Brexit is a huge opportunity for farming in the U.K. We are out of the Common Agricultural Policy which directed too much subsidy to the largest and more profitable farms. It damaged our dairy industry by not allocating us enough milk quota, and our beef industry by too prolonged a response to BSE. It led to a big decline in the proportion of home produced food during our membership. They paid grants to remove our orchards.
On exit government promised farmers the same level of subsidy out of the EU as in it, with a planned redistribution away from the large corn estates. Unfortunately the government decided to allocate much of the money via the ELMs scheme, rewarding not growing food rather than growing it. Large estates could turn over more land for wilding and take the cash. Many family working farms wanting to maximise food output did not qualify or did not bother to apply for grants.
I and a few other MPs lobbied strenuously for grants ,subsidies and affordable finance to promote more and more productive food production instead of ELMs. Some schemes were introduced but the sums remained small compared to the environmental grants.
The latest government attack on family farms with their ill thought through IHT proposals has understandably raised the opposition of the farmers. Family farms may well have to be broken up or sold to richer larger landowners and companies to pay the death taxes.
We need policies to promote the retention of family farms and to encourage more investment in food growing. Why do government want us to import much of our food as well as much of our energy and manufactured goods? When will they support growers and makers so we can earn a living as a nation and increase our national resilience?
November 18, 2024
The evil policies of Defra created by the last government are continuing under this present one so food security remains a fond hope.
The retail banking complaints team operative likely used materially incomplete information to devise her destructive IHT grab, confining her review to historical data on agricultural reliefs sought by estates whilst ignoring business assets relief claims that are typically made in tandem. Just like VAT on school fees, the motive seem spite rather than anything worthy.
November 18, 2024
Farmers are seen as major polluters by the net zero scamners and their land must be used for approved use as windfarms and solar farms.
Despite neither helping our energy security it gives a warm fuzzy feeling to the climate change zealots.
When we are finally reduced to third world status by totally wiping out industry and farming, where does our Lords and masters think the money will come from to import the goodies.
The Farmers, like Reform have a mammoth task turning this government inspired idiotic tanker around.
Let’s wish them luck.
November 18, 2024
@Ian Wragg; I wonder how many real Farmers, those working their land (along with their farm labour and those running or working in associated industries), not just those using the countryside as their lifestyle or political prop, actually voted for their Reform UK candidate.
“Reform have a mammoth task turning this government inspired idiotic tanker around.”
Given the election results, if Reform has done anything it has been to help maintain the very tanker many despise on course, Reform votes having provided Captain Starmer with the thermal lance (a stomping majority) to cut the Johnson/Truss era anchor chains free; the current govt makes the 1974-79 Wilson/Callaghan govt look competent… At least Callaghan understood farming, owing one himself, has Ms Reeves even set foot on a working farm yet?
November 18, 2024
I thought the last government was bad, but I anticipated that a Starmer-led labour one would be much worse, and so it has proved – but far worse than even I feared
.
These days very few politicians spout common sense – our host was one of them – but on this House of Commons only Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, and three others I could name are worth listening to.
The five people at the top of this Government : 2TK, Theeves, Mini brain, Lammy and Mrs Balls are about as incompetent as I have ever seen.
For most of his time in government, Blair was pretty good for a Labour PM and led us in broadly the right direction. This lot have no idea what they are doing. : Theeves claimed to be all about growth but her budget did exactly the opposite. She was less that truthful about her CV, and it shows!
As for the farmers, they are enjoying a level of support that Starmer and his 20% government can only dream about, and rightly so.
It is hard to see how this could end with anything other than a hugely embarrassing climbdown which Theeves will not be able to survive.
To try and save his own position, 2TK will have to ditch his Chancellor, just like Liz Truss attempted. I hope he is no more successful.
November 18, 2024
Blair was one of the All Time Disasters.
November 18, 2024
I am in favour of a level pitch tax system. IHT should have been abolished completely, most sensible countries have little or non. The UK as 40% above just £325k now worth more like £200k. It was stupid of the Tories to over pump up farm land prices by having IHT on most assets but not on farmland. IHT is pure theft. They should stick to taxing profits, income and CGT after inflation. This at 20% is more than enough tax to fund the rather few things government can do better than the people, businesses and charities can. That way people with invest in the UK and not escape from it.
It also means yet more parasitic activity for tax planner, lawyers and farmers distracted from more productive activities. Often more stamp duty and bank borrowing too.
November 18, 2024
The Government should only be able to use real-terms rates I.e corrected for inflation.
November 18, 2024
Good morning.
I have been watching on YT episodes about the Russian Kulaks and what happened to them under the Communist Party. The history of that terrible episode has some worryingly similarities to what has been happening in Europe and the UK.
Basically we have a situation where those that create policies simply do not understand how farming works. Putting cattle and poultry farming to one side, agricultural farming (as seen from Harry’s Farm) is a very hit and miss affair. Much depends upon the weather which, in the UKm can be very challenginf and variable. Then you have the world markets and the prices farmers can get for their crop yields. Margins are fine and one bad year could spell the end. Farmers and their hands also have to work some very bad hours usually into the night.
What I think famers need is some support for bad times and a stable regulatory regime. They can then begin to plan longterm and look to build a successful business. Having people brining in rules, regulations and taxes without ever meeting farmers or their union, the NFU, shows toal comtempt for these people. The same contempt the Soviets showed to Kulaks.
Reply Action against the Kulaks was often violent and extreme. It meant many were imprisoned and some executed. EU/UK is hitting farmers with laws and taxes, not physical violence
November 18, 2024
I’m looking at the policy more through the lens of the Highland Clearances, where small “subsistence” farming families were deliberately cleared off the land to make way for a more valuable commodity – sheep.
