On Christmas Eve Farmer Giles set off to visit his relatives in Kent. This was a journey he had taken each year, as had his father and grandfather before him.

As he drove his super electric powered two seater Land Rover through the spine of Sussex, he recalled the gentle sloping hills of the South Downs speckled with sheep grazing the grassy banks, of years gone by. Also the winterised pastures with neatly trimmed hedges, defining the boundaries between fields of winter sown cereal crops and others just resting and ready to be planted in the spring.

He allowed his mind to wander as he rested his hands on his knees as his automated self-drive truck made its way along the road.

He remembered taking this same route many summers ago when the fields were full of cattle grazing with the sun on their backs. And the memory of ripening fields of wheat and barley gently swaying in the breeze, not long before the combines would have harvested the golden grain, brought a smile to his lips.

Now the arrow straight highway was edged by thick overgrown dense woodland, and where fields of corn and pastures had once been, was now covered by impenetrable thickets of overgrown blackthorn and gorse. Today all grain was imported from mega farms in the USA, the extended Russian territories and South America.

He could see over this canopy the summit of the Downs above Firle, now totally enveloped in a tangle of woodland, brambles and blackthorn. Long gone was the open chalk grassland, so treasured in the past, for its prized habitat with rare butterflies, hares and orchids.

Giles, being a little peckish, decided to sample one of the pies he had carefully packed as a Christmas gift for his cousins Frank and Freda. This was quite a tradition which he enjoyed as each year they would have to guess what he had filled his pies with. As he munched away, he remembered the flavours of the past with a pang of nostalgia.

As he approached the Kent border, now the EU Control check-point, a dark eyed evil looking official approached ordering him to get out of his car. Giles being a typical stubborn old farmer, decided to sit tight but he did open his window, and asked what he could do for this troublesome official. The man said, “You were observed by our surveillance cameras eating a suspicious looking substance. Hand it over we need to check its contents.”

“You must be joking”, said Giles, “This pie and those in the box I made myself. They are not great but neither are they bad enough for you to get excited about.”
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The guy snatched the remains of the pie from Giles’s hand and lifted it to his nose and sniffed. “It seems that this pie is acceptable.” He said, “We must have the super sensitive X-ray road side cameras checked out, there must be a malfunction.” With that he checked his identity card and waved Giles on.

Giles, unfazed by this encounter journeyed on,  but now fully alert. The traffic increased and vehicles moved slowly nose to tail. The woodland gave way to mile upon mile of temporary housing units, with people of all colours and nationalities milling around looking miserable and unkempt.

Here there was not a tree to be seen, the landscape was covered with these dwellings, factories, open highways and the super-fast railway lines. 

As Giles arrived at his destination, he was warmly welcomed by Frank and Freda, both of whom looked a little frailer than they had last year. Soon Frank and Giles were sat with a glass in hand waiting for Freda to bring in the Christmas Lunch. Not in front of a roaring fire as they had done in the past; as Giles noted, it was decidedly chilly.

Just then they heard a cry from the kitchen where Freda was lifting her Christmas speciality out of the oven, only to find it uncooked. The power had gone off, the cooker was cold, and Freda was in tears.  

As they sat in the living room, huddled around a few candles they reminisced about days gone by. Giles told them about his journey through the countryside bereft of farm livestock, now over grown with dense woodland, immigrant campsites, houses, factories, roads and the railways. He also told them about the border guard checking his pies contained no meat.   

Freda spoke about the days when wood burners kept them warm, cookers were fuelled by gas or oil instead of wind turbines which rarely worked, and solar panels which needed the sun. This winter they had been precious little of that.

“Where did it all go wrong”, said Frank.

“I think it was that Paris Climate Change summit in 2015 what set the rot in”, said Giles. “That nutter Arnold Schwarzenegger should have stuck to acting, instead of telling witless politicians that ‘people should stop eating meat, and become all-out vegans’. And those dodgy statistics now proven to be groundless regarding emissions from farm livestock. Just look what has happened to the countryside, and now we are treated like criminals at the very suggestion we have cooked the odd rabbit, or hidden a dairy cow in our back bedroom!”

