In my speech to Parliament on the Second Reading of the Agriculture Bill I will ask the Secretary of State to improve his Bill. It should have at its centre the provision of laws and government policies that support growing food at home, and promote more UK output. Mr Gove presents himself as a champion of the environment. What better cause than to grow more food at home, slashing food miles and taking care of our countryside for a useful purpose at the same time. It will bring big carbon savings on transport, refrigeration and storage.
During our time under the control of the EU Common Agricultural Policy we have watched as we have become more and more dependent on food we could produce for ourselves coming in as imports from the rest of the EU. Meanwhile food we cannot grow for ourselves faces substantial tariffs from non EU sources, with no benefit to us.
So my questions are
Will he put food production at the centre of his Bill? Why is he relaxed that the Great English breakfast often has Danish bacon, continental pork sausage and Dutch tomatoes? Why does traditional English roast beef often use imported beef with Spanish and Dutch vegetables? Can’t we do these things for ourselves again?
Will he with the Trade Secretary publish now the schedule of tariffs the UK will impose on the rest of the world including the EU on 30 March 2019 if we leave then, or at the end of the Transition period if we reach an Agreement? Will he cut the tariffs on non EU products we cannot grow for ourselves? Will he set a sensible tariff on worldwide temperate produce, which can be lower than current EU tariffs as we will be levying on rest of EU produce as well?
Will he examine how the current EU subsidy levels could be better spent to reward those farmers who boost output and productivity as well as dealing with environmental concerns?
October 10, 2018
That a Conservative MP could spout such anti-trade, anti-business drivel shows just how far the party of MacMillan and Thatcher has corroded
October 10, 2018
There’s nothing pro-trade about importing tasteless, watery meat and veg when superior alternatives lie on the doorstep.
October 12, 2018
mancunius: “There’s nothing pro-trade about importing tasteless, watery meat and veg when superior alternatives lie on the doorstep.”
And .. the reason we have only one commercial breed of domesticated pig, is because the government made it the preferred breed at during the first and second world wars. When they nationalised the British agricultural industry.
Laying open the whole heard to specific strains of swine fever and foot an mouth, that a more diverse industry may not have been quite so susceptible to.
October 10, 2018
Allow any food in from anywhere; but allow landowners to do what they want with their land instead of them being shackled with planning use. Simply re-classify agricultural land to any use. This would solve the housing problem overnight.
October 11, 2018
I am not sure I would go quite that far, but relaxation of planning and indeed the OTT, green crap, building controls is the cause of the lack of housing where needed problems.
October 12, 2018
mickc: “but allow landowners to do what they want with their land ”
Lifelogic: “I am not sure I would go quite that far”
Scratch any modern Tory and you find a collectivist underneath.
Do you Lifelogic understand the meaning of ‘own’?
October 10, 2018
Shire Tory, This is about fairness in tariffs, and is not therefore “anti-trade”. The CAP has had an anti-trade, anti-business, and anti-sensible farming effect. Go back to sleep.
October 10, 2018
Once again Mr. Redwood sensible conservatism has rattled someone’s cage.
We should be looking to be self sufficient in food, we should not be eating food that has needlessly travelled 100’s of miles when it could be produced in the same county.
We should not be reliant on food imports to sustain our population, and we should be eating home grown food because we have some of the best animal welfare regulations. I will not eat Danish bacon for instance.
Lower tariffs on say oranges and bananas, 100% of which would go to the treasury instead of 20%, is a win for the state and a win for the populace.
October 10, 2018
Our experienced host wrote on 30 Sept about JIT/’complex supply chains’. http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/09/30/just-in-time-production/ http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/09/30/its-not-just-in-time-for-the-customer/
John May shares similar business experience today: https://brexitcentral.com/debunking-myths-trade-friction/ eg “‘frictionless trade’ is a misleading way of diverting attention from what we are really talking about, which is how can we manage the changes necessary to our trade with the EU which will flow across a customs border after Brexit – or a phrase, coined by David Davis, ‘manageable friction’. For make no mistake, any Brexit which keeps the UK in the Customs Union or as an EU rule-taker really will put us ‘at the back of the line’ with the US, China and” [the other 19 priority countries who DIT has set up working groups with].
October 10, 2018
Gove has swallowed all the environmental crap.
I listened to him on Country File. Su subsidies only for his favourite projects.
No mention of increased food production.
October 10, 2018
Indeed hard to forgive him for knifing Boris and inflicting May on the country. Especially as she seems to want to inflict Corbyn on us. Though Corbyn’s brighter brother Piers is very sound on climate alarmism and green crap. Could he repace Gove please?
October 11, 2018
I doubt that the Conservative Cabinet would be that keen on welcoming the Labour Piers Corbyn among them.
October 10, 2018
He is a huge “disappointment”. However, when he knifed Boris all was made clear.
He is no friend of Brexit nor does he want to retreat one bit from the left liberal progressive agenda of May and Hammond.
PS Why, Mr Redwood, is Hammond going to tax us even more, as reported in the Press this morning, apparently to fund the NHS?
October 10, 2018
I think his concept of paying subsidies for public good such as maintaining the beauty of the countryside is very laudable. Leaving the CAP (& CFP) seems to be the one aspect of Brexit which is entirely positive – on the others you can have a debate
October 10, 2018
Good morning
The last thing I want is to see more government interference in this market. The last time we tried this on a large scale was between 1939 -45. It led to the confiscation of people’s farms.
We need to reassure farmers that the subsidies they currently enjoy shall continue. We also need to tell ALL land owners that subsidies for wind farms shall be reduced and the stopped.
Land that cannot be used successfully should be bought by the government for a fair price and left to nature.
Uneconomical farms which are important to the local economy e.g. Welsh or Scottish hill farms should be offered some support.
All food imported to the UK should be tariff free. If the EU unfairly subsidises produce to the UK I see that as them giving me free stuff. Don’t mind them paying me for once.
October 11, 2018
Holding this up in moderation when it clearly breaks no rules is just plain spiteful. Never ever thought you would be like that.
How very sad.