Labour wants them off the land to make way for solar panels, windmills and housing.
November 19, 2024
+1
November 18, 2024
R to R
There is more than one way to skin a cat. They will not use overt violance but will other means to acheive the same end – The removal of small independent farmers. Just like they use IR35 to go after small business.
Their goal is Communism. Only there will be no storming of the Winter Palace this time.
November 18, 2024
“Action against the Kulaks was often violent and extreme. It meant many were imprisoned and some executed. EU/UK is hitting farmers with laws and taxes, not physical violence”
So far. But requisition of assets and farm land 20%/40% IHT every generation plus stamp duty up to 15%, up to 45% income tax and up to 25% NI is not that different to how the attacks on the Kulaks (with over 8 acres) of land all started. This on top of the highest energy cost in the world caused by the Net Zero lunacy, fertiliser taxes etc.
Combined it will steal circa 95% all your assets of you over a couple of generations. Unless you are our King of Climate Hypocrisy, King Charles with his £500 million plus and is exempt from nearly all taxes of course. Raking it in from coastal wind farm rents etc.
November 18, 2024
Reply to Reply: does it matter to a farmer being driven from the land which he and his family have worked on, lived on and owned for generations if this is by violence or crushing, unplayable taxes?
November 18, 2024
If I may correct one sentence of your post:
“Basically we have a situation where those that create policies simply do not understand how farming works.”
To become:
“Basically we have a situation where those that create policies simply do not understand how anything works.”
I feel strongly we need to support our farmers when they make their protests. The government is acting to destroy farming legacy in this country and the livelihoods of their children. Will the country pull together though? They certainly haven’t pulled together to vote in this government, with only 20% of the electorate voting Labour.
November 18, 2024
Reply : Just give it time. We know from the history of the last century where the Far Left eventually leads us. The ends alays justifies the means they believe.
November 18, 2024
The’Far Left’ is not in charge,the ‘Liberal Left (aka corporate socialism aka fascism) is.
If you think the Far Left is in charge how do you reconcile the ousting of Jeremy Corbyn and his faction(genuine socialists most people would say) by the Establishment,using all manner of dirty tricks?
November 18, 2024
Mitchel :
What’s the difference please between “Far Left” and “Liberal Left (aka corporate socialism aka fascism)” as far as the outcome for ordinary people is concerned?
In fact, China prides itself that it is “one country, two systems”. Communist at the top in control and corporate fascist underneath to provide the industrial capacity and prosperity making businesses that Communism cannot manage to achieve.
Corbyn was removed not for his far left/socialist leanings but because he supported Brexit and thus couldn’t be made part of the Far Left UN/WEF plan.
In Wikipedia’s entry for ‘Political Positions of Jeremy Corbyn’ I could find no mention of ‘climate change’ or ‘Net Zero’. This is odd and perhaps he agrees with his brother, Piers, a phycisist, who does not believe that we have CAGW, and for this reason alone he would be removed.
November 19, 2024
@OR; If you bother to check the 2017 and 2019 Labour manifestos, signed off by Corbyn as leader, you will see there are pliantly of references to either ‘climate change’ or ‘Net Zero’ (the latter often hyphenated).
November 18, 2024
@Mark B; Not sure why but there seems to be very few UK or ROI YouTube farming channels, perhaps my search results and recommendations are all wrong, or more likely most UK farmers don’t have the time to be a ‘YouTuber’, some of the better channels for understand actual farming issues, processes, nature etc. are from (USA/Can) North America.
November 18, 2024
Mark B
One of the farmers on tv said about Russia, that when their farms were taken from them, at least they had the decency, to shoot the farmers first! He wasn’t joking…
There’s a tremendous amount of similarities – starting – in the UK.
November 18, 2024
Reply to reply: so the Kulaks were treated like native British demonstrators and truth-tellers.
November 18, 2024
You should have a bit more respect for the 1 to 2 million people who disappeared/were killed during the dekulakisation.
November 18, 2024
‘ Why do government want us to import much of our food as well as much of our energy and manufactured goods? When will they support growers and makers so we can earn a living as a nation and increase our national resilience?’
Because they are controlled by globalist ideas in the same way as the Netherlands. (Rich globalists Ed) will own a huge chunk of British farmland. ……
Governments will never act in the interests of the nation state unless they are forced to break their ties to globalists.
November 18, 2024
Agreed. And we certainly won’t get that from WEF-approved Badenoch and her Not-a-Conservative-Party.
November 18, 2024
The Starmer/Labour actions are more similar to the economic incompetence in China during the ‘Great Leap Forward’ in the 1950’s. Socialist dogma driven rules, simplistic and obviously harmful when considered, created famine and economic chaos, resulting in millions starving. Sound familiar?
Perhaps Starmer is going to get some tips from Xi this week.
PS, China is the coming problem for the Trump administration:
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/understanding-china-s-efforts-bridge-south-china-sea-taiwan-strait-disputes
November 18, 2024
Peter :
Correct.
November 18, 2024
One country has well and truly broken its ties with the globalists (ie monopoly capital)-and is doing rather well.
Business New Europe have just published an excellent long review of the Russian economy in the light of a major review by CASE(Centre for Analysis & Statistics in Europe):”Russia’s economy is tougher than it looks;no chance of a crisis in the next 3-5 years-CASE”,14/11/24.
Conclusion:”Overall this creates a trend that is alarming for the West and highly significant for Russia:Russia is not simply “falling into China’s embrace”,the authors wrote.”Rather,Moscow is transforming into an ‘alternative model’,operating outside the framework of western-controlled institutions and established rules.This trend could prove far more dangerous than the much-discussed “export of corruption” to Western countries……as recent years have shown,the use of unconventional payments,the export of pirated products,and the smuggling of goods from western companies-all of these practices are much easier to implement than previously assumed.”