Patch jumped onto farmer Giles’s lap and barked in his ear, waking him from his slumbers. His heart raced as he recalled his dream, but he slowly calmed down as he put a log in the wood burner, and then took a bite from his roast beef sandwich.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Rural crime is a problem, so we do our best to be vigilant about farm security. Tractors are locked away with keys removed, farm yard and roadside gates kept padlocked, not only to prevent thefts but also to stop fly tipping. There are security cameras in strategic places, and people about almost 24/7. Despite these precautions, last week three horses had winter rugs stolen off their backs while grazing in the field. It seems that unless items are bolted to the ground or locked in a secure building, it is fair game, and we should not be too surprised if they are taken!

The New Forest and Dartmoor ponies are about to be painted with luminous paint to make them more visible when they wander onto the highways. Apparently several hundred are killed each year. This seems an excellent idea, so we have now adopted a similar policy, but in our case we are painting horse rugs ghastly colours, fixing microchips and writing post codes on them, in a vain attempt to prevent further thefts and cold horses.

The chief chemist of Shell Oils has said we should get used to living with cheaper fuels, as world oil usage has peaked, and demand is now in decline. With more fuel efficient vehicles, increasing solar energy, and renewables, the demand for oil is decreasing. Despite what the papers say, there are still vast untapped oil resources, it is therefore little wonder that OPEC has once again decided not to reduce crude oil supplies.
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In the light of the Paris Climate Change summit, it is surprising that it was reported last week that dozens of new highly polluting diesel generators are to be built in the UK. This follows companies being handed consumer-funded subsidies worth £175m over the next 15 years, and an additional £830m in 2019-20.
Companies proposing to build 650 megawatts of new small diesel engines won these subsidies through the government’s capacity market scheme, which was designed to ensure there are enough power plants to keep the lights on when our new renewable power industries fail.

The scheme which was originally intended to deliver large new efficient combined-cycle gas turbine plants, to replace old polluting power stations, has now been overtaken by events. As the subsidies have fallen to £18 per kilowatt, it is no longer economically viable to build the new CCGT plants. So, these subsidies will go to existing gas, coal and nuclear plants, and this new unintended industry constructing diesel plants.

Following the Paris summit will climate change be reversed? Billions, if not trillions are to be spent fighting against nature, rather than working with it.

Replanting and restoring rainforests would have been a good place to start, and making alternative arrangements for islanders threatened by rising sea levels. Flood defences and contingency funds for communities, would be a better way to spend precious resources, than crippling major industries, taxing households, and holding back emerging economies.

As the ‘World’ leaders leave their plush Paris hotels with their copy of the ‘Agreement’ tucked under their arms, one has to wonder how many will be tempted to drop the document into the nearest bin on their journey home.

Unfortunately we can be sure UK representatives will hurry home, and by the time the document arrives in Westminster it will have been ‘gold plated’, expanded, and unrecognisable as the document which left Paris. Despite the UK already having the most and only draconian and binding Climate Change Act in the world.
As Owen Paterson said, ‘we need to make sure we decouple energy policy from climate change policy, and restore some common sense to the system.’ He recommends that the Climate Change Act, Ed Miliband’s legacy, be suspended and eventually repealed.

The delay in announcing the airport expansion options in the south east has its advantages. It is fairly certain that Heathrow will fail the air pollution impact, and adding a second runway at Gatwick is not sensible.
When you look around and see new airports springing up on the continent and competing for business, it is surely time for the government to be creating world class airports for the future, not adding sticking plasters to prop up just one existing airport, which is already frequently impossible to access, and cause additional misery to those living under its flight path.

What is certain is that a decision must be made, and soon. London’s prosperity depends upon being connected to the world, particularly emerging markets where new business and jobs are coming from. It is vital that investment into transport links between central London and each of London’s key airports will result in better service at lower prices. 

