Charlie Flint writes a regular column in the Farmers Weekly, in which he raises topics with clarity and humour, regarding matters which farmers face every day.
Last week he also found time to pen a brief Letter to the Editor, gently berating him for pointing out in his previous ‘anti-Brexit editorial’, as Charlie put it, ‘how farmer numbers have crashed from 294,000 to 141,000 – a drop of 52% - over the past 40 years’, while opposing Brexit.
As usual Charlie is spot on. Why the Farmers Weekly and indeed the NFU continue to claim that British agriculture will struggle to survive unless we remain a member of the EU, and under control of the Common Agricultural Policy, is baffling.
Surely they can see that by escaping the stifling clutches of CAP, including the oceans of red tape and bureaucracy, and the corrupt protectionism of the Single Market, will enable British agriculture to improve farming methods, including amongst others, the hot topic of soil protection. And hopefully halt the haemorigeing of valuable, talented farmers from the industry.
It is clearly obvious that we need more farmers not less. We require an injection of young blood into the industry, and to put a stop to the idea that the only way forward is to establish bigger and more industrialised farms. This policy is now so ‘old hat’, and unhelpful when planning the future of a successful, innovative, competitive, and soon to be global industry.
On 13th July 1990, Nicholas Ridley was forced to resign as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, following an interview published in The Spectator. He had described the proposed Economic Monetary Union as “a German racket designed to take over the whole of Europe” and, “giving up sovereignty to the European Union was a bad as giving it up to Adolph Hitler”.
Since then many more politicians have also recognised how damaging our membership of this European experiment has been. Including Daniel Hannan, MEP for the South East since 1999, who has on a number of occasions warned that the United Kingdom is “shackled to a corpse”.
Why apparently intelligent politicians and countless others refuse to recognise the damage our membership to the European Union has done, and continues to inflict upon this country, is truly baffling.
Nicholas Ridley was also spot on all those years ago, when he said he believed that economic and monetary union in the ‘Community’ would be a disaster, both for Great Britain, and for the wider Europe. He said, “Nothing but harm will come from trying to force members of the Single Market into the straight-jacket of a single currency, with economic policy decided by people who are not accountable to the electorate and taxpayers”. It would he said “result in economic domination by the country with the strongest currency in the community”. And so it turned out to be.
As the UK continues to be humiliated and browbeaten into submission by unelected and unaccountable EU bullies, the PM and her Remain allies appear to look on with satisfaction. Do they really want the UK to lose total sovereignty in 2022 when all member states of the EU concede even more powers, and become part of the new federal nation, and allow Brussels to dictate our future, as clearly laid out under the Lisbon Treaty?
The senseless stabbings of innocent, decent young people continues, as calls for the restoration of police numbers get louder. Look no further than the top of the current political ladder to identify who instigated the dramatic cost cuts in 2010, angering all Chief Constables at the time.
The idea that policing could be effective by reducing numbers and therefore fewer police on the streets, was an elementary error. Should we really be surprised that Project Brexit has been handled with a similar cavalier attitude and total incompetence?
Last week he also found time to pen a brief Letter to the Editor, gently berating him for pointing out in his previous ‘anti-Brexit editorial’, as Charlie put it, ‘how farmer numbers have crashed from 294,000 to 141,000 – a drop of 52% - over the past 40 years’, while opposing Brexit.
As usual Charlie is spot on. Why the Farmers Weekly and indeed the NFU continue to claim that British agriculture will struggle to survive unless we remain a member of the EU, and under control of the Common Agricultural Policy, is baffling.
Surely they can see that by escaping the stifling clutches of CAP, including the oceans of red tape and bureaucracy, and the corrupt protectionism of the Single Market, will enable British agriculture to improve farming methods, including amongst others, the hot topic of soil protection. And hopefully halt the haemorigeing of valuable, talented farmers from the industry.
It is clearly obvious that we need more farmers not less. We require an injection of young blood into the industry, and to put a stop to the idea that the only way forward is to establish bigger and more industrialised farms. This policy is now so ‘old hat’, and unhelpful when planning the future of a successful, innovative, competitive, and soon to be global industry.
On 13th July 1990, Nicholas Ridley was forced to resign as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, following an interview published in The Spectator. He had described the proposed Economic Monetary Union as “a German racket designed to take over the whole of Europe” and, “giving up sovereignty to the European Union was a bad as giving it up to Adolph Hitler”.
Since then many more politicians have also recognised how damaging our membership of this European experiment has been. Including Daniel Hannan, MEP for the South East since 1999, who has on a number of occasions warned that the United Kingdom is “shackled to a corpse”.
Why apparently intelligent politicians and countless others refuse to recognise the damage our membership to the European Union has done, and continues to inflict upon this country, is truly baffling.
Nicholas Ridley was also spot on all those years ago, when he said he believed that economic and monetary union in the ‘Community’ would be a disaster, both for Great Britain, and for the wider Europe. He said, “Nothing but harm will come from trying to force members of the Single Market into the straight-jacket of a single currency, with economic policy decided by people who are not accountable to the electorate and taxpayers”. It would he said “result in economic domination by the country with the strongest currency in the community”. And so it turned out to be.
As the UK continues to be humiliated and browbeaten into submission by unelected and unaccountable EU bullies, the PM and her Remain allies appear to look on with satisfaction. Do they really want the UK to lose total sovereignty in 2022 when all member states of the EU concede even more powers, and become part of the new federal nation, and allow Brussels to dictate our future, as clearly laid out under the Lisbon Treaty?
The senseless stabbings of innocent, decent young people continues, as calls for the restoration of police numbers get louder. Look no further than the top of the current political ladder to identify who instigated the dramatic cost cuts in 2010, angering all Chief Constables at the time.
The idea that policing could be effective by reducing numbers and therefore fewer police on the streets, was an elementary error. Should we really be surprised that Project Brexit has been handled with a similar cavalier attitude and total incompetence?
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