Indeed,it is highly likely that Russia through BRICS (which is being increasingly institutionalized,particularly during this year of Russia’s presidency)will,as I have suggested here in recent recent years,destroy London as a parasitic financial centre,in the process de-funding the British Establishment.
(Just in case you were wondering why the UK is so heavily -and desperately- involved in the Ukraine war and other failed attempts at destabilisation in Russia’s near abroad!)
November 18, 2024
Russia using 40% of State Budget on military spending, and has to employ North Korean mercenaries to bolster its army against little Ukraine. Not really going that well is it.
November 19, 2024
Believing your own side’s propaganda is a bad idea. There’s not the slightest independent evidence of North Korean ‘mercenaries’ fighting for Russia. It’s better to look at the situation objectively, as Business New Europe seems to be doing.
November 19, 2024
The propaganda is working with you,clearly.
November 18, 2024
@Peter; “Governments will never act in the interests of the nation state unless they are forced to break their ties to globalists.”
Nothing to do with globalist ties per se, I seem to remember the UK used to be energy independent (other than oil until the late 1970s), we used to make our own products, and our own luck, indeed we exported both; what is more, after WW2 the UK made great strides with our basic food security, either home grown or imported from secure friendly countries.
What went wrong (apart from consumers being promised their out of season fruit and veg), knowing the value of everything by the turn of the millennium, but the worth of nothing perhaps?…
November 18, 2024
The Government ARE the globalists as were the previous governments. That’s why we need to change the personnel completely in both major parties and wipe out the LibDems and Greens completely.
Those who demand PR want to keep the LibDems, Greens, Women’s Hopscotch Party and worse in parliament.
November 18, 2024
Well at last the 39 bus has arrived, something we cannot blame the govenor of the Bank of England for.
All you say about farming is true and I am sure you put maximum pressure on your own government to carry through their promises. It did not register with them. They were intelligent people, what counter their promises pressure were your government put under, and by whom to reneague on their promises and put UK agriculture in such jeopody. I suspect, like our fishermen our farmers became a bargaining chip in the misplaced endeavour to settle trade, rather than opt for WTO rules. Something else you advocated that fell on stoney ground.
It lightened the task of malign Labour to pursue their class war against a high risk industry that is capital rich but income poor. Those seriously wealthy who use agricultural investment to circumvent IHT are only doing what they have to do to survive the ravages of government. IHT is an iniquitous double tax on income already taxed.
I hope the farmers force a change of policy with a gorilla war against the forces of envy, but as I said some time ago prepare for a bumpy ride and high priced sprouts.
November 18, 2024
Last time I caught a bus it was in central London but the roads so blocked, it went so slowly (about 1 mile in 40 mins). I ended up getting off again and walking the second mile.
November 18, 2024
‘ Well at last the 39 bus has arrived…’ perhaps you could be described as the man on the Clapham omnibus.
A report today shows buses in Central London are getting slower. Cycle lanes and island bus stops are among the reasons offered, though car traffic has gone down considerably.
Getting a London bus on Saturday is now a very bad idea, as they are rammed full. They can be busy at 11am on a weekday too. I think lack of parking spaces is one reason. Thanks to councils and planning departments for making our narrow streets even more difficult.
This is based on personal observation – as a passenger and a pedestrian. Buses have windows and it is easy to see how many passengers are on board. No daft theory involved.
November 18, 2024
In our neck of the woods there is often just one person on the bus – the driver. Some Co2 footprint!
November 18, 2024
Dad always had one half of the garden given over to vegetables and we had fresh brussel sprouts at Christmas. I never liked them!
But maybe “Dig For Victory” will have to return – maybe as “Dig to Survive” at the rate we are going
November 18, 2024
Ian T
I think the idea of growing your own fruit and veg has already been pooh-poohed by the left…. something to do with carbon and the climate!
November 18, 2024
For those who only have a passing acquaintenance with the metaphor, the 39 bus is the plight of farming. It is all down to the Chancellor, and just for once not our friend the Governor of the Bank of England.
November 18, 2024
A,
I took it literally. I thought you were on London bus route 39 between Clapham and Putney.
https://bus-routes-in-london.fandom.com/wiki/London_Buses_route_39
November 18, 2024
The IHT raid is cruel. It will break up family farms, which are a traditional part of country life across the UK. It will raise a derisory sum of money compared to all that wasted by government. It appears vindictive.
I have worked as an agricultural labourer in the past, and saw some farmers profit obscenely from subsidy. But many don’t, they work their butts off for variable and sometimes meagre returns. The incentive of passing on the farm to the next generation is a great one and one they deserve to keep. Scrap the IHT grab – it’s an attack on the countryside from a malevolent urban elite.
November 18, 2024
Indeed but we need to scrap IHT in full. Another huge unfairness is how if you have 5 kids they get a tiny bit tax free but if only one up to £1 million tax free. Surely the tax should be adjusted for this. But abolition is best.
As you sau “The incentive of passing on the farm to the next generation is a great one and one they deserve to keep.” But we also need an incentive to build up other assets, to work hard, to build up good businesses, employ people, invest in the UK and not to leave. The current incentives are largely to leave. The attacks of private schools and non Doms are both evil and counterproductive too. They will cost far more than they raise.
November 18, 2024
+1
November 18, 2024
I agree with your comments. I support the farmers in their cause to get this imposition of IHT reversed. It is wrong on several levels. Clearly the implications and their consequences have not been thought through by it’s advocates. It is driven by spite. It accelerates the move to reduce food security by cutting domestic food production. It will undermine the network of sectors that enable and support the current farming ecosystem. It will reduce growth. Farmers have every reason to distrust the words of politicians.