Rather than adding additional runways it would surely make more sense to upgrade the infrastructure, roads and rail access to Gatwick, Stanstead, Luton, Manchester and Birmingham, thus taking the pressure away from a single hub.
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As Zac Goldsmith has said, “Competition between London’s airports has served Londoners well. Given its success, it is astonishing that anyone, least of all a Conservative Government, would consider re-establishing a new monopoly.”

As the clock steadily ticks towards the end of 2015, it was hoped that prospects for British farming would be looking somewhat rosier. Alas, it was not to be. Dairy farmers are losing anything between nine and sixteen pence per litre, over the cost of production. Beef farmers are coping with a decline in trade, and processors are moving the goal posts yet again by setting out terms and conditions that suit them but threaten the beef producer’s viability and sustainability.

The average suckler herds made a net loss of £218 a cow. Farms finishing cattle up to 16 month, 24 months, (as we do) can lose as much as £200 a head.

Arable farmers watch as wheat prices flat line, now and for the foreseeable future. Even demand for hay and straw has dropped. Pig producers watch in despair as prices continue to tumble. Only finished lamb prices have crept up a little, but are still well below the fairly poor prices of last year.

The pound is strong, and the Euro is weak. There is declining opportunities to access the Chinese and USA markets, so vital to prop up demand. We are increasingly reliant upon domestic consumption, which is naturally a ‘gift’ to the retailers, who know it. To give her her due, Defra secretary Liz Truss is working hard on behalf of British farm producers, and has once again led a trade mission to China, in a bid to accelerate British exports into the world’s largest market. Sales have increased steadily over the past few years but there is a long way to go. The potential in this vast market is massive and is well worth the effort.

British shoppers are becoming increasingly careful, and as the cost of the weekly shopping basket drops, they are not buying more. As farmers become more productive, the public seem to be cutting back on food, and the result is toxic for the industry.

Each week yet more dairy farmers decide to understandably, throw in the towel and sell their cows. Some revert to beef farming or plough up their pastures, or they sell to absentee owners with little or no understanding of the countryside, let alone farm management.

When the time comes and it is acknowledged how important it is for the UK to be self-sufficient in food production, it could well be too late. Too much land will have been turned over to housing and new towns. Even if the land were still available, it takes time to re-establish and build new herds of cattle, and the expertise can be lost in just one generation.

It has been said many times before, but it is worth repeating, unless British farming is supported and we buy home grown produce, and lots of it – use it or lose it – the consequences will be more serious than many now recognise.

It seems that the Rural Payments Agency has managed to get its act together and distribute farm payments on time, to many farmers now desperately trying to pay bills despite receiving below the cost of production for the commodities they produce. So far we have not received ours but I am told there have been welcome cheques dropping onto door mats last week.

Mark Grimshaw, chief executive of the RPA has said that he recognises that the payments are important not only to the farmers but also to the wider rural economy, as the money will not hang around in farm bank accounts. It will immediately be spent on goods and services, and in turn, keep other rural businesses going. Interestingly, it is estimated that for every pound sent out as BPS payments, there is a multiplier of four pounds into the wider economy.

The floods in Cumbria and the north east have caused devastation to families, businesses and farmers once again. For those in and around Carlisle, this is the second time they have faced this situation in the past ten years. The amount of rain, up to 10 inches over the weekend, is almost impossible to cope with for local and natural drainage. Rising water on this level is impossible to deal with, and the dreadful aftermath of filth, decay and debris on such a massive scale, will take months, and in some cases years to put right.

Contingency plans and funding is where government money should be targeted. The £millions already spent by the Environment Agency may have delayed some flooding, but additional funds need to be made available, to ensure rivers and ditches are more able to cope with excessive rain fall which has been predicted, as well as funding to help clean up.

For years these budgets have been slashed across the country and as areas which in the past have acted as natural drainage and flood plains are now covered in concrete with housing, development and roads, it is vital to address this matter.

Planners should also take more notice of local concern and local knowledge, and refrain from further development where flooding is inevitable.

The government must create a War Chest, not to fight Nature but prepare for and deal with the fall-out from what she can throw at us. Perhaps this could be linked in some way to the National clean-up which is planned to coincide with the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations.

