@tomrigby.bsky.social
organic dairy farmer, chair of SA Farmer and Grower board
"Ill fares the land, to hastening ill a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay:
..a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroyed, can never be supplied". [end]
What we need now is an old farmer appreciation society and tell each and every one of them their decades of experience of nature and food security is worth more than the tax bill.
(while written in a different context) I think it is fair to say:
Finally and most importantly there are around 70,000 farmers sat thinking if I die before April 6th 2026 the family will be better off than if I live past then, if the Treasury had done an impact analysis maybe they would have realised this.
18.11.2024 19:00 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0What DEFRA does know now is their budget and "ยฃ5 bn over 2 years" is a mislead way to say it is ยฃ2.6bn this year and ยฃ2.4bn next. We don't know the next number in the sequence but unlikely to be the ยฃ4bn needed to meet their promises.
18.11.2024 18:59 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0It is rumoured that DEFRA knew nothing about the changes until the day before the budget (though given Rachael's husband's seniority at the department I'd be surprised if he didn't have an inkling)
18.11.2024 18:59 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0Keir has spoken at two NFU conferences since he became leader and said all the right things - not least how disrespectful no serving Prime Minister had been to speak there since Gordon Brown. I hope he accepts an invitation to come again next year but doubt he will.
18.11.2024 18:58 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0To be honest a similar event was planned four years ago but cancelled due to Covid. Then main issue was Australian trade deal, not a big issue in itself but of the precedent it set and despite all the promises Johnson, Gove and Truss sold us down the river at first opportunity.
18.11.2024 18:58 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0Thirdly to those who have not yet got onboard please look at the big picture rather than the detail. Farmers have varying opinions but Guy Watson apart (whom I respect) most seem to realise if we don't push back now they may well be back for another 20%.
18.11.2024 18:58 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0Secondly Tom Bradshaw it absolutely the right person to be leading this campaign, he is a negotiator, 'let's sit down and talk about this' his default setting though can be ruthless when required, he got to the top of NFU at a younger age than most and has energy and resolve.
18.11.2024 18:57 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0Firstly beware far right infiltration. Organic farming had a particular problem with this in early days and some still harp on about it 60 years after the last Nazi sympathiser left the building (we got over it before most of our detractors were born and I wish they would too).
18.11.2024 18:56 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0Best of luck to the organisers, speakers and attendees at #StopTheFamilyFarmTax rallies tomorrow, I thought I'd post the same thread on both platforms to see if it get a different response on each (1/n)
18.11.2024 18:56 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
The Washington Post is not bothering to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. (Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and the founder and executive chairman of Amazon and Amazon Web Services, also owns The Post.) We as a newspaper suddenly remembered, less than two weeks before the election, that we had a robust tradition 50 years ago of not telling anyone what to do with their vote for president. It is time we got back to those โroots,โ Iโm told! Roots are important, of course. As recently as the 1970s, The Post did not endorse a candidate for president. As recently as centuries ago, there was no Post and the country had a king! Go even further back, and the entire continent of North America was totally uninhabitable, and we were all spineless creatures who lived in the ocean, and certainly there were no Post subscribers.
But if I were the paper, I would be a little embarrassed that it has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to make our presidential endorsement. I will spare you the suspense: I am endorsing Kamala Harris for president, because I like elections and want to keep having them. Let me tell you something. I am having a baby (Itโs a boy!), and he is expected on Jan. 6, 2025 (Itโs a โฆ Proud Boy?). This is either slightly funny or not at all funny. This whole election, I have been lurching around, increasingly heavily pregnant, nauseated, unwieldy, full of the commingled hopes and terrors that come every time you are on the verge of introducing a new person to the world. Well, that world will look very different, depending on the outcome of Novemberโs election, and I care which world my kid gets born into. I also live here myself. And I happen to care about the people who are already here, in this world. Come to think of it, I have a lot of reasons for caring how the election goes. I think it should be obvious that this is not an election for sitting out.
The case for Donald Trump is โI erroneously think the economy used to be better? I know that he has made many ominous-sounding threats about mass deportations, going after his political enemies, shutting down the speech of those who disagree with him (especially media outlets), and that he wants to make things worse for almost every category of person โ people with wombs, immigrants, transgender people, journalists, protesters, people of color โ but โฆ maybe heโll forget.โ โBut maybe heโll forgetโ is not enough to hang a country on! Embarrassingly enough, I like this country. But everything good about it has been the product of centuries of people who had no reason to hope for better but chose to believe that better things were possible, clawing their way uphill โ protesting, marching, voting, and, yes, doing the work of journalism โ to build this fragile thing called democracy. But to be fragile is not the same as to be perishable, as G.K. Chesterton wrote. Simply do not break a glass, and it will last a thousand years. Smash it, and it will not last an instant. Democracy is like that: fragile, but only if you shatter it.
Trust is like that, too, as newspapers know. Iโm just a humor columnist. I only know whatโs happening because our actual journalists are out there reporting, knowing that their editors have their backs, that thereโs no one too powerful to report on, that we would never pull a punch out of fear. Thatโs what our readers deserve and expect: that we are saying what we really think, reporting what we really see; that if we think Trump should not return to the White House and Harris would make a fine president, weโre going to be able to say so. Thatโs why I, the humor columnist, am endorsing Kamala Harris by myself!
I guess it has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to endorse Harris for president wapo.st/3UqHWRM
26.10.2024 22:50 โ ๐ 7778 ๐ 2457 ๐ฌ 245 ๐ 166
Four years ago Ireland had the lowest % of organic land in the EU, now it seems they are overtaking the UK (and we were once in the top 4)
www.agriland.ie/farming-news...