November 18, 2024
In January 2022, nineteen Conservative MPs and peers confirmed their membership of Steve Baker’s Net Zero Scrutiny Group. They took a stand against the Net Zero policy, which is the rationale for Michael Gove’s ELM scheme, and in doing that they supported farming and food security. You were not among them, Sir John. Might I respectfully ask why not?
Reply I did “ belong” I.e. attend the net zero scrutiny group which was organised by Craig Mackinley
November 18, 2024
Only 19 and this is why the Tories sank.
November 18, 2024
As always what you think you will get does not deliver. Food production under the EU was totally in their favour. Our orchards were decimated and all we have now are tasteless French and Portuguese apples instead of our lovely tasting varieties which can only be obtained from farmed orchards that still operate. Of course, we were in the EU for too long for younger generations to remember the taste of Cox Pippins freshly brought to market as we did not have the supermarket chains operating and insisting on set shapes and fruit being tampered with to keep it longer for sale. Brexit was supposed to bring back our production of food with the money paid to other farmers in the EU being given to our farmers and, hopefully other younger elements joining the production teams. The Remainers say to it that this was never going to happen along with the corporates who saw to it that they did not lose out. I feel so sorry for the little farmers who will suffer under this Stalinist lot and hope everyone gets behind them in support but I doubt it as the modern generations do not understand what has happened to this country over the last 60 years and it is not for the better.
November 18, 2024
As usual, the situation we find ourselves in is a result of the Not-a-Conservative-Party refusing to deliver LEAVE and continuing to deliver the policies of the WEF, summed up as “the Great Reset,” which no-one has ever voted for and which are designed and intended to reduce the living standards of ordinary people.
If The Treasury had wanted to “go after” wealthy people who were avoiding IHT by buying up farming land, they could have done it. Instead they targeted the entire farming industry, with the viciousness particularly directed at small family-owned farms which can only afford the death tax by selling off their land.
Why would they do that? They claim that it will only raise a small amount (in governmental terms) – less than £2 billion. There are only two plausible reasons:
1. Class warfare. As the nasty socialist, McTernan.
2. Because they want to drive small, family-owned farms out of business.
Keir-Ching! is attempting to impose the WEF’s farming policy: drive small farmers off the land and transfer food production to corporations. Free up the land for solar farms, windmills and housing for migrants. Just like Rutte tried in The Netherlands.
We will not be able to stop the systematic destruction of our country until we have a Government which repudiates the WEF.
November 18, 2024
It was the same with IR35 – A sledge hammer to crack a nut. The Treasury and HMRC over inflated the money that they said they were losing to the then Labour government, who being too stupid and greedy, brought forward that legislation. It never brought in the money it was suppose of done but did damage a lot of SME’s.
November 18, 2024
Solar farms in the cloudy UK make very little sense above a certain level as most of the energy arrives middle of the day in the summer but is mainly needed in the dark winters and cannot cost effectively be stored so needs mainly gas provision most of the year.
Wind is better as you get some energy in winter, but it still needs expensive backup on standby which is not efficient.
November 18, 2024
Let’s hope we get big hailstones that bankrupt a few councils!
November 18, 2024
Unfortunately, there’s a whisper of suspicion in the back of my mind that there is some truth to this Donna. But then I tell myself “No, they are just incompetent, dogma ridden idiots” I find it more comforting than the alternative thought…
November 18, 2024
Typically British. Man up!
November 18, 2024
Donna :
Agreed.
November 18, 2024
Donna
In the US, a pig farming conglomerate, moved all their pigs into a warehouse type place; sold pork at dirt cheap prices, forcing 20,000 small pig farmers out of business. To make matters worse, the conglomerate then sold out to China!
November 19, 2024
Yes, and the knock-on effect on small abattoirs was devastating. Instead of killing a reasonable number of animals per day in smaller slaughterhouses closer to local farms, they are now mass culled, which results in severe mental health problems in the people who work in those large killing factorys.
November 18, 2024
well that is easily fixed vote Reform UK which is staffed by True Brits , Not wef traitors,
Vote Reform , be a true Brit
November 18, 2024
It is impossible to imagine a nation’s decision to destroy its independent energy capacity, destroy its independent food production and destroy its border security, without concluding the overall ambition by the powers that be is to destroy the Nation.
The policy decision declared by the EU post Maastricht Treaty signed by John Major during your prime political career Sir John was to remove nations as political power blocks and replace them with a unified federal structure modelled on the USA.
It is no surprise the mechanisms advanced to reshape the established national structures via cross border harmonies ,think Schengen areas and CAP +CFP and many other harmonies, still persist and are still being developed here in none EU Britain, to this day.
The need to reassert the validity of Nation has never been more urgent than it is today.
If anyone doubts the continuing drive to a united Europe still exists, they should listen to what Starmer and his government policies are saying. The ambition of Labour Marxists to transform the UK into a region of Europe with no identity beyond it being a large Island off the coast of Mainland Europe, powerless and without access to natural resources continues. The attack on our farming traditions and food security may be the final impoverishment that pushes us over the edge.
We will ‘own nothing’ yet somehow I don’t think we ‘will be happy’?
November 18, 2024
The EU was modelled more on the USSR than the USA. The latter, at least in theory, devolves decision making to the lowest level (county then state then federal) but the EU and USSR both favour centralised control with few powers devolves to nations.
November 18, 2024
Pud
Certainly looks that way. The EU was partly set up to compete with the USA. Leftists and remainers seem to dislike America! So your comment makes perfect sense.
November 18, 2024
Not necessarily. What a lot on the right don’t like is grey-squirrel American culture killing off our red-squirrel British culture. Let’s trade with the USA and Europe but be independant and unique too – British!
