Toby on Tuesday 

'Fleeced by the EU'

 

Today is Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, the final day of celebration in the old Christian calendar before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent.   In France, they call it Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, when the last rich meals are consumed before fasting begins.   So this is a good day to pay tribute to our heroic farmers, without whom there would be no Pancake Day, no Mardi Gras and no Carnival, which comes from Carne Vale, Latin for good-bye to meat.

The challenge for UKIP during the next three months will be to persuade our farming community that there is nothing to fear and much to gain from leaving the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy.    In this, we are greatly helped by our farming spokesman, Stuart Agnew, MEP for the East of England.   Stuart is a Norfolk farmer who has represented Norfolk on the NFU Council.   In the European Parliament, he sits on the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.   He is writing the farming section of our manifesto at the moment and the long-term needs of our farmers will be at the heart of our proposals.
At their core will be a new British Basic Payment Scheme to replace the existing CAP Basic Payment Scheme.   Land will need to be farmed to Entry Level Stewardship standards to qualify, with grassland automatically qualifying.   The Scheme would match the existing overall level of farm support.

However, the rate of support would initially be capped at £80 per acre on low ground, with a pro-rata decrease on marginal and hill land.   There would also be an overall cap of £120,000 per unit, which would therefore be reached on 1,500 lowland acres and pro-rata on higher acreages in the uplands.   The purpose of this cap is to make new tenancies available to young entrants into the industry.   At the moment, there is an appalling shortage of farms to rent and this is one sensible way of dealing with the problem.   Farmers who currently receive in excess of this £120,000 figure would therefore need to create new tenancies, which could be for members of their own families, to increase the number of holdings for new entrants.   There would be additional headage payments in the hills, subject to environmental restraints.

The nonsense of the new “three crop rule” under the CAP would end immediately, as would modulation and cross-compliance, interference in cropping and set-aside.    In this greatly simplified world and with looming food shortages in mind, all these decisions would be taken by the working farmer on the ground, where they properly belong.    Likewise, to meet the practical needs of working farmers, there would be no compulsory individual Electronic ID for sheep, no requirement for re-registration of pesticides, including Asulam, and no blanket ban on burial of fallen stock, although sites would need approval.   Much more red tape would also be removed to enable farmers to concentrate on the job in hand rather than fill in forms.   For example, the rules on white asbestos and Nitrate Vulnerable Zones would be relaxed.

On our dairy herds, it was the EU which insisted that the old Milk Marketing Board should be wound up and, if dairying is now to survive in Britain, something like it will need to return, however much Brussels may object.   The collapse of our dairy sector is a crime for which the EU must be held directly to account.   On Bovine TB, UKIP supports the trial culling of badgers, along with all other possible measures, if our herds are to be protected from this terrible disease.   And on the subject of disease, it is the rigidity of the EU’s Single Market rules that has caused so much damage to our horticultural and forestry sectors.   The import of infected timber has caused a catastrophic spread of disease to our ash and elm plantations, in many ways an analogy for the whole crazy EU project.   Given that we import so much more from the EU than we send there, a London-Brussels trade agreement is certainly achievable, even without the intervention of the WTO and other supranational bodies.   Further, UKIP will abolish the hated Inheritance Tax and ensure that family units can survive intact for future generations.

And above all, a UKIP Government will legislate for the highest welfare standards in abattoirs, to ensure that the disgrace of the Bowood Yorkshire lamb slaughterhouse outside Thirsk is never repeated.   There is nothing in the Koran that precludes stunning before slaughter, and indeed the majority of halal meat is pre-stunned, while a sensible accommodation will need to be found with the Kosher authorities that complies with good practice.   In addition, exports of live animals, including horses, for slaughter abroad will be banned and imports of bush meat will be controlled.   If Britain is to remain the most civilised country in the World, then there can be no abuse of our livestock at death when they have served us so well during their lives.   So our all-important farming sector should indeed have nothing to fear and much to gain from a UKIP Government – roll on the day!

Until next Tuesday!
Toby