STILL the word falling from the lips of politicians at the head of the DEFRA is "change." Apart from mutterings about being more efficient, none of them, even at this late stage, have specified exactly what sort of change the government is seeking from agriculture apart from an airy reference to being more efficient.

To change means "to make different" and I have already suggested the best change would come from an adjustment of the situation where for every £1 spent on food, only 9p goes to the producer, and I don't mean an adjustment downwards of 9p.

Many changes have taken place in farming since 1800 and some of them have been described as being revolutionary.

They say farming must become more of a business.

It is a business but it is not just like any other business as it must contend with the climate, with disease, and worse than that, disease which is allowed in from abroad (I'll stop right there because once I get started, who knows where I might end up).

I like the story which, I understand, happened some years ago.

It went like this: an English company bought and took over a large sheep station in Australia, as a going concern.

The price of wool went up so the company sent a telegram to its manager on the sheep station saying "Wool price good, start shearing immediately." The manager quickly sent the reply "Can't do shearing, busy lambing." The company immediately wired back "Stop lambing start shearing." I leave to you to conclude what you will.

I am told that the great parliamentarian Robert Walpole, when he received his morning mail, first opened and studied any letters from his farm manager before turning to any government business; now I think he got his priorities right.

This week we learned that the EC gave its approval for France to give £46 million of aid to its beef farmers for loss of income due to BSE.

And this at a time when France is still refusing to take our beef although she has been found guilty in Brussels and told she must allow in British beef, it being illegal not to do so.

But we are told France has no intention of lifting the ban and certainly not before her forthcoming elections.

All this after French Beef Farmers were awarded an aid package of £160 million in July.

All Margaret Beckett seems able to talk about is moving farm aid into rural development, whatever that may mean, plus, of course, reforming the Common Agriculture Policy.

You can be fairly sure that any reform will have to accord with the needs of French and Germ

an farmers but, as to whether it will benefit British farmers, do you think the Government will care one jot?

I hereby suggest that the Secretary of State forgets about the CAP and starts to concentrate on CPA which, as readers of this column will know, stands for Comparative Purchasing Ability.

I well remember giving the example that is engraved on my heart.

Do you recall this? In 1970 it took 165 40lb lambs to buy a Ford 5000 Tractor.

In 1975 it took 230 and in 1980 it took 330 and then Henry Ford stopped making the ruddy tractor! I have compared like with like each year - that is 40lb lambs and the model Ford 5000 Tractor; there is no spin there, just fair comparisons.

What should have happened with fair Comparative Purchasing Ability is that for 330 40lb lambs, the farmer should have got 2 Ford 5000 Tractors, not one.

Much younger and cleverer people than me, particularly with computers, can do this sort of exercise with gallons of milk, tons of grain, cwt of beef, yes, and even with litres and kilos if you insist, I kid you not, the results will still amaze you.

Dialect word: Slack - meaning a hollow or depression.

Thought for the day: Scissors grinding is a job that goes ahead when things are dull.