October 10, 2018
PS. Each level ( tyre-width ) sends out leaves and grows sections of potatoes. Loads of them. Fresh. Leave a slight half inch gap between each tyre! Good use for bits of German cars
October 10, 2018
Every home is not complete without a dog and a Yorkshireman like me.:-)
October 10, 2018
So, we can Leave now!
October 10, 2018
Hmm.. I couldn’t care less whether the bacon I eat is British or Danish (or American though that’s not allowed), only about price & quality. I suggest we have no tariffs at all after Brexit as an objective. Perhaps we can start at least by removing tariffs on all goods not produced in the U.K.
Meanwhile there continues to be all sorts of disinformation around supply chains. Unless I’ve misunderstood – which is possible – there are no tariffs on Components in a supply chain, only in finished goods. 98% of shipments from outside the EU are subject to no delays or physical inspections, so that would be he case for U.K.- EU goods trade also if we ‘crash out’, and lastly there is a 10 year derogation under WTO rules from imposing tariffs schedules if two WTO members are in negotiations on an FTA, which the EU and U.K. would be even if we have both chucked each other over the cliff (or is it crashed over the cliff – it can be difficult to use the right hysterical language)?)
October 10, 2018
‘or at the end of the Transition period if we reach an Agreement?’
After seeing this grammatical sleight of hand it’s slowly becoming apparent, to me anyway, that what we are seeing is the capitulation of the Eurosceptic wing of the Tory party and their acceptance that May’s leftward march of the Tory party will be allowed to continue.
Well, I didn’t vote Conservative to have liberal left dogma rammed down my throat 24/7.
May and her pro-EU liberal left client state (including the CPS, the vile BBC and all the other identity politics obsessed liberal elite) can take a running jump.
The Tory party’s (all of its MPs) become part of the problem not the solution to this country’s pressing concerns.
October 10, 2018
I live in a sophisticated area of S Africa. I read about UK and EU aid projects here which are either halted or useless because of wide-spread State corruption; S Africa is in recession, and millions are unemployed.
1. S Africa creates amazingly good to excellent wines which could very easily replace French and Italian imports to the UK. It grows some very tasty citrus fruits that could not be grown in the UK. Why not encourage the import of such goods on low or nil tariff, encouraging economic resurgence out here in a far more productive way than any aid programme could achieve.
2. There is a dearth of (necessarily frozen) fish available here that suits European tastes – salmon, trout, mackerel, lobster, and what is available is not only extremely expensive and generally tasteless, it is all Norwegian! If little Norway can presumably export to SA profitably, why couldn’t a refreshed UK fishing industry do the same? Oh for some cod or halibut!
October 10, 2018
The Labour Party and their green fringe are campaigning for less cows. People don’t like to speak about greenhouse gases naturally coming from cows at intervals. Hence Socialists have stopped us talking about it, in effect.
Also, parts of them are campaigning against cows being in fields as there have been attacks on ramblers on footpaths through cow fields, our fields. With the Right to Roam being used to close down our fields. Our fields.
Food. Speech. Prison Officers expected to singly fight off attacks without a pepper spray.
All designed to ruin us, from Labour and its allies…and prevent us from speaking about it on TV as it is “unseemly” for MPs to talk turkey in cities and large towns.
Free speech really is the key.
October 10, 2018
Indeed all sensible stuff. To make UK farming more competitive in the world we also need easy hire and fire, lower simpler taxes, relaxed planning, few idiotic regulation and endless costs, licences, fines and extra admin imposed on businesses by government, cheaper rented or other housing for farm workers, a proper clean and real Brexit, some real competition and freedom in banking to cut the current rip off margins (and reluctance to lend sensibly), a far smaller but competent government that just occasionally provides some real services of actual value and some cheap & reliable energy (i.e. non climate alarmist/green crap energy policy).
Unfortunately Hammond and May clearly being daft, lefty remainers have totally the opposite views on nearly all of the above.
But it seems we will get a minister for suicide prevention instead from Theresa May to increase the size of government further and as another pathetic distracting from her appalling lefty incompetence and broken compass. Perhaps fewer would feel suicidal if we had sensible government as suggested in the above list. With better pay, more homes, more job choice, cheaper energy etc. and more people doing real jobs and fewer doing pointless ones.
October 10, 2018
The question is, will we have a farming community to supply the full English breakfast?
When the next generation is being forced out of the countryside by people with money buying up rural property for second homes and holiday lets.
What we need is an extension of categories of use for housing, to distinguish between houses for owner-occupier or long term letting, those that are second homes and those that are holiday lets. The council can apply planning rules sensitive to the farming needs.
October 10, 2018
The UK has depended on imported foodstuffs for a long time. The industrial revolution diverted the workforce away from the land and into factories and over time we lost self sufficiency.
I remember all the agonising over the price of butter when we went into the Common Market.
So home production is a worthy aim but it will realistically only ever supply a fraction of our needs.
October 11, 2018
Peter – ‘So home production is a worthy aim but it will realistically only ever supply a fraction of our needs.’
Yes that is right particularly for our gross overpopulation. And as it is increasing how much more chemical farming will be necessary to combat the continuing destruction of the soil.
And how to decrease the per capita emission to reach the mandated target with increasing population?
October 10, 2018
There is a leaked letter signed by May with a transcript available on Conservative Woman. If genuine, it proves that May has taken the advice of the civil service and big business lobbyists and has been plotting a second referendum and reversal while concealing her plans. The cabinet too, addressed as ‘right honourable, have been in on the act.
Urgent action is needed. This appears to be a resignation issue.
October 10, 2018
“If genuine” are key words.
I did see the letter though I cannot find it on searching again.
While May has proved deceitful and duplicitous there is no proof this is genuine and I would have expected more reaction by now if that was a possibility.
I do expect May to keep us all in the dark and try to pull strokes, but I am not sure there is much in this story.
October 10, 2018
If taken down, it is too late. There are copies
October 10, 2018
That does not surprise me one bit, Stred. This should indeed be a resignation issue. I believe it is quite disgraceful. If she is not challenged, then, to the public, it appears as though all Tory MPs are complicit.
October 10, 2018
The media have ignored it so far and there has been no denial. The letter looks like it was photographed, using a phone. If it is a forgery, it is a very clever one. The lack of news from Pravda makes it more likely to be genuine.
