Motley's Blog

In the news yesterday was the report about activities surrounding a couple of 'tasty' children in Yorkshire who did unspeakable things. Now on the face of it this story had nothing to do with farming. However in the report we were told that these children and their parents were seen or known by nine, yes 9 different agencies.

I reflected that we have all these different agencies in agriculture. I recalled at one time I was doing some investigation on farmer diversification, and came across the knowledge that there were 68 different sources of help in Yorkshire to assist farmers to diversify into tourism. As time has gone by the government assistance to farming has never at anytime sought to simplify. The dratted agency called business link drew a spider diagram on the complexity that is farm advice from government. Why didn't any one ask? Look at this mess, them like Moses smash the information and start again.

No, we now have the Rural Development Agencies (RDA) delivering rpa modulated money through a susccessful tender.

1. In the beginning is some money.
2. The money is taken away via modulation.
3. The farm money held by the rpa has enormous over heads
4. the RDA then manages the money.
5. A partnership bids for the money and perhaps has the money banked by another partner

...........and so it goes on. This is in 8 separate regions across the country of England. You can notice that along this path of money the farmer business has still not benefited.

I recall an event where a farmer was undertaking refurbishment of a building for accommodation. The building was listed and was set to be bed and breakfast accommodation. The fire regulations, heritage, planning, environment and trade description departments of the local council were all standing around the door. Non could could not agree which way the door was to swing.

This is life in Britain to day. It has come to pass because, as Robert Law has pointed out, there has been an exponential growth in the number of legal professionals we have in society to day. Let them sue - It is time to stand up to these obfuscating, time-servers, in these agencies and make them become accountable and undertake their leadership responsibilities. (I have not seen what happen to that specimen in London associated with baby P. who appears to encapsulate the problem so well. She was on about £100,000pa and held her inspection report up say that it said al is well. She could then do her cop out that she had done her job! That defence did not work at Nuremberg.)

The situation reported about these children is appalling, and should in no way be comparative to farmering. But this exposure of all these different agencies in this case begs the question. Where and when will we get a simplification of the 'support' provided? Thiss is required now to move farming forward. We don't need another report or strategy.

This period of cold weather demonstrates the impact of centralization of command and control by our government. Why do we continue to accept this? Also the demands of our nation being in such thrall to the car and lorry is demonstrated. I fear that the support of communities up and down the land by local business and supply chains will not be celebrated and people will all drift back to the gods that are tesco, walmart, and others.

People are commuting many miles to work and have to rely, especially in rural areas on individual transportation. Public service diminished to an expensive and intermittent role. However schools and colleges use enormous numbers of coaches and taxis to bring children in from a wide catchment area.

The thing we know about a system is: How can it manage under duress? This has enabled the policy perverts to coin the word resilience into parlance. Why we even now have county resilience teams looking at managing the situation Talk, talk. This is baby boomer bungler management at its very best.

Being an old git I can remember historic times such as 1963, when central power was less, cars were less, we even had railways and local shops and schools -  my what backward, primitive times.

Our reliance on the internal combustion engine has compromised our resilience. The nation has only crumbled under the pressure of snow because people often can neither drive in snow nor understand how to live given a different situation. Apparently we cannot even be expected to go to a football game. At least my noble team put their game on and won.

Over Christmas a report stated that there are 3,500 folk at work in the MI5. This set me to thinking as there are about 3,500 at work in the RPA and a similar quantity in Natural England.

Is there something magic about the number of employees in Government departments that it is set at 3,500? I don't think so given that the NHS has 1.3million on the book.

The next rumination that occurred: Why have we 3,500 RPA to check out farmers and a similar number checking out terrorists?

If there is a thing most depressing about life in Great Britain today it is the manifest distrust that government has in their own subjects. The way people let this go on, and that government resources quangos like RPA and NE with so many people and have so few doing important work.

This is again demonstrable in the military where there are a few good men on the ground and so many chiefs in Whitehall. At least Obama has come out a nailed his lot to the wall in the latest terrorist incident. Bush would have gone into the Yemen with troops with poodle toni in support.