I wonder why Starmer, Reeves and this Labour government hate farmers quite so much. Is it because they really are ignorant about the role we play supporting and maintaining the environment and countryside and supplying food for the nation as well as making a contributing to GDP.
Are they just stupid or is it a way of putting us in our place as they recognise, we are mostly independent, bloody-minded individuals who have little respect for politicians and have until more recently largely manage to avoid falling under their control, but when as is currently the case, we are baited we bite back.
They have certainly put the boot in since taking office. Having promised repeatedly that they had our backs during the General Election campaign, (unbelievably too many trusted them), they have since stabbed us in the back well and truly and now they are twisting the knife.
First it was IHT bomb shell with its hidden agenda for land grab. Now we are informed that the SFI 2024 schemes which were put in place by the last government to replace the EU Common Agricultural Policy, have without notice or consultation been shut down. And now Angela Raynor has directed council planning departments that they can compulsory purchase land from farmers at agricultural land value, despite valuing the same land for IHT at ‘development value’. You really can’t make this stuff up.
The NFU and CLA continue to tell us they are working closely with government hoping to get Starmer’s team to change its mind. I have yet to notice either organisation ever being listened to by politicians or able to sway governments of any colour, but no doubt they do their best and are a nice bunch particularly at local and county level.
My mother refused to give the NFU a penny as she believed they were useless. My view is that the local representatives are decent people and do their best to communicate with and support farmers. My opinion regarding the national hierarchy is pretty much the same as that of my mother and I suspect unprintable.
Last weekend there has been a focus by the BBC on Rural Crime. Across Sussex and the South East it is not unlike the Wild West. Gangs of criminals are trawling the countryside targeting farms to steal quad bikes and gators. Since Christmas in and around Eridge, Groombridge, Hastings and Ashburnham alone, over 50 of these vehicles which are used daily to move livestock, feed sheep and generally get around rain-soaked fields in the winter months, where tractors cannot travel.
These criminals, and we know who they are and often where they come from, break into barns and sheds, sometimes breaking down walls and removing straw bales and farm equipment in their quest to get at the quad which the owner believed was secure having protected the building with locks, CCTV, lighting and padlocked bollards.
Unfortunately, the police are under resourced and cannot cope with this epidemic which leave farmers and other businesses vulnerable and defenceless. These criminals are not only aggressive, they are also ruthless and will stop at nothing. They attack farmers who try to stop them from taking their property, with baseball bats, and fire ball bearings at them and ram their vehicles when they try to stop them. These gangs are driving stolen vehicles, so they don’t care.
The Rural Police try to help by giving us DNA packs to mark our property, machinery, tools, and vehicles so they can be identified if found after a break in. This is fine but leans towards closing the door after the horses have bolted. We need to stop this now; prevention is always better than cure.
Farmers and small businesses want the law changed so we can protect our property and livelihoods without finding ourselves becoming victims of the law. Currently the law appears to be on the side of the criminals not the victims they target. When vehicles are stolen and reported to the police, we are told they cannot track a vehicle or retrieve it, particularly if it is known to be parked at a traveller’s site, which I would suggest is mostly the case. When farmers inform the police that they will go and retrieve their property themselves they are told they could be arrested for trespassing!
This epidemic is not confined to farmers; local businesses are also being targeted. Tree surgeons, Electricians, Plumbers, Builders, Carpet layers and Butchers are seeing their vans broken into resulting in thousands of pounds worth of vital tools of their trade, produce and equipment being taken.
The Fire Station at Patridge Green was broken into in January and all their vital hydraulic cutting equipment taken and then used locally to break in and steal quads and ride-on lawn mowers near Gatwick.
We all need to protect our property, our livelihood and our families. The police are totally overwhelmed and under resourced, they clearly cannot cope. So, we should be allowed to defend our property and businesses. We pay our taxes, including council tax which has escalated sky high including yet another rise in the Sussex Police precept, which is set by the Police and Crime Commissioner, a post which should surely now be abolished.
The Wild West is currently unbalanced, the criminals can target us with an arsenal of dangerous equipment but if we dare to confront them with our shotguns when we are alone, vulnerable and completely outnumbered, it is us who get arrested. I would suggest that until these criminals are wiped out, locked up or stopped by an army of Rural Police which isn’t going to happen, those of us with shotgun and firearms certificates should be issued with Tasers and Stingers.
The public believe that rural crime is all about fly tipping. That is indeed the soft end where it starts but it ends with criminals killing their victims as happened to our friend Julian Gardener near Robertsbridge some years ago. He went out in the middle of the night to stop a gang of six from stealing his customer’s 4 x 4 vehicles from his farm workshop. They used a vehicle to ram him against a building where they left him to die, yards away from where his eighty-year-old mother was sleeping in her bungalow.
Julian was a lovely, very popular hard-working guy, who was a member of our farm shoot at Ewhurst Green. He was found dead the following morning by one of his chums. The gang were traced to Kent and four were charged and convicted on manslaughter charges. A soft sentence if there ever was one.
I only mention this case in an attempt to make people understand just how serious this matter is, and the consequences of not stopping this ‘civil war’ which is dangerously escalating.