The Chancellor’s Spending Review and Autumn Statement did little to get farmers excited or look forward to. What we now know is that Defra must make a further resources savings of 15pc by 2019-20, delivered through ‘efficiencies within the department and across its network’.

Fortunately for those living and working in vulnerable areas, expenditure will be protected for flood defences. Less understandable are the funds which will remain available for National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Beauty. On the whole these ‘areas’ are quite able to look after themselves.

It seems that funding for investment in science and technology, and research and development is now less secure. This is a concern for arable farmers and fruit growers. They, like livestock farmers who have already witnessed the closure of animal research centres over the past few years, rely upon R & D to ensure the health of the national herds, flocks and crops.

It was difficult the get very excited about anything the Chancellor announced last Wednesday. However MPs on the Conservative benches did appear to get fairly over excited as he progressed through his script. The following day some headlines understandably stated ‘Whatever Happened to Austerity’?

It seems George Osborne, instead of “fixing the roof while the sun shines”, decided to go on a spending spree. Instead of lowering taxes, cutting the deficit or paying off some of the national debt, he decided to spend the unexpected and unreliable £27billion “windfall”.

He has channelled additional billions into foreign aid, which now is in line to receive more funding by the end of the parliament than the Home Office.

Expenditure is now set to rise by almost 9pc. Before the May election Mr Osborne laid out plans for departmental cuts of 19.4 per cent by 2019. Following Wednesday they are set to fall by just 2.3 pc over the next three years.

Much of the extra burden of balancing the books will now fall upon business. Firms must pay a 0.5pc payroll tax, and an “apprenticeship levy”, on top of the 28pc rise in the minimum hourly wage between now and 2020.
The hike in stamp duty for buy-to-let properties represents a 3pc increase in purchase tax. This will particularly hurt small friendly landlords, and families trying to invest wisely for their children. It will also cause havoc with many elderly couples who have worked hard and put money into property for their retirement, which could now become a burden to them.

For a Chancellor who has previously promised to balance the books by 2020, it would seem somewhat risky to borrow an additional £18billion over the course of this parliament. For the country’s sake we can only hope his confidence is rewarded.

Last week he said that “the UK is ready for whatever the world throws at us”. He has gambled that the British economy has a ‘fair weather’ ride. Let us hope his luck is in, for if the seas become choppy with more crises in Europe, China’s economy declines further, there is increased terrorism, and escalated tension between Russia and the West as the Syrian crises intensifies, and oil prices rise, the British economy could look very different and less stable.

The weather is blamed for many things but it seems fanciful that certain individuals have claimed that the chaos engulfing Syria, was caused by climate change induced drought, which forced people to leave the land and flock to the cities. The move to the cities was due to Assad tripling diesel prices and badly hitting farmers who relied on irrigation-pumps to feed the Syrian population.

However, the idea that the weather can influence people’s movements thus starting wars and unrest, is just the kind of propaganda which fuels discussion at events such as the ‘Climate Summit’ this week in Paris. 40,000 delegates from around the world will go to Paris and we can be sure the people who will benefit from such stories will be those promoting ‘green energy’ who have financial interests in commercial companies producing the hard ware.

A fund should be created to support communities having to cope with climate change. Nations cannot change this process but they should prepare to cope with the outcome.

I have been told what I should want for Christmas is a ‘Humanoid Robot’! This robot known as Pepper, is the new ‘must have’ addition to every family home. He has ‘a heart’, and can recognise human emotions. He also has a personality, which could be challenging, and would certainly be a novel addition in our household.
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It seems that Pepper can play music and dance, and will converse on any subject. He would even enquire if I am tired and would like a cup of tea. I am not sure what the dogs would make of him, and his household skills maybe suspect, but if he could gather up leaves and shovel grain that would put him in my good books.
For now Pepper is only available in Japan which is probably just as well as he only speaks Japanese. However, when he learns English, cooking and has a practical head on his shoulders, (forget the emotions) he could prove useful and I may put him on my ‘List for Santa’. But for now I will settle for good health and ‘world peace’.