Are you being serious 59er? The Bill will fly through.
You may have missed this with all the other stuff going on, but tomorrow there is a crucial vote in Parliament. The Agriculture Bill.
Unamended, it opens up the UK to cheap low quality imports from the US and elsewhere with no protections on animal welfare or environmental standards.
The PM and other Tories have been wearing those wheat badges, and tweeting with suitable hashtags, to show how much they support British farmers and food producers.
If the bill goes through in its present form then it would decimate British farming once we have totally left the EU.
Let's see if they really do support British farmers tomorrow.
Are you being serious 59er? The Bill will fly through.
Alas, I fear you are right BT
You mean what's left of British farming after the EU and it's CAP have finished with it. Which isn't much at all.
"Agriculture also plays a ***** role providing 61% of the raw materials for the wider UK agri-food industry which is worth around £108 billion of GVA to the national economy and provides over 3.7 million jobs. The agri-food sector as a whole generates around £18 billion of gross export earnings for the UK each year."
http://www.nfuonline.com/nfu-online/...%20each%20year.
When we lived in France one of my best friends was a farmer, Christian Brun. He spent a couple of weeks ploughing and sowing maize and sunflowers in spring, a couple of weeks harvesting in autumn, the local co-operative carted it all away and he waited for his money to roll in. He sold off his herd of Charolaise cattle, too much like hard work looking after them, and he spent the rest of the year on a couple of cruises in the Caribbean, selling books on EBay and attending wine auctions, I went with him, he knew which lots the bargains were. If I ever wanted to wind him up I could just point out that, thanks to the CAP, he was living a life of ease and luxury, mainly at the expense of the British taxpayer, the resulting explosion was a joy to behold, but did nothing for the entente cordiale. I used to keep well clear until he'd calmed down, he was a big, powerful lad, but what really pissed him off was he knew it was the truth.
Last edited by sinkov; 11-10-2020 at 02:01 PM.
I agree that when the CAP was first set up it encouraged over production of certain things (milk lakes etc).
But since 2005 it is much better and discourages over production. It also ensures animal welfare and very good food standards. It also means that our farmers/food producers can trade tariff free with our biggest markets, and we all benefit from that.
If the Agriculture Bill is passed tomorrow, which it will, then we will all suffer as a result.
https://www.instituteforgovernment.o...ultural-policy
Bit of reading for you 59, the EU you don't even know exists.
https://www.ciwf.org.uk/media/742984...rade_84405.pdf
That's obviously wrong Sinkov, and the EU should take action if it is true.
But EU standards are very good generally - much higher than the US , China or most other countries we will be desperate to do a trade deal with. If our farmers are to compete in this new market then they may be tempted to drop their standards.
They will be in for a tough time anyway, with big tariffs being imposed on their food in their biggest markets.