The Windrush shambles, and historic meeting of the heads of 53 countries of the Commonwealth in London, have dramatically highlighted the lack of knowledge and understanding amongst the public, and even more worrying amongst ministers in particular, and the majority of politicians regarding the importance of the Commonwealth.
 
Few MPs seem aware of the ‘special’ relationship between this ‘family’ of nations now, and prior to the UK joining the European Economic Community (Common Market) in 1973. Few seem to care how badly we treated Commonwealth countries by turning our backs on them as we misguidedly joined the European experiment.
 
Since then with their obsession with the EU, successive governments have dismissed the Commonwealth as of little importance. No doubt during audiences with Her Majesty, Prime Ministers have humoured her when no doubt she raised this subject she has held close to her heart throughout her reign.
 
It is quite clear that without The Queen’s continuing dedication, leadership and loyalty to what was and should still be this ‘family’ of nations, and until more recently she regularly visited in all corners of the world, Great Britain’s position would have greatly diminished. Without doubt it is The Queen who has kept our relationship with the Commonwealth burning brightly.
 
Now as we prepare to leave the European Union, and embrace the countless opportunities to expand trade worldwide, the Commonwealth with its population of over 2.3 billion which dwarfs that of the EU’s mere 510 million, there is an incentive to negotiate trade deals of all kinds, including those which will open markets for the British agricultural sector.
 
The EU as a market place is rapidly diminishing. On the other hand India a member of the Commonwealth, with its ‘special’ relationship, and a population of 1.3 billion, offers an expanding market for the UK.
 
British politicians need to catch up. In the days when my father was an MP and an officer of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association back in the 1970s and 80s, all MPs understood how vital this relationship was. The CPA was a thriving organisation across the Commonwealth and in the very heart of the Westminster.
 
The Queen despite her ministers has kept faith, and we as a nation and farmers in particular should be eternally grateful to her.
 
If the current Home Secretary and her predecessor had recognised that their policies would affect UK citizens who originated from Commonwealth countries (the Windrush generation), the current situation would never have arisen.
 
It was and still is vital to sort out the escalating problem of illegal immigration, but a blanket approach was bound to raise difficulties.
 
This fiasco has emphasised how a lack of understanding and knowledge of the history of our island nation is dangerous, when taking on ministerial positions. They must however shoulder their responsibility, and the buck currently stops firmly with the current Home Secretary.
 
It is very disappointing that Defra environment minister Therese Coffey has dismissed MP’s calls to allow fly-tipped waste dumped on private land to be cleared without charge at household waste recycling centres.
She is of the opinion that this would “not provide the right incentive to deter fly-tipping” or encourage people to “secure their land more”.
 
Currently farmers and landowners are considered responsible for all waste dumped on their land, even where the perpetrators have used bolt cutters to access locked gates, or driven through hedges to access private land, or dumped in drive ways.
 
Miss Coffey suggested that it is up to individual local councils to decide whether to pay to clear fly-tipped waste from private land. At a time when councils are struggling with funding this is unlikely to happen. At the very least farmers should be able to take the dumped waste to re-cycling centres without charge. If they can provide photographic evidence of the illegal dumping on their land this would help our case.

It is encouraging to hear Defra secretary Michael Gove calling for ‘people’ to speak up if they wish to take part in the ‘Health and Harmony’ consultation. I have no idea what Health and Harmony in an agricultural and rural context means, but at least I believe he is alerting farmers to speak up.
 
The clue is in his suggestion that those wishing to shape the future of farm support in the UK post Brexit, should speak up now, or risk their views being overshadowed by certain “vested interests” who have either the money, connections, or the power, to imprint their agenda on the public.
 
The Minister referred to the recent consultation on the trading ivory, which had attracted tens of thousands of responses, which made it easier to see off the opposition in government, resulting in ‘a more targeted, precise and more effective’ ivory trade ban.
 
It is now vital that everyone whose livelihood and businesses depend upon farming and importantly food production, bombard the Minister with practical and considered advice regarding sustainable food production, and land management long term.
 
