Farmers who feed us are pretty fed up themselves. Changes in inheritance tax will, they say, impair their ability to pass family farms on to their children when the owner dies, and many suggest they may leave the business within the next twelve months when it comes into effect.
They have been getting together to discuss the new policies, and conclude that the only people who will find the agricultural industry profitable are the giant companies and that owner/occupiers will be a thing of the past with everyone ending up as tenants of conglomerations and it is not only they who will suffer but the British public as variety decreases and prices to consumers will increase.
However there is confusion over their next steps. Jeremy Clarkson, newly invented as a leader of the nation’s farmers having previously been best known for Top Gear and other TV shows, is supposedly organising a major demonstration. He bought a farm which is described by his local authority as a front for a retail outlet and restaurant, bypassing planning consent and, despite his opposition to environmental policies which he describes as green communism, continues to operate it. His farm shop, for instance, is stuffed full of locally grown products, such as clothing, books, wine, and perfume so it is hard to know how the local authority can consider it anything other than a legitimate farm products supplier.
The National Farmers’ Union have arranged a conference on 19th November in Church House, near Westminster Abbey, and a mass Lobby of MPs after that. They say that is oversubscribed, but others will be coming down to demonstrate on Parliament Green. Clarkson first said he was organising a mass Tractor drive to stop all London traffic, then that he was pulling out of any demonstrations, and now says his decision is pending.
There is no doubt that Farmers have a grievance, and they deserve consideration. But perhaps real farmers and not reality TV stars whose previous experience of the industry was listening to The Archers 30 years ago. They maybe should just mind their own business, whatever that business actually is. Watch this space for news of any potential disruptions to travel.