November 18, 2024
The EU and the AU were set up as the first of the blocs that people would more easily give up in favour of World Government. Surrendering their nation state to the block was the hard part – you know that the UK was the First Nation state, so we can claim to have invented the multi-polar world now championed by BRICS.
Anyway, that’s why Johnson was able to say he was prepared to give up the EU and support Brexit …. And go straight to One World Government. He said it as PM. Look it up.
November 18, 2024
Boris Johnson was in favour of a One Nation Government and is certainly a One Nation Conservative,
Now, Lynn, as you seem to have the reference, when and where did he say he wanted a One World Government? I’m curious to read what he said.
November 19, 2024
Serbia was frequently referred to as the ‘first national state’ when it achieved its full independence from the Ottoman Empire.
The UK did not invent multipolarity(Africans and Asians and others had no say-or votes- in it)-rather,it is much truer to say it invented globalism-and is trying desperately to prevent globalism from collapsing.
November 18, 2024
The rationale of this post seems more plausible than the WEF theories.
November 18, 2024
The oldest Westminster parliamentary cross party group is the One World Government Group. Look it up. Kinnock etc all members. They sent me a load of glossy full colour brochures some years ago when I enquired.
And No, JR has never been a member.
November 18, 2024
RE :
Unfortunately you are correct. Net Zero is intended to not only destroy our economy but also our military capabilities. No steel, no manufacturing, expensive and unreliable energy and the rationing of food, energy and transport “to save the planet”. Coupled with mass immigration to change the electorate before it can wake up and eject the Uniparty from Parliament. There is no other explanaton other than to destroy our wealth and nation state. It is the UN/WEF/EU’s long-term policy.
November 18, 2024
+1 Rod Evans
That is exactly what is happening.
November 18, 2024
+1
November 18, 2024
This government just like the last know exactly what they are doing. Both want to destroy the small family farm and pass the land to large corporations like xxx. Control the food and energy supply and you control the people. Social credits will be implemented under the pretext of rationing. Inheritance Tax does not apply to foreigners, the rich or the landed gentry who have the means to avoid it. Only middle class British born citizens will pay the price.
November 18, 2024
Oh this time the ‘landed gentry’ and the working class are also ‘paying the price’. Look at Rightmove, the number of estates being sold for the first time in 600 years – even the Percys are selling one to pay the trust tax. (£35 mill, a snip)
November 18, 2024
To meet his Net Zero goals Starmer will have to make us eat less meat and dairy, 20-30% less by 2030 would be useful for him, but he daren’t directly tax meat and milk so he attacks the farms that produce it instead. As a bonus they all have to use diesel vehicles rather than EVs so if he can close them down that also helps his target. This view is quite common in Labour circles: “John McTernan, who was the ex-Labour PM’s {Blair} political secretary, said family farming is “an industry we can do without””
November 18, 2024
Farming is so important. It’s more than just money and jobs, it’s also a way of life. And partly roots what it means to be British in the soil of our land. As well as literally being ‘down-to-earth!’
“And I could find other excuses to get out and sit on the crisp grass and look out over the airy roof of Yorkshire. It was like taking time out of life. Time to get things into perspective and assess my progress.”
― James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small
November 18, 2024
I bet Trump urged Biden to send in the missiles. Very clever. Both presidents have a hand in it but neither fully associated with it (Biden will be out soon). Trump wants peace in Ukraine (but knows he can’t appease Putin) and doing this partly as a threat to Putin / bargaining chip. He will then try and restore Putin’s lost cred by economic deals with Russia. Could work out well for all. Please God. But Putin is still a but of a lose cannon.
November 18, 2024
What lost credibility?
Trump apparently still believes he can drive a wedge between Russia and China-that train left so long ago you need a time machine rather than a satellite to see it.See also the apparent meeting between Elon Musk and the Iranian ambassador to the UN last week.
As I have said numerous times over the past ten years,Russia+China+Iran is geopolitical checkmate for the west.
November 18, 2024
Its isn’t actually. Iran is a dead weight that will bring them down. There are plenty of dead weights in BRICS that will nullify it.
If western leaders are clever, and Trump is, they will offload the dead wood we have carried since we undertook the massive generosity of colonialism onto BRICS. Putin has always preferred the west, had we not punched him in the face 3 times we would now be aligned with the richest commodities country on earth, and our wartime allies against the ‘German System’.
God does weigh in on our side when all looks lost – see Brexit! So we might come out on top. We need to get rid of our local deadwood too (90% of MPs)
November 19, 2024
You haven’t done your research.I have.I have looked into the economies, of,say, Ethiopia and Uganda-the latter it may surprise you to learn achieved GDP growth of 5.3% in 2023,with 6.0% expected in 2024 and PWC regarding it as one of Africa’s fastest growing economies for the next five years.The same is true for Ethiopia,the regional power in the Horn of Africa,a water superpower,and an economy rapidly developing with Chinese and Arab investment in infrastructure and agriculture.
You can’t just apply to join BRICS like you would a Tesco Clubcard.Of the 41 countries that had formally applied by the time of the recent BRICS summit,only 13 were admitted to Partner status (Algeria,Belarus,Bolivia,Cuba,Indonesia,Kazakhstan,Malaysia,Nigeria,Thailand,Turkey,Uganda,Uzbekistan,Vietnam).Lots and lots of resources,people and growth potential there(hardly deadbeats).Depending on how well they integrate,some will be awarded full membership over the next year or two.
November 18, 2024
How do you mean? I don’t know much about it. I was just saying I bet Trump was really behind the green light on the missiles to put Putin in his place.
November 18, 2024
Actually it turns out that no long range missiles have been approved for use against Russia. Maybe Zelensky trying to bounce the west?