October 10, 2018
Note that it is marked for view only and not to be passed electronically.
October 10, 2018
Suggest you listen to JRM mogg cast ep15 – even he doesn’t know what the hell is going on
October 10, 2018
What have I been saying ever since she took over from Mr Cameron??
It’s quite obvious that she is working for Brussels, and her underhandedness and duplicity were revealed for all to see by the Chequers subterfuge.
It’s time the ERG stopped acting like the three wise monkeys.
October 10, 2018
Stred
If genuine….there is so much baloney around these days, the waters are truly muddied.
Same applies to Mrs May as to anyone who would thwart the referendum and sell this country out; just because it’s never been done in this country doesn’t mean you’ll get away with it.
October 11, 2018
The letter is dated 29th June 2018 but was sent to Kipper Central on 28th June. It is probably a very good fake. Perhaps some MP could ask the PM to confirm that it was not written by her office.
October 10, 2018
Of course proper British breakfasts should offer, grilled kidneys, black puddings, eggs, kippers, bloaters, kedgeree, haggis, proper bacon, real smoked salmon (not the nasty wet injected stuff), mushrooms, proper toast & real butter, fried potatoes and the likes. The UK really can provide excellent ingredients if you hunt about a bit.
Freshly squeezed Orange and Grapefruit juices might be rather harder to source locally. Replace with excellent English apples, pears, plumbs, cherries or better still black currents, raspberries, black berries & cream perhaps. Bumper crops of grapes this year too.
October 10, 2018
Had Manx kippers recently on the Isle of Man. Not technically British though.
Porridge is a very healthy option and can be easily sourced in the UK.
October 10, 2018
Porridge is slow release sugar in many ways. Lot of nice kippers from the UK.
October 10, 2018
Lifelogic
Yours sounds more like a Scottish breakfast.
A discovery I made recently; if you have a slow cooker leave a beef stew in overnight on warm setting, it makes a really tasty breakfast and you won’t need anything to eat until tea time.
One parsnip
Two carrots
One large onion
Small pack of shin or diced beef
Half a bottle of Maggi seasoning
Knorr beef stock
Dumplings, suet pudding or buttered bread.
The above can be found in most food retailers, and is especially suitable for those who cycle to work.
October 12, 2018
I have cornflakes
October 10, 2018
Mr Redwood – let’s get real.
We both know a hard Brexit is not on the table for the EU or for us.
We both know that a second referendum and rejoining the EU is also out of the question.
We both know that the only show in town – Efta/EEA – has never been considered.
So stop kidding around.
What are your views on Associate Membership? Things continue as they are, but just until the end of 2020?
We would of course lose our MEPs, our Commissioner and also our invitations to Council Meetings.
I notice that the EU Settlement Scheme for immigrants kicks in at the end of 2020. Is this a sign of what the government really really wants?
October 10, 2018
Mike Stallard, We both know that the EFTA/EEA route has not been offered, is under the control of the EU, and isn’t Leave. So stop kidding around.
October 10, 2018
Mike Stallard
“We both know a hard Brexit is not on the table for the EU or for us.”
But it is for me because that’s what I voted for.
October 10, 2018
The nonsense of protecting the environment can be summed up with three contradicting policies.
On the one hand farmers are asked to leave at least a three metre margin around the perimeter of all of their fields so that nature can take its course with regards to wildlife, thus reducing productive land area by very considerable amounts.
On the other hand we are building Houses on farm land again reducing productive land by considerable amounts.
In addition to the above two policies we are allowing hundreds of thousands of people every year to settle in the UK which increases our population, they all require food !!
Not really joined up thinking is it.
October 10, 2018
Furthermore, we are being told to give up beef as cattle take up too much land! How much land do 15-20 million extra people take up? Our population should have been allowed to fall to 35 million and would have done – still seven times the size of a Nordic country – if it hadn’t been for out of control mass immigration.
What could be more environmental than centuries old pasture land?
October 10, 2018
Indeed, and they can only get away with these contradictory policies because the media, the self appointed guardians to holding politicians to account, also hold these contradictory views. One moment they are waxing lyrical about mass immigration, next they are talking about a housing crisis, soon followed by dire warnings about sustainability , and peddling apocalyptical visions about global warming. The whole thing becomes really tiresome, and only elicits a response for them to shut up, go away, and only come back when they have joined up their policies.
The three meter margin would seem to be of very little use to nature, for it is mostly three meters of tusoky grass, a pretty sterile environment. They could do a lot better with a lot less, if the reduced area was seeded with wild flowers etc.
October 10, 2018
Alan Jutson, To relieve the pressure on housebuilding (supply) we should reduce the number of immigrants (demand). Then we would not have to build the equivalent of Newcastle every year. If some of the 9 million foreigners (official figures) – more like 15 million (using NINos rather than the IPS) – went home, house prices would fall and wages rise.
October 11, 2018
NickC.
Interesting perspective .
Please, kindly provide the proof if 9 million so-called foreigners when home that wages would rise?
October 12, 2018
hans
As an economist you really ought to understand supply v demand .
Honestly 1/10 see me after class
October 12, 2018
Hans, Supply and demand.
October 10, 2018
So pertinent, once again JR. Why do these simple solutions have to be spelled out though ? It is self-evident that we will benefit hugely by producing our own food wherever possible.
Does anyone have the figures (Denis ?) that membership of the EU has cost us in lost production and unnecessary levies ?
This is the kind of information that needs to be propagated widely to spike the Remain guns.
October 10, 2018
The Remain guns should have spiked a long time ago, if only we’d had MPs who really believe in Britain and its potential without the EU shackles/expense/waste/control.
Why hasn’t there been a concerted campaign to do the spiking?
October 10, 2018
The information and future plans missing from the bill is, to me, a strong indication that that Brexit is being further diluted by No 10 and this is supported by their reaction to play down the recent EU statements. The Secretary of State is not to be trusted and tries to ride ‘two horses’ too often.
October 10, 2018
Wriggling puff adders looking for their own personal end games. Quintin Letts got it spot on. Your questions are excellent. Let’s see how one of the main wrigglers, Gove, responds today.
