine of the others Committee – I ended up being was the badger. it. Hungary, Egypt and Argentina conference about Trust became MPs, which is quite on three Select Committees, Here, we are testing and By this time, it was becoming to the World Trade Hospitals in London when Ken interesting. Welsh, Agriculture and Europe. removing diseased cattle but perfectly obvious that David Organisation for breach of free Clarke was the health The election came in May And I was a Whip briefly – it we are not removing diseased Cameron was going to win and trade. Argentina banned the secretary. 1997 and I successfully trashed was interesting in the Whips’ wildlife, so it’s no surprise the that David Davis was going to export of their raw material... I In the end, what we did – John Biffen’s 16,000 majority, Office, and good to learn how disease carries on. get buried. I spoke to David was told later to never visit which was disgraceful really, down to a miserable 2,195. I it all works. I also came up with a Cameron and congratulated Argentina. Sadly, I haven’t seeing the Jebb family had was up against Ian Lucas, a comprehensive Green Paper. I him on a great campaign, said done... given the hospital free to the thoroughly good guy who is Who was the Tory leader went all around the coast of he was going to win the next But politically, I was seeing town of Ellesmere for now the MP for Wrexham. It then? the UK as well as to the day, but that unless he countries with fewer perpetuity – was to buy the was the year of the great cull of Falklands, Norway, Faroes, changed his idea on the fishery politicians and fewer hospital for a quarter of a Conservative MPs. So I’ve been William Hague. Then we had Iceland, Newfoundland, Nova policy, I couldn’t support him bureaucrats and less regulation million, which was a lot of doing this job for 18 and half another election, Hague went, Scotia and New England, and as I had given my word to the and less taxation doing better money in those days. We then years. and Iain wrote a comprehensive paper fishermen. than ones which had more. raised another quarter of a Duncan- on how to run a sane fisheries The Soviet Union at that time million to do it up as a nursing You’ve had some very high- Smith (right) policy using modern Did he change his tack? was a real threat to us – it’s home. We had the upstairs as a profile roles in government in called me, technology. hard to imagine these days but nursing home, and let the that time. and I ended It began with the sentence: No, he wouldn’t move, not there were articles in The county council run the up helping ‘The Common Fisheries Policy surprisingly, so I went to David Times every day about downstairs as a day care I have, but I’ve still made him with his is a biological, environmental, Davis and told him he had prisoners of conscience, being centre. local issues a top priority – it campaign. economic and social disaster; it fought an appalling campaign, banged up in places like I was in charge of the nursing doesn’t mater how busy you We got him is beyond reform.’ And I was going to be buried the next Prague and Bratislava and home for a while but the real are with other things, local elected wouldn’t change a word of it. day, but that if he would back Warsaw and Budapest. It’s stars were a wonderful matron issues are the most important. leader – just And most of the paper, 10 years my fishing paper, I would vote unimaginable these days; who had been head of nursing People were very – and I was his PPS for most of on, is still absolutely relevant. for him. He said he would, so I they’re now tourist at the Orthopaedic and Olga understanding. The pay-off is that next parliament. did. destinations but at that time Cureton, who was key to the that if you’re in the Cabinet, Why is it so unworkable? they were behind the Iron whole campaign. other Cabinet members have What did it entail, being his And David Cameron got in... Curtain and socialism was a Parliamentary Private It’s insane to try to run such a miserable experiment, where Secretary? localised activity from It was actually quite sporting you ended up in Russia with What do you think? continental level. To try to of David to give me an hospitals with no hot water. Is North Shropshire well served by having Well, it was a very different impose quotas means if you important shadow job, Shadow I became pretty strongly Owen Paterson as MP? What are your experience but incredibly hard catch something that is not in Minister of State for Roads. It Conservative, believing in free impressions? Write to us at 16-18 Oswald work. I did a lot of admin in his the quota, you chuck it back. was very interesting. I went to markets and profit as being the Road, Oswestry, or send an email to office, going on trips with him We have chucked back over a 14 European countries, as well most sensible way to run [email protected] – we re-established the billion tons – that’s one as the States and Canada, to society and provide people Oswestry-Washington link... thousand million tons – of get a huge amount of material Advertizer Tuesday, January 26, 2016 21 STAY IN TOUCH 24/7 Log on to www.bordercountiesadvertizer.co.uk

large, open drains. It was crisis and drama. idiotic to have someone from the RSPB in charge of the What are the big local issues Environment Agency who said in your weekly postbag? her policy was to put a limpet mine on every pumping Planning is one of the station. That's why it gummed biggest. We have a conundrum and all the rest... up. – as the population increases, I went there one Sunday we have got to put houses evening and got some local somewhere. But I totally experts together, and we sympathise with people in decided very rapidly what small villages with modest words, Owen Paterson talks about life as an MP needed doing. We dredged the facilities having houses main rivers, re-established the dumped on them, without the role of the internal drainage roads, the infrastructure, the boards with a wider remit to do public services. That all needs the long-term maintenance, planning. we set up a Somerset Rivers Letters about health have Authority to bring everyone drastically reduced. together so they all talked. And we also talked about long-term What about the proposal to projects, like putting a barrier have one emergency hospital, across the river, and doing Telford or Shrewsbury? some remedial work to keep the water up in the hills. I’m very keen on the plan to And despite some very heavy have Urgent Care Centres to do rain recently, which would the vast majority – 70 or 80 per have caused floods before our cent – of the A&E work, which remedial action, there has can be done here in Oswestry, been no flooding. So I am to save people having to go to completely vindicated. Shrewsbury. To be honest, I’m not really fussed who gets the Nothing to do with climate Emergency Care Centre, change? Is there such a thing Shrewsbury or Telford. It’s still as climate change? a good drive from Oswestry.

