LORD Sewel, whose responsibilities take in agriculture, the environment and fisheries, has, like his predecessor Lord Lindsay, moved very quickly from the phase of being referred to as Lord Who?

As one of the early presidents of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, he already knew his way about the Scottish Office, albeit from the other side of the desk.

It has not taken him long to make his mark with both his civil servants and lobbyists such as the National Farmers' Union of Scotland. At his first meeting with the NFU, he underlined the fact that there was no pot of gold, silver, or even baser metal which could be used to bale out the farming industry at a time of crisis.

He has remained true to his word and appears to have ridden out the storm of criticism which greeted the Government's decision to cut compensation to farmers under the Over Thirty Months' Scheme - OTMS - designed to keep older cattle out of the food chain in the wake of the BSE crisis.

That decision, openly acknowledged as being Treasury led - and intended to save #5m a year in payments to Scottish farmers - was seen as ending the honeymoon period for the new Labour Government.

The minister has been open with the industry about where his sympathies lie. He is more inclined to the consumer interest than the producer interest.

He has made it clear that, in his view, farmers should be moving towards a situation where they derive more of their income from the market and less from subsidies.