October 10, 2018
John
You have omitted Polish mushrooms and a whole range of other similar items which we are quite capable of producing ourselves. Why do you think the Dutch and the Danes, in particular, are worried about Brexit. Unfortunately, this has not changed their mindset to push for a mutually beneficial Brexit deal with the UK. When will they wake up?
October 10, 2018
@ Norman Porter – they will wake up only when we impose tariffs – as Canada, Mexico and China have been awoken by the Trump tariffs.
October 10, 2018
JR typically proposes intelligent remedial action. One wonders why the Environment Secretary’s original version of the Bill was so lacking to need such improvements.
October 10, 2018
But we shall still be in a Customs Union after 30th March 2019
Cheaper imported food etc and new non-EU trade deals are no longer on the agenda.
The May sell-out is full steam ahead with a complicit Cabinet
October 10, 2018
We eat too much in the UK. We need to cut down on meat eating. We’d be healthier for it and the NHS would benefit too.
If Brexit is to reduce our wealth then what’s for Remainers not to like ? We’ll be a greener and fitter coutry.
October 10, 2018
Anonymous, If you want to cut down on your meat eating then do so. It is impertinent of you to try to control what I eat. In any case there is evidence that the government propaganda to switch from animal fats to vegetable vats (particularly hydrogenated vegetable fats) is seriously damaging to health. The rise of obesity has gone hand in hand with the move to vegetable fats.
October 10, 2018
Certainly many people are above their required daily calories, it may be obvious by just looking at people, but one is only allowed to judge the slim not the overweight. Certainly there are many calories that could be saved. We also need some idea of a long-term equilibrium population, and what would constitute a food security position with and without synthetic fertiliser, GM etc. There is much security upside with BREXIT (hopefully) due to broader world supply, but worst case war scenario should also be considered.
October 11, 2018
Indeed you do what you want and I will do what I want.
Anyway it now seems that sugar, carbs and artificially hydrogenated fats are the real problems. Not nice grilled fish, meats, dairy, sea food, olive oil, game, poultry and vegetables with a glass or two of red wine.
That suites me fine.
October 10, 2018
We have too many people to be self sufficient. We have long passed the point of self sustainability.
October 10, 2018
Anonymous
Not so. The culture of consumerism and convenience needs to be reversed, then people would be inclined to reduce wastage, and supplement the food bills with homegrown where possible.
That’s what I do, and it works.
People would then be eating healthy, and have a sense of value.
We only ‘think’ we cannot do well on our own because that’s what we’re led to
believe by the EU and other bodies that have an interest in making this country dependent on them.
Then again the common market was only ever a businessman’s market, which as we all know morphed into an expansionist pariah.
October 10, 2018
The medics told me yesterday that i’ve got high cholesterol. I’m fond of a full english breakfast to start the day, but apparently i’ve got to stop eating it and have porridge or a glass of hot water instead. I’m only allowed two eggs a month.
What concerns me is the post-brexit availability of the statins that are going to reduce my blood cholesterol level. A quick google of “UK statins usage” tell me that about 18% of the population is taking them; doubtless this results in vast profits for big pharma. Maybe you could mention that in your forthcoming speech along with a rider about the side effects of enjoying a full English to start the day.
October 10, 2018
It is up to the NHS what it buys in from abroad, not the Commission.
October 10, 2018
OK, thanks. For a minute there I was worried
October 10, 2018
Most statins are available in generic versions that are made in India. Big pharma is not really making much on statins now.
October 11, 2018
Beef/Cows are, it seems, very high in cholesterol and yet they only eat grass (usually)! Perhaps you should avoid grass & green salads! The trouble with many doctors is that many are driven by propaganda group think from the drug selling industry. They like everyone to be “ill” and thus need to be one numerous drugs.
October 10, 2018
John what is needed is a guaranteed fair price for the Dairy Farmers, Cheep discounted Milk in the supermarkets is killing the Farmers.
October 10, 2018
Very aspirational..but not very practical though.. the farmers have gone too soft..too used to their mercs.. the traditional farm workers have disappeared into the cities and there’s no chance that the young ones are going to get out into the fields like fifty years ago. The only hope is to get the east europeans and they are fast disappearing too- same goes for the fishing boats and the hospitality industry. Of course there will always be some home grown willing to work in these sectors but not in the numbers required.
October 10, 2018
We have thousands of asylum seekers that aren’t working, they are given free accommodation and food, these asylum centres could be located on the farms to provide the labour, the Councils used to provide council homes near farms, now farmers are shown on the tv providing sub-standard caravans for six immigrants to share it is disgusting they were getting away with this. However, if we are paying to provide for asylum refugees then at least let the Country get something in return for this.
October 10, 2018
That will change.
October 10, 2018
Michael O’Sullivan, Stop making things up.
October 10, 2018
We should buy our food from wherever it’s cheapest. For the most part that means outside the EU and outside the UK.
And use our own land, labour and capital for things that make the most profit for us, and pay us the highest wages.
It’s called free trade.
October 10, 2018
Free trade ? Not in a welfare state like ours, it isn’t.
October 10, 2018
Some truth in that but we can compete in several areas of food production, if the government gets out of the way and stops pushing energy and water costs up artificially.
October 11, 2018
Cheapest is not always best so I would prefer we were able to buy food from where we wish without interference, tariffs and taxes imposed by EU bureaucrats.
As to land use, not everyone is driven by the profit motive – ever tasted the difference between home grown and supermarket carrots?
October 10, 2018
Mr Gove will slither and slide at his leaders becking. Lower your expectations if he is still in charge. Having said that I still look forward to a traditional English Breakfast about once a month. Here in Spain the normal bacon is air dried and does not exude a white slime when you cook it, the sausages contain a high percentage of meat and the morcilla (black pudding) comes in many varieties. I know you can get the equivalent in the UK ,but you pay premium prices for it. Here it is the norm. In principal I agree with you on home grown, but lets try educating the public on what is good and not so good.
October 10, 2018
agricola, All the items you mention are available in Britain, as consumers now demand them. Anyone can buy (at affordable prices) very high meat content sausages, superb black pudding, Leicestershire speciality mushrooms, and air dried bacon, at several local supermarkets.