There is strength in numbers which Mr Gove clearly recognises. We cannot rely upon the top brass within the NFU to get our messages through. They have failed in the past, and currently I fear they are not making much of an impression.
 
Having spent the best part of the last two weeks attempting to complete this year’s Single Farm Payment Application, I am hoping that part of Mr Gove’s reforms will result in the return to the previous simplified version of this annual exercise.
 
For several years completing the form on line was fairly straight forward. This year for reasons beyond my understanding, information regarding each field noting field sizes, buffer strips, lengths of hedges and the location of trees which was supplied to the RPA by farmers’ years ago has been deleted from the application form. We therefore have had to start from scratch in order to comply with the regulations for EFA.
 
I question the decision to disallow crops which were eligible as a ‘greening’ crop for many years as EFA (Ecological Focus Area), but do not qualify this year.
 
Field Beans and Lupins no longer comply, despite being Nitrogen fixing plants which add value as a break crop improving the soil nutrition and structure. Whoever decided these crops no longer qualifies for EFAs, should be congratulated upon getting it wrong. Do we blame Brussels or aim fire closer to home!
 
Unfortunately the RPA Help Line is a shambles this year. Having sat patiently waiting to be connected for over an hour, I eventually spoke to a charming lady but one who had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. Her advice was to ‘go and look at the website’! Having spent hours doing just that and failed to find the solution to me query, I had reluctantly resorted to the Help Line.
 
I am hoping that by the time this goes to print we will have resumed field work. The ground to date is water logged, but the promise of warm, dry, sunny and breezy days ahead is encouraging. Some jobs including spring sowing are now five weeks late, but if conditions improve rapidly, we can still get the seeds planted, and with any luck they will get away quickly once the soil warms up.
 
It sounds like a sensible bunch of vets have picked up on the subject of Freedom Collars. They correctly consider it preferable for dogs and cats to be contained within their boundary by collars which bleep, as opposed to getting onto the roads where they are in danger of being run over or worse, cause fatal accidents. Let us hope Mr Gove gets this message loud and clear, and common sense prevails.

Farm livestock cattle in particular, require individual passports detailing information regarding their gender, birth place, breed and DOB. They must wear a tag in each ear noting their unique passport number, and all this information is electronically logged with the British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS).

If any cattle are found to be missing a tag during an inspection, we can be severally penalised financially, and in some cases the animal could be removed and sent for slaughter.

At a time when there are discussions regarding where British dark blue passports are printed post Brexit, it is worth considering that whichever company wins the contract should also be given the task of producing identity cards for all ‘British’ citizens.

Arguments against identity cards are now well past their sell by date; events have moved on dramatically. We could choose to be chipped, tattooed with a bar code, or wear large yellow ear tags, proving our identity and passport number, I think I would prefer an identity card.

It is time everyone walking our streets can be identified instantly, it must happen without delay. ID cards should surely be supplied by a British company, not some dodgy foreign set up open to infiltration and corruption by our enemies. 

In My Fair Lady (based upon George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion), Professor Higgins asks why can’t a woman be more like a man? Today these sentiments are perversely reversed. It seems that a growing number of females want their men to be more like woman.

These women appear to want their men neutered or at the very least feminised. God forbid they show any kind of macho or laddish behaviour, and they must never give compliments or show affection, open doors or offer up their seat. This only provokes cries from the so called fairer sex, of rape, sexism or chauvinism.

These messages must be confusing so it is hardly surprising if menfolk retreat into their living rooms or the pub displaying neurotic tendencies, or withdraw into a make believe world playing games on lap tops and iPads.
It must be increasingly hard venturing out into the big bad world inhabited by these scary women. Mind you when today one can be any one of 50 different gender types, it must seem like a jungle out there never knowing what or who is behind the façade.

At least in the good old days when one provoked a wolf whistle or corny chat up line, one could be fairly certain the world was inhabited by a healthy bunch of red bloodied heterosexual men, and there was nothing wrong with that!