The climate changes all the Is it right that a local council time. The evidence is the world can use public money to on how to run an innovative, some changes. they let me get on with it. is not warming as predicted. In campaign to have the Urgent modern roads policy. I left Defra when I was the past 17 or 18 years there Care Centre in its town? working on many projects and Would you want to get back has been a pause which no- What would that entail? it was frustrating to be fired to a level of responsibility? one has managed to explain, It’s ridiculous to me – a when I had some of them in which none of the forecasts complete waste of public Having shared spaces, sight to be finished. Yes, depending on what the said would happen. By money. scrapping traffic lights, conditions were. Having been concentrating on this one scrapping a lot of road signs So why were you fired? through it, without being issue, we are missing much, Finally, you’re a and regulation, and using blasé, I know exactly how to be much more urgent Conservative, and the incentives – for example, Good question. The a minister. So I’d want to be environmental issues where Conservatives are constantly having an incentive-based explanation to me, as I able to get things done, and I’d we could take direct action and telling councils to save money, driving licence scheme, where remember, was that there was want to be able to do them in a have an impact. and cut, cut, cut. Why are we you get bonus points for good a party to run and people way I thought was right. I I got very involved with in such a mess? behaviour and not having needed to be moved on. wouldn’t want to be a minister wildlife crime. We are losing an accidents. At the moment, all Everyone has to have a sniff at just to be a minister. It also elephant every 15 minutes. We Because Gordon Brown left you do is lose – you get the fly whisk. You’d better ask rather depends who will be in are losing a rhinoceros every the country borrowing penalties and go backwards, Number 10 about that... charge... nine hours. We will run out. £300,000 every minute; there you can’t go forwards. David Cameron There will be no more. That's comes a certain point when we Did it leave you feeling bitter? David Cameron won’t be an immediate crisis. It’s break the national credit card. And then you got a role in the Corporation Tax was the leader for ever.... happening today. And we In Shropshire, Keith Barrow Northern Ireland... key. I was pretty fed up and I could do something about it made a big reduction in I was told firmly by someone didn’t make any attempt to Well, David Cameron said he with international co- expenditure from a low base, I was Shadow Secretary of very senior in the Treasury that hide it. I had all these projects would go by 2017, didn’t he. It operation which is why I and yet I’ve had incredibly few State for Northern Ireland for I needed to have an exit going, which I was driving probably rather depends when helped instigate the London letters of complaint about the three years, from 2007 to 2010. strategy as this was never going through. It was my natural the EU Referendum is. He’ll Conference in 2014 which has services. What they’ve done is The Agreement was settling to happen – so I was delighted background – I grew up on a have to go after that. led to real progress. learn to deliver the services in down, and I went across a last year when it went through. farm. That’s what I think we should a much more efficient manner. minimum of one day a week – I It will be completely Floods are back in the news. be concentrating on. treated it almost like a transforming. What did you tackle after Is it all the fault of global I’m completely prepared to The fat has been cut off the constituency. It was very that? warming? accept the theory that if you bone. Is the bone now being interesting. And after Northern Ireland? pump out a lot of CO2 into the cut? What happens then? Will I set up UK2020, which last Blaming global warming is a atmosphere that it’s going to the cuts be too deep? Not all good, though? I was asked to go to Defra. I year I used to make a number cop out. We have had very increase the temperature, but picked up on the TB stuff, major speeches. We’re working heavy rain for centuries and it so far these alarmist forecasts It may be there will be some No, some appalling things. I where they were going to start on several policy areas so when will continue to rain hard. In have not happened and I think things the council will have to remember there had been a culling diseased animals but we have a leadership contest, Cockermouth, for example, it’s an enormous distraction stop doing, yes. There may be murder, an awful murder, they were going to shoot them, we will have a proper range of which was flooded recently, 90 from much more