October 11, 2018
I’m always looking for bacon in every supermarket without the water (to save on my paper kitchen towels to dry each rasher) but I have never ever seen the words ‘air dried’. Who is selling that?
October 10, 2018
Indeed they add salt and other things so the meat takes up lots more water and thus weighs far more and can be ( superficially) cheaper per pound (as water is cheap) as with “smoked” salmon and many other products. Water and CO2 are a very cheap way to bulk it up or make products heavier. Then you get the packaging cons too.
October 10, 2018
Quite so but no chance. We have had some bad governments since the war, but this is becoming as bad as any Labour one. Mrs. May is no longer worth listening to and this Chequers plan is symptomatic of someone who hasn’t a clue.
October 10, 2018
JR, I have taken the matter into my own hands. I deliberately avoid EU produce. For example the last time I bought German pork was 2017. Danish pork is a bit more difficult to avoid, but I always buy British pork products where I can in preference to it, including bacon. And of course British beef, not inferior meat from Eire. British or New Zealand lamb fits the bill too. There are plenty of vegetables from the UK, and countries such as Kenya, Peru, Senegal, India, Morocco, USA, etc for the more exotic.
October 10, 2018
We’ve been doing this for a long time too – buying UK wherever possible. We always read labels, and where there’s a choice we don’t mind paying more for UK produce.
It’s not just food either – there are plenty of products around that are made in the UK. Good stuff too. We need another ”Buy British” campaign – let’s help our own growers and manufacturers.
October 10, 2018
Swivel eyed fanatics, i think that was Mr Cameron,s phrase for Brexiters. You actually want to boast about your grocery shopping?
October 11, 2018
Len Dart, You actually want to call someone a swivel-eyed fanatic merely for choosing British bacon over Danish? I think it is you who is the swivel-eyed fanatic. You’re free to buy EU if you want – assuming the EU will send us any food after Brexit, of course. That was your Remain mantra, wasn’t it?
October 11, 2018
@LD – Why are you so worried? What is fanatical about preferring to support local farmers rather then French farmers?
BTW it’s not just groceries where I explicitly exclude EU goods but also cars, electronics goods, furniture, components for my business and investments.
It has been this way for some years, ever since my business experiences made clear just how tilted the EU is towards the German and French interests and how damaging it has been to other member countries.
But go ahead and boast how easy it is to travel around the EU while they leech yet more billions from us aided by the euphilics in our establishment.
October 10, 2018
@ NickC
Same here and to be honest it’s not that difficult.
October 11, 2018
Not difficult at all, I’ve just bought a non-EU, mostly UK produced car.
I now check every item I buy for origin and avoid EU produce. I don’t know how much difference it will make but at least I won’t be actively contributing to countries and regimes that insult and abuse us.
October 10, 2018
NickC
“I have taken the matter into my own hands. I deliberately avoid EU produce”
Same here !
I started doing precisely that just after Salzburg.
I no longer buy anything produced in the EU, and I also stopped buying Irish sausages.
I think with countries that don’t do us any favours, or indeed show us blatant disrespect, we should just stop buying their stuff.
I’m often fond of a whisky before bed, but now thanks to Sturgeon and Salmond I buy Japanese whisky instead, and it’s perfect.
October 10, 2018
We’re going to have to do a damn site more than this in the UK. Yorkshire and the North West needs a skilled job boost so that our offspring don’t have to move South to make any sort of skilled career for themselves. Arts and Culture follow the money and the regions get starved of talent. Southern MPs and residents constanly complain about over-crowding, property costs, transport costs well share out more and people will move and rebalance.
October 10, 2018
30-40 Labour MPs now poised to vote with this person who leads the Tories.
Either you bring May down or we can wave goodbye to the UK
Reply I don’t think there are anything like 40 Labour MPs who would defy a whip to support a Chequers plus type deal
October 10, 2018
Reply to reply: JR, well, at least you are now acknowledging the possibility. When I first raised this as an issue I was given short shrift.
October 10, 2018
May and Hammond really must go anyway. They are wrong on everything and not just the Brexit in name only attempted fraud agaist the voters. Even Andrea Leadsom was appalling on Lbc last night about 7.30 pm it was I think. Sounded like she would have done a May con trick too had she not given up in her leadership attempt.
October 10, 2018
jr, chequers plus I don’t think so, it is chequers minus she is planning, no trade deals with other nations because she is going to tie us to the eu customs union indefinitely!
October 10, 2018
Why is he relaxed that the Great English breakfast often has Danish bacon, continental pork sausage and Dutch tomatoes?
Actually my week-end breakfast normally has British bacon (cured by local butcher). British sausages and tomatoes from Kent or the Isle of Wight, but point taken. This issue had crossed my mind once or twice recently.
I’m sure I read somewhere that NI ‘exports’ tens of thousands of pigs to Ireland annually. An obviously far too simple idea crossed my mind that the UK mainland could take a significant chunk of NI food exports to Ireland which would reduce our reliance on EU produce while possibly minimising – if not eliminating – the border “problem”.
The £39 billion that we’re intending to hand over to the EU could buy up all NI exports to Ireland for the best part of a decade.
October 10, 2018
All of this salmonella and listeria recall food today are we allowed to ask where is the origin of this food?
October 10, 2018
Nuncle, why don’t you grow this food yourself? What stops you from buying or leasing farmland and facilities and starting dairy, meat or vegetable production? You said the UK needs capital investment? Why don’t you engage in that investment? There’s a reason agriculture is suffering – labor and energy costs are high and not everything can be replaced with technology. Let me more immigrants in and agriculture will flourish.
October 10, 2018
English breakfast? Come on John, what have you got against a good old Ulster Fry??
October 10, 2018
Gove is the wrong man for the job. His only view on agriculture and farming is from the environmental lobby viewpoint to whom he has sold out, thinking there is personal advancement in that.
We must abandon the ‘set aside’ policies and practices; reverse them. Pay to bring land back and grub out all recently planted tress. It is insanity to let good productive and go to waste. The country suffers from a collective delusion, thinking we can always get what we need from others. Holland does not follow such nonsense, every inch of their land is used to the full.