Hopefully what goes round comes round and it will eventually be realised how daft the current PC, feminist bandwagon phenomenon is. Boys should be boys and girls girls. They have their rules of engagement, and the rest of the muddle in between will just have to realise they are what God made them. 

At last Ministers are giving new powers to the police to evict travellers when they set up illegal camp sites in rural communities on village greens, school sports fields, car parks, and in particular farmland.  This move is well overdue for many who have suffered years of abuse from travelling communities who consider themselves to be beyond the law.

These people have inflicted noise, abusive behaviour, criminal damage, and vicious attacks on the locals in some cases resulting in death. They create fear in communities and offend with their disgusting anti-social threatening and uncivilised behaviour.
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Along with the new proposals allowing immediate eviction, the new powers should also include powers to ensure that any damage to land and property is be paid for by the perpetrators. Their expensive 4 x 4s and other vehicles should be impounded and sold to fund the clean-up and repairs when they are moved on. 

Well it had to happen, and I am truly sorry for the family of the woman who was killed in Arizona by a driverless Uber vehicle, but it was an accident waiting to happen.
 
I am all for science and clever gadgets, but regrettably scientists and boffins who specialise in high tech inventions, in this case driverless cars, fail to have amongst their little grey cells, anything which resembles common sense.
 
Anyone who actually believes that a fully automated vehicle being operated by a computer can navigate along roads which are populated by people, who we all know are totally unpredictable, need their heads examined.
 
It is all very well to put driverless tractors or robots in an open field uncluttered by people or livestock for that matter, or on a static rail down the middle of a highway, but to let a driverless vehicle loose amongst defenceless people, either in cars, on bikes or walking, is completely bonkers and out of the question.
 
It is time for the Government to put ‘Food First’. The words of Chris Jeffries the newly elected chairman of East Sussex NFU – a man on a mission. As someone who entered the world of farming in later life, he is fired up with a passion to protect farmers and British food production.
 
They say there is no one as passionate as the converted, and here is a case where someone has moved from the city to farming and food production. If you had witnessed the passion expressed by Mr Jeffries at a recent Branch NFU supper, when delivering his speech, you would understand my point.
 
The current NFU leadership team appears to have gone very quiet, which is not unusual, so it is vital that Chris stirs them up. I wish him well in his quest.
 
Hopefully his path will cross the threshold of DEFRA and he will be allowed to deliver his message to Mr Gove. Time is running out and if we are not very careful the voices of traditional farmers who are trying to make a living producing ‘food’, which are currently being drowned out by the environmentalists and tree huggers, we will be consigned to history and food production will forever take second place to public access, soil protection, and supporting wildlife including an over population of badgers, many of which are riddled with TB, above sustainable food production.
 
I would of course never advocate civil disobedience, but I would suggest that the good people of Newcastle upon Tyne ignore their local council completely. Parents wishing to encourage their children to get out and play in quiet residential streets, occasionally cordoning them off so their kids can get outside and play, are being hampered.
 
The council have stated that anyone wanting to hold ‘play sessions’ have to submit a six-page application form, approach all residents and get their written agreement. Adults must supervise wearing high-viz jackets, with marshals stationed at every entry point, and they must also erect road signs and put out cones.
 
They must also carry out a risk assessment, the road closure must be advertised in the local press and on the street, and they must obtain public liability insurance of at least £5million!
 
This is Health and Safety gone mad. British kids are already labelled the most unfit and overweight. Their brains are being pickled as their lives are dominated by irrelevant rubbish emitted from smart phones and tablets, as many are trapped in their bedrooms during the most vulnerable years of their lives.
 
The public must be allowed to take responsibility for their own actions, decide when and where their children play, and not be dictated to by ‘nanny bureaucrats’.
 
I thoroughly recommend that the good people of Newcastle upon Tyne and anywhere else for that matter sort out their own street closures and ignore council diktats.