The BBC gave me two minutes in which to make our case. I fear I failed miserably but at least it got the local politicians talking about Rual Crime, but will anyone do anything about is.
Are they just stupid or is it a way of putting us in our place as they recognise, we are mostly independent, bloody-minded individuals who have little respect for politicians and have until more recently largely manage to avoid falling under their control, but when as is currently the case, we are baited we bite back.
They have certainly put the boot in since taking office. Having promised repeatedly that they had our backs during the General Election campaign, (unbelievably too many trusted them), they have since stabbed us in the back well and truly and now they are twisting the knife.
First it was IHT bomb shell with its hidden agenda for land grab. Now we are informed that the SFI 2024 schemes which were put in place by the last government to replace the EU Common Agricultural Policy, have without notice or consultation been shut down. And now Angela Raynor has directed council planning departments that they can compulsory purchase land from farmers at agricultural land value, despite valuing the same land for IHT at ‘development value’. You really can’t make this stuff up.
The NFU and CLA continue to tell us they are working closely with government hoping to get Starmer’s team to change its mind. I have yet to notice either organisation ever being listened to by politicians or able to sway governments of any colour, but no doubt they do their best and are a nice bunch particularly at local and county level.
My mother refused to give the NFU a penny as she believed they were useless. My view is that the local representatives are decent people and do their best to communicate with and support farmers. My opinion regarding the national hierarchy is pretty much the same as that of my mother and I suspect unprintable.
Last weekend there has been a focus by the BBC on Rural Crime. Across Sussex and the South East it is not unlike the Wild West. Gangs of criminals are trawling the countryside targeting farms to steal quad bikes and gators. Since Christmas in and around Eridge, Groombridge, Hastings and Ashburnham alone, over 50 of these vehicles which are used daily to move livestock, feed sheep and generally get around rain-soaked fields in the winter months, where tractors cannot travel.
These criminals, and we know who they are and often where they come from, break into barns and sheds, sometimes breaking down walls and removing straw bales and farm equipment in their quest to get at the quad which the owner believed was secure having protected the building with locks, CCTV, lighting and padlocked bollards.
Unfortunately, the police are under resourced and cannot cope with this epidemic which leave farmers and other businesses vulnerable and defenceless. These criminals are not only aggressive, they are also ruthless and will stop at nothing. They attack farmers who try to stop them from taking their property, with baseball bats, and fire ball bearings at them and ram their vehicles when they try to stop them. These gangs are driving stolen vehicles, so they don’t care.
The Rural Police try to help by giving us DNA packs to mark our property, machinery, tools, and vehicles so they can be identified if found after a break in. This is fine but leans towards closing the door after the horses have bolted. We need to stop this now; prevention is always better than cure.
Farmers and small businesses want the law changed so we can protect our property and livelihoods without finding ourselves becoming victims of the law. Currently the law appears to be on the side of the criminals not the victims they target. When vehicles are stolen and reported to the police, we are told they cannot track a vehicle or retrieve it, particularly if it is known to be parked at a traveller’s site, which I would suggest is mostly the case. When farmers inform the police that they will go and retrieve their property themselves they are told they could be arrested for trespassing!
This epidemic is not confined to farmers; local businesses are also being targeted. Tree surgeons, Electricians, Plumbers, Builders, Carpet layers and Butchers are seeing their vans broken into resulting in thousands of pounds worth of vital tools of their trade, produce and equipment being taken.
The Fire Station at Patridge Green was broken into in January and all their vital hydraulic cutting equipment taken and then used locally to break in and steal quads and ride-on lawn mowers near Gatwick.
We all need to protect our property, our livelihood and our families. The police are totally overwhelmed and under resourced, they clearly cannot cope. So, we should be allowed to defend our property and businesses. We pay our taxes, including council tax which has escalated sky high including yet another rise in the Sussex Police precept, which is set by the Police and Crime Commissioner, a post which should surely now be abolished.
The Wild West is currently unbalanced, the criminals can target us with an arsenal of dangerous equipment but if we dare to confront them with our shotguns when we are alone, vulnerable and completely outnumbered, it is us who get arrested. I would suggest that until these criminals are wiped out, locked up or stopped by an army of Rural Police which isn’t going to happen, those of us with shotgun and firearms certificates should be issued with Tasers and Stingers.
The public believe that rural crime is all about fly tipping. That is indeed the soft end where it starts but it ends with criminals killing their victims as happened to our friend Julian Gardener near Robertsbridge some years ago. He went out in the middle of the night to stop a gang of six from stealing his customer’s 4 x 4 vehicles from his farm workshop. They used a vehicle to ram him against a building where they left him to die, yards away from where his eighty-year-old mother was sleeping in her bungalow.
Julian was a lovely, very popular hard-working guy, who was a member of our farm shoot at Ewhurst Green. He was found dead the following morning by one of his chums. The gang were traced to Kent and four were charged and convicted on manslaughter charges. A soft sentence if there ever was one.
I only mention this case in an attempt to make people understand just how serious this matter is, and the consequences of not stopping this ‘civil war’ which is dangerously escalating.
The BBC gave me two minutes in which to make our case. I fear I failed miserably but at least it got the local politicians talking about Rual Crime, but will anyone do anything about is.
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