November 18, 2024
The missiles are for Kursk.
November 18, 2024
A couple of bankers thoughts on Farmers.
Farming is not an industry where interest rates play a big part. If you have to take a mortgage out on a farm then farming will be subject to interest rates.
So when you get inflation, like you did after covid, then when the Bank of England tries to reduce inflation by raising interest rates it will also raise the cost of food.
This means IHT on farming will make inflation much harder to control.
November 18, 2024
“We need to grow more food ” while that goes without saying, it doesn’t fit in with the Conservative imposed Laws of NetZero – more re-wilding, more eating bugs and more import everything. Parliament approved this Law, Parliament is intent on keeping it. The new crowd of ideological terrorist are only acting with more zeal. As always the brain power of Parliament shows the usual high standard of ineptitude, they don’t think things through, they don’t look at the long term implications of their ideological dreams, they don’t look at the doors they open for extremist, they don’t serve the UK or its People.
The main so-called opposition party with their desire for continuity supports retaining the destruction of the UK Laws – by implication that includes the Farmers.
Someone should ask why is it that the rest of the World, our main competitors are not and have no intention of destroying their Country or their People in such a malicious fashion.
November 18, 2024
The cost of farming will now include mortgages for those farmers that have died. This will create an imbalance where some farmers will pay interest and others not.
Those that do pay interest will not be able to compete with those that do not. Given farmers earn small salaries this means many will no longer be viable if they are paying £2000 a month in interest.
A restriction in the supply of farmed food means food inflation which will hit Labour supporters the hardest.
November 18, 2024
I think the farms will be sold on first. Larger entities work off equity funding or relatively cheap interest, so will actually be the ones hounding the remaining family firms out of business. At least those that haven’t given up the ghost and sold on for housing/solar farms.
November 18, 2024
Yes the government attacking the Farmers what a disgrace
Headline in the ft this morning -They don’t understand business
November 18, 2024
Hope LL is OK…..
Not meant facetiously as I do enjoy and agree with most of his observations but he would normally have had at least five posts by now!
November 18, 2024
Let’s take a closer look at that. We’ve already learned that HMG intends farmland to be turned over to solar panels and windmills, while they have told us that we will eat less fresh food including meat.
The question of importing food to sustain us requires that we seek guidance from the netzero blueprint; ‘Absolute Zero’. It tells us that not only will airports be closing, but shipping will also be constrained unless they can find a way to power boats by hydrogen or electric batteries. Even then these resources will be very limited and are unlikely to supply the same number of boats that now use diesel.
So, the plan is not to keep importing food. Add that to the fact that farmers will be producing a lot less homegrown food and we quickly see how the depopulation agenda will come into play.
November 18, 2024
“Common Agricultural Policy” while it may have started with good intentions, the power hungry, the unaccountable unelected bureaucrats quickly moved it to a full blown protections racket and then as a trade weapon. In the UK we have seen how because of aggressive subsidies by the EU our own farming struggles. It doesn’t stop there the EU with the CAP has weaponised trade with the World, they undermine so-called third World Countries from getting out of the starting block.
Any Nation that uses subsidies beyond well meaning ‘internal’ protection against predator Nations, is weaponising trade. All subsidies production or benefits of, should not find its way on to the open market.
Here in the UK we have fallen in to the trap of having to subsidies our food production, because the EU is dumping on us their weaponised taxpayer funded food on us. It has become a vicious circle.
Some Nations have realised that there is more than one way to fight, more than one way to be the agressor
November 18, 2024
Things to note with Trump taking over in the US. Import duty on EU(therefore UK) cars into the US is just 2.5%, import duty on US cars into the EU/UK is 10%. That is a 400% uplift. When Trump tried to just equalise the 2 import duties the EU cried it was unfair and that the US was creating a trade war. ?
The Chinese auto industry is a weapon against the rest of us their subsidies, to BYD(€1.6 billion), VW(€0.4 billion) and Tesla. VW & Tesla by Chinese Law are shared companies majority owned by Chinese partners – the transfer of IP etc. required. Whether it was just support for the internal market or not became null & void once the product was exported it became a weapon.
November 18, 2024
As if on cue – In today’s Media – “Donald Trump’s plans to impose tariffs on goods entering the US will deal a £20bn blow to Britain’s economy, analysts have warned.”
The UK charges 10% (because it still takes orders from its EU Masters) on US Car imports. Meanwhile the US tariffs on UK produced Cars (Jaguars, LandRovers, Minis and so on) only charges 2.5% on what the import from us. Which of the parties in that agreement is being unreasonable?
November 18, 2024
You do know that the EU imposes 10% import duty on U.S. cars? So this just ‘levels the playing field’?
November 19, 2024
@Lynn Atkinson – that’s what I said. ‘US. Import duty on EU(therefore UK) cars into the US is just 2.5%, import duty on US cars into the EU/UK is 10%. That is a 400% uplift.’
The EU/and their colony the UK crying about an equalisation is misplaced by calling it a a ‘trade war’ its self inflicted
November 19, 2024
Exactly Lynn.
November 18, 2024
According to Milliband, COP29 and the G20, we don’t need to grow more food …we should import it (like our energy)
Whats the real point of the G20 ?
November 18, 2024
Wanderer- I absolutely agree, farming is much more than business it is tradition, it is pride in home and place, it is family through the generations. Farmers don’t just own the land they hold it for the next generation – only the ignorant would want to mess with that.
November 18, 2024
My father was in the RN safeguarding the convoys across the Atlantic to feed Britain.
Farming food is life!
November 18, 2024
Food will soon be rationed by cutting supply. Transport will be rationed by the availability affordable cars. Electricity will be rationed by Smart Meter.
The only things in apparent abundance are vaccines, which we keep getting reminders about!