October 11, 2018
‘Holland does not follow such nonsense, every inch of their land is used to the full.’
If that is true, poor old Holland – what a nightmare.
October 10, 2018
Did you hear what the PM said about fishing at ‘questions’ – whenever we are free from EU restrictions we will take up our fishing responsibilities as a coastal state free of the EU – her use of the term ‘coastal state’ speaks volumes as does her turn of phrase ‘when we are free’
October 10, 2018
halfway
Yes she has waffled on this before, so has form.
Should be “when we take full control of our own waters at the end of March 2019”
October 10, 2018
I just wish more MPs shared your practical positive outlook.
O/T Mrs May alarms us more every day by aiming for an ever worse deal. And her ability, with a straight face, to state as good that which is bad, takes some beating.
Is there no stopping her ?
October 10, 2018
Not possible under new gov plans, more trees and woodland, E5 to E10 for transport and overseas investors have bought up as much land as they can in a gamble on the UK housing market to make billions of pounds, any land is now too costly to buy for growing food, the gov has let that boat sail already. most overseas buyers are not interested in renting their land out, just like they’re not interested in renting housing they have bought, some do holiday lets for tax breaks.
Of cos, if you know where there are 100,000 hectares available at 16,000 pounds each that a different case.
October 10, 2018
Breakfast nationalism? Really. This shows how genuinely pathetic Brexit is. Ken Clarke was correct in the Commons today. Brexit is about a bunch of right-wing nationalist allying with a bunch of left wing Trots to undermine our country.
Consumers and workers will suffer because you object to Danish bacon. You know you are perfectly entitled to buy non-Danish? At least you are now – after Brexit I suspect bacon will be a luxury.
October 10, 2018
No bacon for breakfast! Oh dear! Yes, Andy – we’re all doomed! Wouldn’t you just love that?
(You forgot to blame ‘pensioners’, by the way.)
October 10, 2018
John Redwood is entitled to avoid Danish bacon (and French wine and German cars). But he will only be satisfied when everyone else is forced to share his prejudices.
October 10, 2018
Andy
Ken Clarke is 78 years old….. You hate him remember, he’s caused ALL your problems, doh
October 10, 2018
Andy
It’s often said you are what you eat. Consequently I don’t think much of your breakfasts.
October 10, 2018
While I have Danish relatives and admire the country a lot, I never buy Danish bacon because of the intensive farming conditions in which I believe many Danish pigs are kept.
Actually, I always buy British, full stop. The labels on some processed pork products I have seen state that the meat comes from Danish or Belgian animals. What a world to be in.
Coincidentally, I saw the tail end of a clip on BBC Scotland news this evening, Scottish farmers wanting processed meat products made with meat from Scotland (or England, Wales etc) be labelled as such. Possible when we leave the EU (as long as we don’t have to comply with their regulations).
October 11, 2018
Andy: no – Brexit is about ‘Old People’ voting the wrong way isn’t it!!!!
October 11, 2018
Worried about this having an effect, Andy?
October 11, 2018
Andy, According to you Remains, after Brexit we won’t be able to buy Danish bacon because the EU will cut us off from their food (and cars, and medicines). Biter bit, Andy.
October 11, 2018
Andy
OH NO !!!! Not another Brexit failure…. oh wait
Spanish train manufacturing firm TALGO has shortlisted six sites to host a 40,000sq metre manufacturing facility, built to construct a new generation of trains, and creating 1,000 jobs. Despite operating its trains in 28 countries, from Germany, to the U.S., to Saudi Arabia, all six of TALGO’s shortlisted sites are in the U.K.
October 10, 2018
I have just witnessed Ken Clarke slander decent Tory MPs by invoking Godwin’s Law. I am speechless at such an appalling slander. This is from a ‘politician’ who was quoted as saying that he looks forward to the day when Westminster becomes little more than a mere debating chamber of the EU or shall we say, the destruction of British democracy.
Moral, decent Tory MPs cannot allow our party to be taken over by these grotesques
October 10, 2018
Clarke the globalist called them right wing nationalists. Godwin’s law covers left wing nationalists. The grotesques already control the Tories.
October 10, 2018
Ken Clarke! Father of the House. A man with probably more experience in government than all of the Brexiteer MPs put together. A prudent and sensible chancellor who fixed the Lawson/Lamont economic mess. A genuine political heavyweight and a sensible Conservative who, unlike most of the Brexiteers, is actually electable to a wide audience.
But you keep banging your kippers in blue, political lightweights all of them.
October 11, 2018
Andy, Isn’t Ken Clarke a right wing Tory pensioner? You’re getting a bit rattled here, Andy, perhaps your avatar needs a change of operator?
October 11, 2018
NickC
do you have to fall as deep as this with Andy?
October 11, 2018
Andy
You see thats the thing about pensioners Andy, experience, knowhow, and contribution to society.
Glad you’re starting to see sense
October 10, 2018
If there is to be a tariff regime along the lines you suggest, the Government wouldn’t dare publish it yet because it would scupper any chance of an even remotely reasonable deal.
The arrogant bast…s, I mean people, in Brussels would just close up shop and refuse to negotiate any further. (I use the term “negotiate” loosely, as any discussions with the EU are inevitably not “negotiations” in any commonly understood definition of that word ).
The only deal worth having will be no deal. Anything else Brussels and Berlin deign to allow us will tie us up in knots in a vain effort to prevent us making any kind of success of Brexit.
We should have recognised this two years ago and just given 6 months notice, leaving a complete tariff-free trade deal on the table for them to pick up if they wanted to.
This Government, led by a duplicitous woman with no experience of negotiations and advised by a bunch of Remaniac civil servants who have been allowed to call all the shots, has proved itself completely inept.
I am ashamed of the lot of them.
Of the Cabinet, only David Davies comes out with any credit. At least he resigned immediately the treasonous plot that was Chequers was revealed.
