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| Letters: Sir Richard Body had a strong sense of history | Letters: Sir Richard Body had a strong sense of history |
| (6 months later) | |
| Giles Oakley writes: On the one occasion I met the Tory MP Sir Richard Body he made a great impression. In 1987 I was interviewing him for a BBC2 Open Space documentary entitled Aggro Chemicals presented by self-taught scientist and campaigning organic dairy farmer Mark Purdey. | Giles Oakley writes: On the one occasion I met the Tory MP Sir Richard Body he made a great impression. In 1987 I was interviewing him for a BBC2 Open Space documentary entitled Aggro Chemicals presented by self-taught scientist and campaigning organic dairy farmer Mark Purdey. |
| Sir Richard supported Mark in his principled refusal to comply with a Ministry of Agriculture order to apply an organo-phosphate-based compound on his cattle to prevent a hypothetical infestation of warble fly. Mark, preferring his own organic treatment, took the matter all the way to the high court, and won. | Sir Richard supported Mark in his principled refusal to comply with a Ministry of Agriculture order to apply an organo-phosphate-based compound on his cattle to prevent a hypothetical infestation of warble fly. Mark, preferring his own organic treatment, took the matter all the way to the high court, and won. |
| As chair of the House of Commons select committee for agriculture, Sir Richard invited Mark to give evidence to MPs about his evolving theories regarding the dangers of OP pesticides and his belief that they were at the heart of the “mad-cow disease” crisis. | As chair of the House of Commons select committee for agriculture, Sir Richard invited Mark to give evidence to MPs about his evolving theories regarding the dangers of OP pesticides and his belief that they were at the heart of the “mad-cow disease” crisis. |
| I know how much Mark, a mud-on-his-boots and straw-in-his-hair idealist, valued Sir Richard’s support and encouragement to keep on pushing the issue. I warmed to the squire-like MP with his old-school courtesy and twinkly eye for mischief. | I know how much Mark, a mud-on-his-boots and straw-in-his-hair idealist, valued Sir Richard’s support and encouragement to keep on pushing the issue. I warmed to the squire-like MP with his old-school courtesy and twinkly eye for mischief. |
| He had a strong sense of history and he told me he had backed the rebellious Mark in part because he likened him to a “village Hampden”, in honour of the 17th-century parliamentarian John Hampden, who had refused to pay “ship money” to Charles I. | He had a strong sense of history and he told me he had backed the rebellious Mark in part because he likened him to a “village Hampden”, in honour of the 17th-century parliamentarian John Hampden, who had refused to pay “ship money” to Charles I. |
| Charles Harris writes: When preparing my BBC2 satirical documentary Sex, Drugs and Dinner in 1991, I found that Sir Richard Body was sharp, had a very dry sense of humour and was passionately committed to the environment. | Charles Harris writes: When preparing my BBC2 satirical documentary Sex, Drugs and Dinner in 1991, I found that Sir Richard Body was sharp, had a very dry sense of humour and was passionately committed to the environment. |
| Indeed, his views were so diametrically opposed to those of his farmer constituents in south Lincolnshire that I finally asked him why on earth they voted for him. “They would vote,” he said laconically, “for a pig if it wore a blue rosette.” | Indeed, his views were so diametrically opposed to those of his farmer constituents in south Lincolnshire that I finally asked him why on earth they voted for him. “They would vote,” he said laconically, “for a pig if it wore a blue rosette.” |
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