IN one corner, we have the farmers. For years they have taken a battering: from BSE, from the floods, from the strong pound, from livestock welfare rules that cripple competitiveness, and, most recently, from foot and mouth disease.

In the other we have a Government roundly condemned for having little understanding or interest in rural affairs.

Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett is charged with both improving her administration's image in the countryside and putting the agriculture industry back on its feet. How does she respond? By telling farmers to "change or die".

This foolishly confrontational stance can only cause resentment and delay rural reform.

Updated: 11:45 Wednesday, October 03, 2001