October 10, 2018
Told you before that this DUP crowd were bad news.
they are not irish..not english..not even Ulster scots..just a tribe unto themselves..british when they want to be although not born in britain..a kind of tribal people..the lost tribe..and now they are threatening to vote against the budget if they don’t get their way over the NI backstop..you reap what you sew
October 10, 2018
It’s sow not sew
October 10, 2018
Hey now – all the DUP want is for Northern Ireland to be treated the same way England is.*
*Except when it comes to abortion and gay marriage when they want to be treated differently.
I find the DUP particularly funny. They backed Brexit without realising it meant either a hard border – and consequently a united Ireland before long – or a border down the Irish Sea which also means a united Ireland before long.
They, literally, voted to hasten their own inevitable demise by at least a generation. It’s like the inhabitants of Bernard Matthews farm voting for Christmas. V. Funny.
PS: When are the Tories going to drop the pretence that the are a Unionist party? Brexit proves that they are not. They are a party of English nationalism.
October 11, 2018
I agree Andy I don’t think devolution should have happened either. England is coming off worse in so many instances, we are paying so many more taxes that the pips are starting to squeak.
October 12, 2018
Andy
Blimey you really do struggle to think dont you
Your claim a hard border and a united island ……. er which ?
Let me enlighten you, we ( Great Britain & NI) do not need a border if we dont want one, as has been the case since 1923 .
If the EU /Republic feel the need to put up a border thats up to them and nothing to do with us.
If only the Tory party was a party of English nationalism .
October 10, 2018
The DUP are doing what the Brexiteer Tories should be doing and trying to keep May from betraying her Lancaster house speech red lines. If that means voting the budget down – so be it – the gloves are off now.
October 10, 2018
Again this seems rich coming from a Thatcherite.
Surely a central tenet of that creed is free markets. If a product can be obtained cheaper by importing it, then that is what we do.
Reply Food is far from being a free market. EU food is currently heavily protected with tariffs and subsidised.I am seeking a policy which is better for UK farming as we move on from this rigged position.
October 11, 2018
Reply to reply – if food imports will be cheaper how will that help British farmers?
October 10, 2018
From Mrs May’s reply at PMQ’s, to a Scottish LibDem, about a return to our control of UK fishing grounds, it is clear that she intends to keep us under the thumb of EU rules for the foreseeable future.
October 10, 2018
Yes, that is what she has been working towards since she took control.
October 10, 2018
Absolutely !
I think the weasel words were on the lines of
‘ ..when we can allow others in to our waters rather than having this dictated by the EU ‘
October 10, 2018
This country should import more food not less. Leaving the EU allows us access to tasty bananas and mangoes from wherever we like, not just from a list of EU-approved farmers. UK has a massive aid budge, why not use the aid budget for this purpose, instead of funding India’s space programme?
Instead of reserving land for food production, land should be used for housing. Outside every conurbation there is a green desert of mono-culture that could be used for housing.
The lack of housing is a much greater problem for the UK than the lack of food. The last time I checked it was very easy to find people in desperate need of housing, but I’ve never found anybody in desperate need of food in the UK.
October 10, 2018
I thought you promised that we were going to be free to buy the cheapest foods from around the world . I do hope you are not actually going to throw manufacturing and service workers to the wolves and then protect a load of land rover driving toffs , their useless subsidized lives.
Lets get the cheap stuff in the form the States and re-wild the countryside for leisure , no-one will miss farmers who voted for it
October 10, 2018
Having enjoyed a traditional English breakfast, if only talking about it, I would draw your attention to the real world.
We in the UK are in the midst of a major crisis. The failure of the police to contain crime, to prosecute crime, or even investigate crime. Before we leap to condemn them we should ask what they are being prioritised to achieve, while leaving so much of what we the public recognise as crime, ignored.
Are they being miss-directed for political reasons. Are terrorist potential crimes , of which we know little until after an event, being prioritised over the criminality we do recognise. Are they being starved of money to the extent that they are asked to play nine a side rugby against full fifteen a side opposition. The final score suggests it. Do financial restraints deny them the expertise to use many of the tools at their disposal. Are they a twentieth century organisation asked to fight a twenty first century war. We know every move of the Russian assassins sent to Salisbury, but little of the criminals who stole your car last week, yet the means to do so are the same.
The crisis demands a parliamentary committee investigation to highlight the facts before the confidence of the general public is lost completely, and we end up employing the likes of Wyatt Earp to protect us.
October 11, 2018
Is it too pertinent to publish.
October 10, 2018
I think Ken Clarke read your blog this morning John and read into it “right-wing nationalist”. Didn’t you get the memo that it isn’t ok or politically correct to be nationalist unless you’re Irish, Scottish or Welsh or French or Italian or German for that matter? I just wish one day he was called out on this. I thought you wanted global trade, none protectionist markets that puts up prices to consumers, cartels, and carve-ups (including our breakfast bacon). Personally, I prefer British bacon from local farms it isn’t so watery when you grill it or so tasteless and still crisps up but I don’t mind if people can only afford to buy supermarket packed imports, other than the reports that this is causing cancer.
October 10, 2018
With so much land being built on to house our unstoppable population growth, the prospects of growing more of our own food seem rather dim. It would of course make sense to close the immigration doors; and in any case, the immigrants can’t afford to buy the housing. More likely that the big city councils are buying up new-builds to house their “refugee” tenants in, meaning that the once green and fertile countryside is receiving enrichment of a different kind.
And all the while leaving brownfield sites in the cities untouched in terms of development, like gaping holes.
Anyone visiting 2018 from the early 20th century would wonder that we hadn’t all gone barking mad, inviting in unending streams of aliens without paying attention to how they would all be fed.
Elephant in room….there is no housing crisis.
October 10, 2018
Being a lover of fruit and veg and the med diet I think we could cope with this as well. So you think the olives would be a problem.. not so solar/ wind powered poly tunnels could grow anything.
October 10, 2018
“Companies in the rest of the UK would fill in their customs declarations online and in advance when shipping goods to Northern Ireland.”
Northern Ireland is territorially part of the UK so our business won’t be filing customs declarations to send goods there. You set this in law, we move our production for NI goods out of the UK!
October 10, 2018
I see Nat has once again that after Brexit UK fishermen will get a “fair share” of fishing rights in UK waters but once again she has failed to explain why that fair share is not 100%. I wonder what figure she has agreed to with the EU ? I suppose we’ll soon find out.
