The Aims and Objectives clearly play a number of different roles:-

• As a Government tool - they might (potentially) be used in international relations and treaties - perhaps at the World Trade Organisation or at the European Union in Common Agricultural Policy negotiations
• Externally, they may be used to influence the press, public, and the members of the food and farming sectors that I have surveyed in the website survey
• Internally, they are perhaps used as a template for the work of the Department, and as a device in the development of 'New Government' and the Public Service Agreements
• Politically, they could be used in a number of ways in the Parliamentary and electoral processes of the UK

The external effect of these Aims and Objectives is the focus of the remainder of this work - how the press, public, and food and farming sectors relate to them, and are influenced by them. However, the other dimension of the report should not be forgotten:-

Internal Effects. Clearly from the Report, there is now also a system for high-level development of Government Aims and Objectives, and a system for enforcing them using the PSA system. As an outsider, it is difficult to evaluate if the Aims and Objectives have any effect on these everyday activities of Government itself, such as the machinery for the collection of information and control and licensing of the activities in the agricultural sector.

Political Dimensions. There is a general election every 4 or 5 years in Britain, and the winner is elected partly on the basis of their election manifesto. In this case, the Labour Party were re-elected in 2001, and their manifest can be found online at http://www.labour.org.uk/manifesto

This manifesto had a major section on Rural Britain, with sub-headings of Agriculture and Fishing, Economic Renewal, Rural life, Leadership for the Future, and Rural Affairs.

In the UK system, the promises made by political parties in their Elections Manifestos may be used to override the 'business as usual' life of a Ministry. In the case of the last election, the Labour Manifesto does not seem to have led to a major change of direction, although there is an increase in rhetoric about rural issues, it is hard to evaluate the impact of this.