THE Prince of Wales visited the Game Fair yesterday, for the first time in more than a decade, underlining a different aspect of his message - that the rural way of life was at risk.
He spent three hours on one of the hottest days of the year looking around the showground at Shuttleworth, Beds.
In case his trip to the show was deemed too political, with the likelihood of a further Government Bill to ban hunting, his itinerary had been carefully shaped to avoid a visit to the stand of the Countryside Alliance, the most prominent defenders of hunting.
No Labour minister attended the fair, always one of the high points of the country year and this year the first national country show of the summer because of foot and mouth.
Richard Burge, director of the Countryside Alliance, said it was preposterous that officials at Margaret Beckett's new Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had not advised any ministers to come.
Oliver Harwood, a senior member of the Country Land and Business Association, which organises the fair, said he was sorry that Mrs Beckett had been unable to attend.
Officials at the department's stand said they had received repeated complaints about the lack of ministers at the fair.
As foot and mouth cases continue at a level not predicted before the election, the Prince of Wales presented a cheque for £55,000 from the Country Land and Business Association to two charities, the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institute and the ARC Addington Fund, which assist farmers and rural businesses worst affected by foot and mouth.
Mark Pendlington, the association's chief executive, said the Prince's comments earlier this week on revitalising rural services had helped to publicise rural problems.
The Prince visited shooting and fishing stands at the fair, though he did not pick up a rod or a gun himself. He shook hands with Richard Faulds, the Olympic gold medal clay pigeon champion, and watched as Peter Cashman, chairman of Bath muzzle loaders, discharged a giant, double-barrelled six bore, made about 1860, blowing a clay pigeon to smithereens.
He sampled wares from a farmers' market, sipped a pale ale from an independent brewery based in Hertford and exchanged views on hedge-laying.
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Charles shows he's game for a laugh (Electronic Telegraph)
By Charles Glover, Environment Editor
A SHORT-clawed Malaysian otter called Belinda provoked royal mirth at the Game Fair yesterday when it repeatedly tried to dive down the front of its owner's blouse.
The Prince of Wales told Sophie Neville, who has a stand demonstrating otter conservation at the fair at Shuttleworth, Beds: "I like the living stole."
But when the fur wrap came to life and disappeared down Miss Neville's shirt, the Prince laughed and asked: "Is that wise?"
Miss Neville, 40, said Belinda was hand reared and exceptionally tame. "This one loves showing off."
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Bearer of grim royal news made head of FO(UK Times)
BY MICHAEL BINYON
SIR MICHAEL JAY, named yesterday as the new head of the Foreign Office, will always be remembered as the man who had to break the news to the Queen of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Sir Michael, Britain’s Ambassador to France for the past five years, rushed to the hospital where the Princess was taken after the car accident and was responsible for keeping the Government and Royal Family informed of the attempts to save her, while acting as liaison between the British and French Governments during that tumultuous night in August 1997.
His steadiness and dignity in front of the world’s cameras won him praise and admiration, and enhanced an already high reputation as one of the brightest high-flyers in the Foreign Office.
Sir Michael will take over next February as Permanent Under-Secretary when Sir John Kerr retires at the age of 60, as he is obliged to do. For Labour, Sir Michael fits the bill perfectly. Crisp, clear, articulate and cerebral, he has long experience in the job that will be central to British foreign policy in the next few years — relations with the European Union.
As former head of the EU department, he headed the team that negotiated the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992 — experience that will be vital when he has to advise Tony Blair on the Government’s impending decision whether to recommend entry to the euro.
At 55, Sir Michael has also had important experience in trade and financial regulation, areas where Britain’s foreign policy is increasingly focused. He was a member of the British delegation to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in the mid-Seventies, has worked with the Foreign Office policy planning staff and was seconded to the European secretariat of the Cabinet Office in 1985.
Labour may find his background a bit too perfect — Winchester and Oxford and the School of African and Oriental Studies. However, Mr Blair is not going to bicker about toffs or class when he can get the right man, and his appointment was long expected.
Two other announcements made yesterday by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, are intended to send a different signal — that women now have a good chance in the Foreign Office. Dame Glynne Evans, Ambassador to Chile at the height of the anger there over the detention of General Pinochet in London, is to be Ambassador to Portugal; and Anne Pringle, head of the East European desk at the Foreign Office, is going to Prague as Ambassador.
Dame Glynne’s predecessor in Lisbon, Sir John Holmes, is to succeed Sir Michael Jay in Paris in the autumn. Sir Michael’s own appointment in 1996 was seen by many women as a snub, as he took the job coveted by Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, the top woman diplomat at the time and former political director at the Foreign Office, who subsequently left the Foreign Office accusing it of sexism.
Two other key appointments to guide Labour through its second term were also announced yesterday. Sir David Manning, former Ambassador to Israel and currently Ambassador to Nato, will become Mr Blair’s foreign policy adviser in Downing Street in September. His place at Nato will be taken by Dr Emyr Jones Parry, the Foreign Office’s present political director.
Peter Ricketts will succeed Dr Jones Parry as political director in September, giving Mr Straw a completely new senior team in the key positions to carry out Labour’s foreign policy in its second term.