October 10, 2018
May’s comments on fishing quotas for UK fishermen stood out a mile to me too.
According to tomorrow’s headlines May is planning to keep us in the Customs union indefinitely. That’s pissed off the DUP big style not to mention the ERG, so May is going to rely on Labour MP’s to get her BRINO plans through Parliament. That’s going to go down well with leave voters – May really does have a death wish for the Tory party.
So if Liam Fox, Gove, Raab, Leadsom and Penny Mordaunt have any scruples at all they should all resign immediately.
October 12, 2018
“Fair share” We are British. Our waters. We don’t do sharing.
October 10, 2018
Mr Redwood,
An entertaining post. All those imports are from countries with production conditions (land, labour, transportation cost etc) similar to the UK. Why are UK farmers not doing this now? They are in a free trade area and someone is making purchasing decisions that lead to supermarkets buying Dutch tomatoes etc. No reason why the Dutch could not build decent greenhouses in the UK, manage them and staff them with Britons. Would that do, after Independence Day? You will not be banning foreign investment I hope? That would not make Mr Fox’s post-brexit work very easy.
October 11, 2018
Rien, You do know that berating and belittling your customer doesn’t work, right? Why should we buy EU? Go, on give us a reason.
October 11, 2018
@Nick C
Why not ask the supermarket chains. They do the buying.
October 11, 2018
British supermarket chains are losing their way and market share. Lidl and Aldi have started advertising that they are buying fresh produce from British farms and I know it is going down a treat with my Mum’s generation of savvy pensioner shoppers who have to watch their pennies.
The large supermarket groups in the UK have been allowed to overpopulate Town Centres and killed off their smaller competitors, family-owned butchers, bakers, even florists went out of business and then they started stocking clothes. I would like to add up the rent from all of the independent shops in the same square footage space a supermarket takes over and compare the Business rates bill, I suspect all the little independents get fleeced in comparison.
Someone is leading the Supermarkets buying decisions to buy pork products from Denmark and Holland and flowers, like you Rien I’m curious who and why? How is it cheaper to import flowers with the transport costs than it is to grow locally in a similar climate? I don’t use the big four supermarkets and I know a lot of people turned off them when they started putting small independent family grocers out of business with their overtaking of the wholesalers and cheaper products, but now their family business competitors have been put out of business prices are rising and product variation is limited as I suspected they would.
October 11, 2018
Rien, So you can’t give us a reason why we should buy EU.
October 11, 2018
We had a different model of agriculture. Thanks to the EU we lost many orchards and the diversity of apples and pears we once enjoyed. Some are now making a comeback and I hope once we have left we can enjoy the fruits of independence again.
BTW we already have greenhouses growing tomatoes. The only reason why a Dutch company would do as you suggest is to move profits to Holland, so why would I buy from them rather than a local producer who invests and spends their profits here?
If the EU and it’s supporters had adopted a more friendly and cooperative attitude that had been based on mutual advantage I doubt I would have been bothered. But, because of EU actions and behaviour I now take much more interest in such things and I am now far more concerned about what I buy and who benefits.
I would encourage the UK government to require complete information of product origin so the UK consumer can make informaed choices
October 11, 2018
The same goes for Dutch flowers. The transport daily of flowers by truck and ferry is an unneccessary environmental problem.
This is all to keep women happy while they watch them for while in a vase. Why can’t we produce this waste locally?
October 12, 2018
I like flowers.
October 11, 2018
Buying a replacement pane of glass for my greenhouse, I was informed that it is called a ‘ Dutch ‘ 1430mm x 730mm a standardised size whose origins came from Holland. So if they did want to set up greenhouses here would find a familiar arrangement to the one back home.
October 12, 2018
Rien
The UK already has one of the largest tomato ( and other salad) growing companies thanks . Google Thanet Earth
The other day a bunch of the remainics started a media furore about UK supermarkets showing the Union flag on their produce. Accusing them of being racist nationalist nazis etc. Sadly we have a media, political and SWJ mob who hate everything about the UK and believe the EU is fluffy and lovely and woke.
October 10, 2018
In the immediate future,due to what I myself
regard will be a lowering of food prices
way lower than EU producers can make a profit,
we may see a cut back of EU food producer companies and unemployment and food processing companies driving back capacity and then upturn in food prices when it comes back into balance.
We need to ensure our farmers of subsidies. We will need our own food. We cannot depend on EU stabilty in agricultural production and if we were to stay in teh EU we would also need to subsidise 27 EU nations farmers in Emergency Aid.
Why all this? There is trouble at the mill. Politically.Worldwide.
October 10, 2018
Mr May has gone overboard in our negotiations with Brussel. Perhaps she can find dry land where she can mince coconuts on her own allotment and cover them with New chocolate.
October 10, 2018
I have a vision of a private jet for Mrs May, Ms Soubry, Emily Thornberry, Nicky Morgan and Nicola Sturgeon, to a very nice Pacific island.
October 12, 2018
Like Krakatoa.
October 11, 2018
At the risk of being a bore, I repeat that about 70% of our agricultural goods should be some produced for military reasons, with the other 30% imported from the cheapest safe sources of supply. We need to be able to feed ourselves if war ever breaks out.
Mr Gove should now be filling out the detail on this:
(1) What products should be home produced?
(2) What are the cheapest safe sources of supply of imports likely to be?
(3) Assuming that some form of protection is necessary to achieve the 70% goal, should it be by subsides, by tariffs, by quotas, or a mixture of the three?
I have no objection to Mr Gove taking environmental considerations into account, but let’s fit these objectives into an overall framework.
October 12, 2018
JR: “Let’s grow and rear our own great English breakfast”
Good idea, but you’re going to need to do two things. Stop ploughing prime agricultural land under for building estates, and realise that a stable population isn’t a bad thing.
That is, stop immigration. Unless on a work visa basis.
Many of the immigrants already settled send billions of pounds back to their country of origin, it’s not true that immigration is a net good for the economy. Those that aren’t working are a net drain on the economy because they are frequently in low paid jobs and on benefits of one sort or another.