immediate some activities they just don’t where a young man had been which was quite controversial. policies to see if the candidates per cent of the rain lands in the environmental problems. do. That’s what the beaten to death with iron bars We had a lot of dramas while will adopt them. hills. If you have really heavy In the 16th and 17th consultation is all about. in a cow shed, and I went to I was there – TB and the badger rain, it goes wallop, down the centuries there were some the cow shed and met his cull, and Chalara, an appalling Do you see yourself one day rivers. And if you don’t dredge incredibly cold winters when How much longer do we have relatives... problem with ash trees which, getting back into a position of the rivers, which they haven't the Thames froze over. There to suffer cuts before we see There was peace in Northern I am afraid, is going over time influence and authority in the done, you’re going to get was a medieval warm period some light at the end of the Ireland at the time, but the to remove our ash population. government? problems. They always used to when vines were grown in tunnel? dissidents hadn’t accepted it. This had partly blown in after dredge gravel on that river. Greenland. There was a Roman I became the real Secretary of causing damage to the tree I don’t at the moment warm period. There was the We are now growing the State in 2010. A real problem population in Poland as early because I’m one of the founder Comedian Jason Manford Holocene when the Arctic economy, and the faster we was the IRA couldn’t get all as the 1990s, and I was amazed members of Vote Leave – we blamed you for the floods, melted, and there was no man- grow it, the more we grow tax their guys to stand down, so we we didn’t know about it. began by having meetings in because you didn’t do enough made CO2 around at all. revenues. Simple as that. But had splinter groups with some my office, and I think that’s not as Environment Minister... we’re not out of the woods yet. very dangerous people.That Did you want to move from popular in Number 10. I’m We're not running out of We’re still borrowing at a was something I had to the Northern Ireland role? absolutely clear, we should Take the polar bears and bees... considerable rate. It’s a lot address as soon as I became Were you given a choice? vote to leave the European Somerset better than under Brown, but Secretary of State. One of the Union at the first possible Levels, We’re not, no. There has been it’s now about £130,000 a first things I did was to get a lot There are things in Northern opportunity, and have a which I was a big increase in polar bears. minute. That’s still a hell of a of extra money in to re-equip Ireland, and with Defra, that I completely new relationship very much There's a big problem in lot of money. the security forces. We really regret that I didn’t get finished based on trade and co- involved in. Spitzbergen because there are What I find extraordinary is had to crank it up. – like the Corporation Tax. operation. But you don’t need Ninety per too many polar bears. And that young people are not But when you get told you’re to be run by them. We should cent of the we’re not running out of bees. enraged by this. They’re the It wasn’t all security, changing roles, or losing roles, make our own laws in our own water lands There has been an increase in ones who are going to have to though... it’s instant. You don’t go back to parliament. That is not the on the bees. pay for it. We’re enjoying nice the office. Your stuff is sent on current view in Number 10. Levels, The problem is the green hospitals and building new My other big campaign there in a cardboard box. which is an groups have to have a sense of roads and schools. Our was to get devolution of So do Number 10 see you as a artificial crisis, they have to create generation is enjoying it. Their It’s brutal? dramas, and have hate figures generation, if we go on this Corporation Tax. I was acutely rogue MP? landscape Jason Manford aware that just over the border dug out first like me – they’re big way, will have no money as it they had 12.5 per cent tax, and Yes, it’s extraordinary. You’re I don’t know what they think by medieval monks and then internationals with substantial will all go on debt interest. towns there were booming not necessarily told why you actually – they leave me alone. the Dutch under Charles I. The staff and big programmes to There won’t be any new when places like Londonderry are changing roles – just that it I haven’t been back there, no- whole landscape is 20ft below run and they have to keep the schools for them. They should weren’t – and it was obvious has been decided to make one’s been in touch with me – sea level. The rivers there are money coming in, so they need be furious with this generation.