Great to hear a UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs declare that (EU) farming policy has been environmentally damaging and socially unjust. Gove says: ‘The number of farmland birds has reduced by more than half, pollinators such as wild and honey bees have suffered a drastic decline in numbers, and our rivers and chalk streams have seen fish stocks decline and small mammals disappear.’ But I can’t see farmers, who have such influence in the Tory party, allowing him to right the wrong. They are specialists who specialise in making money but are not very good at it. The countryside needs the influence of landscape architects with a focus on public goods. IF Michael Gove delivers on his promise to pay farmers for the delivery of public goods this will raise farm incomes.