November 18, 2024
The war against Farming is needed by this weak Parliament. Farming community is small and insignificant and winning skirmishes is what it is about. Keeping subduing one section after another until you have full control.
2TK fought those that where using ‘free speech’ in denouncing his plans and locked them up as being ‘fascists’. He has now started through the ‘iffy’ laws introduced by the previous Uniparty incumbents attacking all ‘free speech’ as being fascism. Fascism being the ‘Left’ word for those that disagree.
Taking control of the Land is the next project. After all to enforce the Last Parliaments retained Laws introduced by the said to be Conservative Mrs May, there is need for the control of the Land for Solar and Wind installations.
Those that supported these Laws that none of our competing Nations impose on their Countries and People surly must have known that the direction being dictated was in the 1984 Bible and from the Diktats of the WEF. They would have known at the outset that the closing down of production in the UK, exporting UK jobs was the same as exporting UK wealth, its ability to respond and survive. With these Laws they confirmed who they worked for and it wasn’t those that empowered and paid their wages.
Parliament must have known what it was doing, our MPs must have known what they were doing. The must have realised the doors they would open for all future Parliaments. To suggest it is just 2TK’e barmy army is disingenuous, they didn’t open the door, they continued the project
November 18, 2024
Somewhat off topic, a couple of articles:
“Why Leaving the EU was no big deal”
https://www.briefingsforbritain.co.uk/why-leaving-the-eu-was-no-big-deal/
“Former MPs Caroline Lucas and Dominic Grieve to lead anti-Brexit charge”
https://www.politics.co.uk/news/2024/11/18/former-mps-caroline-lucas-and-dominic-grieve-unveiled-as-new-european-movement-co-presidents/
We need an organised cross-party non-party campaign to defeat them.
November 18, 2024
I would have chosen Caroline Lucas and Dominic Grieve myself to oppose Brexit. There are no bigger losers. Ignore them.
November 19, 2024
Every complaint about the net zero policy shows that Lucas is not a loser, and did you ever rise to become the chief legal adviser to the UK government? It would be foolish to ignore them and their 23,000 followers.
November 19, 2024
I agree with those two, Lynn, but I think Starmer and the Labour Party are backing them behind the scenes. If he agrees to free movement again and concedes on EU student university placements funded by the UK, it all starts to unravel thread by thread and weaken us. We can’t afford to help heat pensioner’s homes on £11,000 per year, but we can afford so much else for the rest of the World.
November 18, 2024
At the risk of being boring, you need a Doctor, Dentist and Solicitor occasionally, but you need a Farmer three times a day.
Energy and food security are vital, yet we seem to elect people who don’t have a clue.
I hope the Farmers are ruthless and show this Government, and last, just how vital they are. Let’s have some empty supermarket shelves and see how long this Labour Government lasts when people get really angry.
November 18, 2024
My wife, with whom I disagree on almost everything, (common ground is our support for the dissolution of the monarchy), spouted some figures yesterday along the lines of … ‘Only a tiny percentage of farms are family farms, that the vast majority are tenanted and that, therefore, IHT will only apply to a small number of very large landowners.’ Is she right?
If she is, the large landowners are no doubt corporations who will avoid IHT. As always with issues, facts and figures are hard to come by.
November 18, 2024
And, of course, the vast royal estates are free of IHT. Fancy that!
November 18, 2024
Mike, you may find this relevant
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/farming-evidence-pack-a-high-level-overview-of-the-uk-agricultural-industry/farming-evidence-key-statistics-accessible-version
November 18, 2024
Gregory, thank you, thank you, thank you. I just pointed out those figures to my wife – who, as I said, actually stated that she’d heard ‘only 0.05% of farms are owner occupied’, and she was very quiet. I think I may have made a point, for a lovely change.
November 18, 2024
No, only on average 14% are tenanted. It varies according to the regions. One of the gov.uk documents I advertised yesterday has the figures per region.
November 18, 2024
And your comment about ‘figures hard to come by‘ is not really true. There are an awful lot of info available on parliament.uk and gov.uk. The trick is usually to ask a proper question in google such as ‘gov.uk what fraction of UK farms are tenanted’ and one gets several gov.uk sites including ´Farming evidence – key statistics’.
November 18, 2024
Yes, point taken. What I meant was that, often, some big issue is occurring and what is presented in the media is just noise. Brexit was the classic example. No facts, no figures – just beliefs and fantasies presented as facts. It is still going on. One can look up, for example, our trade figures with the EU, but it doesn’t stop one reading in the media, over and over again, that we are in some deep hole because of Brexit. I think we are in a deep hole because of our government(s).
November 18, 2024
@Mike Wilson, the Tenant Farmers’ Association says “we could see the loss of many, small family farms”.
They should know what they are talking about. I’m not 100% sure of the reasoning. The IHT rules are very complicated.
November 18, 2024
I don’t dispute that – to be honest I have no idea, but if those guys say so, that is good enough for me. It was my wife who was disputing it.
November 18, 2024
Inheritance Tax is evil, for Farmers & others alike.
November 18, 2024
Agree – Inheritance tax needs to be completely abolished
November 18, 2024
Legalised extortion, because they can.
“Ye, though I walk in the Valley of Dearth I will fear no penury, for I am the biggest son of a b..ch in the Valley”
November 18, 2024
It makes absolutely no sense to shut down the natural resources of this country only to replace our own agriculture, oil and gas, et al, with those purchased from overseas.
It is obvious that such ‘buying in’ costs us more of our money and increases CO2 emissions, which, apparently, are the official reason for all this profligacy of our Nation’s inherited ‘jewels’.
However, since when have today’s governments of “Professional” Politicians ever been sensible?
