THREE or four years ago the pig industry was in an even worse state than it is now. The leaders were at a loss to work out what they could do to draw the attention of the public and those in Parliament to these problems.

Legislation had been passed, restricted to the UK, making our costs higher than our foreign competitors. But Britain's higher welfare standards were not being recognised in the buying decisions of either the domestic or catering markets.

The situation was serious. It has largely been resolved by exporting the UK industry and the jobs which go with it to our continental, and other, competitors.

The National Pig Association decided that a way of drawing the world's attention to the plight of the industry would be to place a pig in Parliament Square. There, across the road from both the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, more or less everyone who was anyone in terms of influence on Government would pass by.

The pig was not just to wander around in the square, digging up the roses; it was to be in a nice little enclosure with a round-topped hut of the sort found in fields in this part of the world.

The enclosure with the pig in it was placed at the feet of the statue of Sir Winston Churchill in the corner of the square. Unsurprisingly, the pig became known as Winnie and she was a bit of a star. There was a rota consisting of 12-hour shifts for looking after the pig which consisted of answering people's questions and seeing that she had food and water.

After she had been in her enclosure for some time I took my turn to look after her one day. The fact that the other person who was supposed to arrive to share the shift did not turn up made for certain obvious difficulties in terms of getting food for me and so on.

However, the 12 hours passed peacefully enough, I spoke to many members of the public, was able to explain the problems, and thereby spread the word.

There was mention of the pig in the House of Commons on a number of occasions and the fact that there was some doubt as to whose property we were all trespassing on meant that our little protest was not moved on by the forces of the law. We may have made a small difference.

Since then there has been a great increase in the numbers of protests, with banners and attendants (though no pig) held down that side of the square.

It has got to the stage that the Westminster authorities are considering taking extra powers to ban them all. That is, I suppose, what we would expect.

How much more creative if they were to think what makes people, otherwise law abiding, take such action. The reason is that they are at their wit's end. Somehow the process by which we are all governed has failed them.

We have all been through the procedure whereby we have discussed our views, and at the end, failed to agree. Because the other party has the final decision we have not got our own way. We have, however, been through the process.

The problem seems increasingly to be that proper discussion does not exist. People are told, well that is the way it is, take it or leave it.

With no effective parliamentary Opposition the Government would be well advised to tread carefully to avoid driving everyone who disagrees with it into Parliament Square.

Updated: 11:56 Tuesday, November 04, 2003