Let’s be clear about this. The attack on farmers, like the attack on private schools, is not about how skint our country is but is all about class war.
Starmer and his chums simply don’t like people with perceived wealth. Before the Election there was a phrase going the Labour rounds which gave a clue to their direction of travel. The phrase? Inter-generational wealth.
I first heard it from a bloke called Jonathan Reynolds, now our esteemed Business Secretary. You won’t be surprised to learn he knows nothing about business as he spent two years working for a law firm before politics beckoned i.e. doing bugger all but being respected for it.
What it meant is that Socialists didn’t like the idea of folk who had made money passing it down to their family. They wanted, through taxation, to make sure that money came to them and they could then parcel it out to the SIDS (Skint, Idle, Dim, Socialists).
And the attack on farmers is part of that. VAT on private schools was the precursor. There will be more examples in the years ahead. I don’t remember reading about that in the Labour manifesto and therefore it was naïve of me not to believe it would happen.
The farmers have an advantage. Without them our supermarket shelves would be empty. They produce 60% of the food on our plates. We cannot live without them. The reality is that us townies do not know farmers, nor do we properly understand the lure and the love of the countryside.
Great place to visit but where are the shops, the restaurants, the cinemas, the night clubs, the people?
My fear, and I don’t blame the farmers for thinking this way, is that they will go down the doctor route and press the nuclear button. I hated the medical world for deciding my old aunt could die as long as they received a 30% pay rise. But the reality is that it worked.
After the stonking success of their demonstration in London, and with Jeremy Clarkson clearly being a political leader of the future ( if he stood against Starmer he would win by 30,000 votes) there is clearly a feeling in the nation that the farmers should be offered a special deal.
Most people I know would be in favour of that. People who run small farms work in a way nobody in a city would tolerate. Literally seven days a week, often 10-12 hours a day. Returns are meagre and basically they get a house out of it.
Surprise Aslef haven’t offered to represent them. The NFU have made it clear that London was only the start of the protests.
Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, had a good suggestion that the tractor boys should start demos in Labour-held country constituencies.
That would take the fight to Labour MPs who would be concerned their voters would turn against them come the next Election.
Actually, Starmer is doing such an awful job that they have already turned against them.