It’s way past time politicians who aspire to Ministerial status must always have the relevant qualifications for the job at hand. Just as it is in the Private Sector and in professional services. Just imagine an ex-plumber being put in charge of the Urology unit in your local hospital. Quite.
November 18, 2024
You can fix a lot of problems with a set of drain rods. Whether the plumber would turn up to do the job is another matter.
November 18, 2024
We do indeed need to support our UK farmers, and recognize that farmers are as unlikely to intentionally damage the natural habits farming relies on any more than a Master Cabinet-maker will use his best wood chisels to cave lumps out of granite, not that either will be sentimental about either ‘tool’ long past its best, and the country certainly doesn’t need an inefficient CAP style method of farming or, as found in France, inheritance laws that tend to break-up family farms into ever smaller parcels of land, assuming they’re not totally lost to farming, should the value of land increase or the IHT exemption decrease…
That said, we also need to accept where science not only helps farmers but also nature, whilst guarding against fake-sciences such as AGW, or where some use biased facts to promote protectionism such as the irrational hatred of chlorine washed chicken, especially when chlorine (along with other chemicals) are added to drinking water via mandates, and the public are mandated to swim in chlorinated swimming-baths etc.
November 18, 2024
Thinking off the top of my head, could the farmers “sell” their family farm land to a land-holding company (or charity?) with a guaranteed lease-back; and with the lease automatically transferred to the heirs upon the death of the farmer? Or could they put the land into a perpetual trust?
November 18, 2024
This would attract Capital Gains Tax levied on the difference between market value and the historic value in 1982. This is due for upward revision in the Budget, to 28%
November 19, 2024
Thank you.
November 18, 2024
Trusts pay 6% every 10 years on the whole. It’s sinking many. As the National Trust has proven, giving assets to a corporate entity is a bad idea.
November 18, 2024
Apart from trusts dated before he date of some Act of Parliament – it is why the trust that owns a lot of Mayfair and Belgravia, no names, no packdrill, does not have to pay the 6% every 10 years.
November 18, 2024
Kind of O/T: French farmers are ‘in action’ this Monday and Tuesday with 82 ‘actions’ in various locations.
‘Farmers of all countries, unite’. Oops, no, the Brits don’t want to talk to the French who certainly don’t want to talk to the Mercosur’s Brazilians and Argentines.
November 18, 2024
Different problems Hefner so pointless uniting. We are not battling to call an care and 6 pigs a ‘farm’.
November 18, 2024
John, As I follow your blog I increasingly wonder why you stayed on the Government benches.
There are so many policies pursued by the outgoing Government with which you have fundamental issues: Net Zero, Oil and Gas Extraction, Farming subsidies, Size of the public sector, Governance of the Bank of England, Government Spending, Taxation, Deficits and Borrowing.
I am not saying I disagree with you. Far from it, I share your position on maybe everything. But I was able to disassociate myself.
I await with interest to see if the Conservatives revert to free markets, free speech, less regulation, small Government and enterprise. At present the jury is out but I am not confident. Should that be the case I expect a division in the right of centre vote between Reform and the Conservatives and another term of Labour Government.
November 18, 2024
Land is a valuable commodity which will be bought up – as in Ukraine – by global asset managers and large agribusinesses. The split between the town and the country will be used to drive a wedge between the people and farmers – the countryside is racist/too white, and by using the value of farms which belie the amount of money that can be made from them. On top of that DEFRA is regulating small farms out of business. Net zero makes fertilisers almost double in price. We cover prime land with wind and solar energy farms. Food production is being squeezed so food prices will go up. More profits and the poor clamouring for state help.
Are our politicians aware of this or just being played?
November 18, 2024
Reeves Rumbled!
It is insanity that this person is Chancellor of the Exchequer with a short track record of actual proven ability. Integrity is paramount and Trust, like glass once broken is impossible to repair.
How the farmers are ignored by Reeves and Starmer and their contribution to the health and well being let alone the economy of Britain is truly lamentable.
Just like Gordon Brown our greatest ever Chancellor, not.
November 19, 2024
One reason why Labour want farmer’s land is for building urban housing to accommodate the illegal immigration, whilst the tax will help pay their enormous hotel bills and expenses.
Reeves saying this helps pay for the NHS is pure diversionary bull.
November 18, 2024
Hunt talked about Inheritance Tax not being a very conservative tax, but did nothing about it. If he and Sunak had abolished it , and waited until the sensible time to have the election the Labour Party might have had a greatly reduced majority, or even none at all. To me it is illogical that the two of them still have their seats in Parliament, whereas Liz Truss is out. She may have misjudged timing of some things, but had conservative ideas which at least pointed in the right direction, and she was obviously undermined by the Bank of England and other EU hating fellow travellers! As corroborated by the Governors recent speech extolling the benefits of the failing EU. ! Just watch Starmer suck up to the EU and try to claw us back into that dead end!
Are there any politicians with any common sense? Very few! It seems none of them know anything about agriculture!
November 19, 2024
Genuine farming famies with children who have already been farming for one or two generations should be excused from this inheritance tax provided the child or children intend to continue on farming.
November 20, 2024
“… and stand up for the farmers”
Agreed. But as we’re talking about how much tax everyone pays, why does Kier Starmer get a tax free pension scheme ?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65037136
Secondly, this discussion of the Farmers is simply misdirection. While we’re all talking about the rights and wrongs of the inheritance tax changes as they impact farmers. No one is talking about how our political class has ruined the economy of the country.
10:1 the Politicians vote themselves another inflation busting pay rise this year. If they were on performance related pay, they lot of ’em would be on the poverty line, queuing up outside the food banks.
Reply Sir Kier will I assume be paying tax on pension payments to him like everyone else. Pension saving is tax free for all saving via aPension Fund.