His secretary had arranged to have him pick me up from my house on Tuesday 20th April. He arrived at midday with a friend and informed me that we would be visiting a local farm in rural Boarhunt along with the other party candidates.
On arrival at the farm, we were greeted in a friendly manner by a dozen or so farmers who were eager to grill the Conservative Candidate of the new constituency. George made small talk with some of the farmers whilst we patiently waited for others to arrive. It was soon obvious that the farmers and George had a very clear class barrier; on the one hand you had these farmers who, despite the fact they owned and worked their own land, were clearly working class, then you had Oxbridge-educated, middle-class George. Their interactions before the meeting started felt somewhat like a ridiculous pantomime.
Before the meeting commenced, George took me aside and asked me what I was looking to get out of the day so I explained that I wanted to film the meeting and get an interview with him where he would be answering my pre-prepared questions. He was entirely complying and told me his only issue with the interview would be a ten minute time restriction. He then asked me what line of journalism I wished to get into and then went on to tell me that journalism was not a profession he would wish his children to get into as he went on to recite how little a local Hampshire paper's editor was being paid. Although I have no intentions of working for local papers, I did feel rather annoyed by the remarks and they only reaffirmed my initial preconceptions upon first meeting him.
Once all the farmers had arrived, we were ushered to a barn which somewhat resembled an equestrian-esque Question Time format - hay bails for seats etc. Mr Hollingbery then asked why were heading toward the barn as he thought that the meeting would be held inside. To me it was very obvious that the meeting would be taking place in the barn, however George seemed a bit perturbed by the suggestion. I remember thinking that it was quite fitting to have the meeting in the barn, and found it hard to fathom why George wouldn't have expected a similar meeting arena.
The discussed topics at the meeting included competition from abroad, farming disease, and the ridiculous nature of a variety of currently imposed restrictions. George clearly had little to no knowledge of agriculture but he did not try to create a false impression that he did; this was really his only option as the farmers would have quickly become aware that he did not know much in the field (excuse the pun). Fair play to Mr Hollingbery, he hadn't come completely unprepared; he would often try to appeal to the farmers by spouting agricultural sound-bites, one of which i recall went along the lines of, "asparagus from Peru? Come on?!" Despite the fact he was trying to convey some initiative toward the farmers, it seemed that his farming knowledge was more than likely extracted from a Broadsheet Sunday supplement as opposed to Farmers Weekly. It felt a bit like a car crash comedy skit.
Another preparation George had made so as not to look entirely clueless was the decision to invite his farming friend from Suffolk to the meeting. Initially i thought that the guy had just come to help with George's campaign trail, (he came down as the Iceland volcanic ash cloud had prevented him from going abroad so he had a spare few days) which he had, but it quickly became apparent that due to his farming knowledge that he was going to help George, and there were numerous occasions in the meeting where he jumped to Hollingbery's aid and pointed him in various directions. In fact, as we left the farm i distinctly remember George thanking his friend - his voice steeped with relief - for helping him.
I genuinely feel that he was a hit with the farmers. They accepted that his knowledge of agriculture was small, but he did come across as sincere in his promise to put agriculture as high up on his agenda as possible. However, for me it was his oratorical skills which shone through. I feel that he was more of a wordsmith than an implementer of promises. As much as he was indeed a polite gentleman, all he did was just firmly cement my bad preconceptions on the Conservative party. I acknowledge the fact that a lot of politics is all about the show but I strongly believe that once elected, farming will be a small issue for George and somewhat of an annoyance.
The Conservatives did not get my vote.
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