Now that I've got your attention. If I'd titled this Safe as Houses or Haystacks, you wouldn't have even clicked the link would you.
So Let's start again.
Safe as Houses or Haystacks.
If Only!
I've just spent a horrible two days at the scene of the fire in Camberwell where three adults and two children, including a three week old baby died. It's not confirmed yet but it is thought a third child also died. What has also come out today is the horrific detail of the last moments of some of those that died. 
I can only begin to imagine what was going through those relatives minds as this tragedy unfolded.
Having family including three children of my own it really does get to you. I've been close to tears several times.
Fire does also get quite close to farmers far too often. Years ago it was seen as an occupational hazard at haymaking. Still on the photo galleries of FWi space, pictures of machinery reduced to cinders, often with the lucky escape of the farmer driving it.
Some may think that the Health and Safety Executives "Make The Promise, Come Home Safe" campaign may seem like yet another "nanny state" initiative, but nothing, especially not your work, is as important as your family. What is the point of working if it's not to be able to enjoy your life with your family.
Give your family a hug, tell them you love them and "Make The Promise, Come Home Safe!
Story of a young mans efforts to become a farmer without the aid of inheritance.
In my last blog, "Success at Last??!!" I had been waiting for the letter from the bank saying they would loan me the money to further my ambition. Having been made to wait since Christmas, it was now my birthday and the letter had arrived. I ripped it open, there at the top of the page was the heading. REJECTED. Which summed it all up. It was exactly how I felt. I was being told that farming was crying out for new blood, the agent had told me it was the best new business plan he had seen for some time. What was going on?
I was grumpy, putting it mildly. The shock possibly caused a bit of depression. To the “Better Side Of The Fence” I'm SORRY. It really was a kick in the preverbials.
I sulked for a few days and was resigning myself to giving up for a while. I kept stalling the agent, not sure why, in the vain hope that another letter would come saying, “oh sorry we got it wrong, here's the money”. The agent for the bank had asked me, when I rang to see why I had been turned down for the loan, if he could contact another bank on my behalf and see if they would lend. But that was the last I heard from him.
I was ready to throw in the towel when the “Better Side Of The Fence” kicked me, this time up the backside and demanded “was I going to let this opportunity slip away or was I going to fight”. She was right, (as usual). So I decided to see if their was banking another way. I contacted the agricultural account manager and explained my plan and asked them if they were interested. They were! So I sent them a copy of my business plan. After a bit of thought they came back and asked for an interview to discuss the plan and terms.
When the meeting came I was so fired. When the account manager told me the terms of the loan, I gave him both barrels of good argument as to why he should offer me more favourable terms if he was serious about supporting agriculture and a new business. I'm not usually like that and afterwards I surprised even myself. I thought the meeting went well and now had to wait to see what would happen this time? Had I demanded too much?
Not sure I could take any more punishment. Holding down a full time job, trying to do a diploma In Agriculture part time at college and starting up a new business. Am I Mad? Much more rejection and I soon will be.
Here we go again. The waiting game once again. Only this time I do hope it won't end in the crying game!
The announcement that defra is to set up a "Wildlife Health Strategy" looks according to the initial report "Defra Unveils Wildlife Strategy" as a way for the government to keep an arms length between them and the problem. Call me cynical, I know, but the comment from the chief vet Nigel Gibbons just has that feel about it. We need to see some evidence of assistance on the government side.
If only Defra and the government could treat the disease issues the way that Sir Don Curry suggested Set-Aside should be reintroduced in a recent 5th June FW Article. There should be more carrot and less stick.
Farmers do not want to kill wildlife. Most now understand the benefits they can bring with keeping the general public onside. However suffering of any kind by any animal is not acceptable and farmers just get frustrated that nothing is being done to prevent that suffering to wildlife except kill innocent livestock.!!!!!
The story of a young mans efforts to become a farmer without the aid of inheritance.
So we had seen a plot of land for sale. A little distance from where we currently live but not too far. It was about the right size and more importantly about the right price. The hedges were in good condition and it seemed what we where looking for. The trouble was we didn't have all the money and would have to borrow some. I contacted the agent and made an offer.................
Damn it was accepted without question. A sure sign you've offered too much.
But I still needed some money. So Where from? The first signs of the recession had been around for twelve months now, Northern Rock was a mere memory, greater problems were starting to rear their head.
I looked up several lenders and plumped for a well known agricultural mortgage lender. They obviously wanted to have an interview to see how barking mad I was? Never having made a business plan before I put the figures down I had persuaded myself with, as succinctly as possible, and went for the meeting expecting to be laughed out of the office. At least if that's what I was expecting it wouldn't be too much of a shock when it did happen. !
So what qualities do I have? Errr well I have no experience or qualifications yet! I am at college, I have life experience a loving wife and three kids, the eldest two of which fight me for Farmers Weekly each time it arrives through the post! Oh and passion by the mixer wagon full. But I can't put down that I blog for Fwi to show that passion. Oh well here goes.....
They were keen! It's the best plan he has seen by someone wanting to start up for a while. It was looking hopeful.
The recession was starting to hit hard and the banking collapse seized the banks up completely. But then the company I had chosen said in it's literature that it supported farmers and all the press where saying that agriculture was the one market that was bucking the trend.
The kids were waiting for Santa, so was I. Only my Santa was a big jolly bank manager with a sack full of cash. Christmas was coming and the goose was getting fat, whoopee, we'll be farmers by the new year. But I had to keep my feet on the ground and stick with the day job. The children kept me distracted. The postman kept me waiting.
Christmas came and went. A fabulous time was had by all. Lunch was superb thanks to Mr Paul Kelly....Although personally I think much of the thanks must go to the chef for the preparation of a wonderful feast...Who was the chef? Me of course. He He.
Finally the postman arrived. The bank must have taken my application to the Christmas party as entertainment for the night. What with all the cutting back on expenditure due to the banking crisis my application must have been a dream to them. In fact the conversation must have gone something like this.
“Miss Jones”
“Yes Mr Manager”
“Cancel the Entertainer for the Christmas party, I've just got a mortgage application from Farmers Weekly Interactives View From The Other Side Of The Fence.”
Oh Well, it was nearly my Birthday. What a Birthday present that would be. I've wanted to become a farmer since leaving school twenty years ago.
I ripped open the letter just like the kids had done a month ago with their Christmas presents...................
What did it say? Well you'll have to keep watching this blog. RSS to this blog and you'll get the next installment delivered to you as soon as it's posted.
Yesterday (Thursday) saw the untimely death of Bob Dearnley. (See News "Farmer Kills Himself" )
It seems he had become obsessed in a battle with his landlords, the council, The National Trust and The Environment Agency over is land being flooded. I didn't know the the man but from what I heard he just wanted to care for his rare breed animals and show them off to the public.
We all like the David & Golliath story, but It can be difficult to know when Goliath is going to win and when it is just best to give up something that you truely love. I'm not saying that anybody could or should have done anything different in this case as I don't know all the facts. On the surface it does appear that Goliath has one this time with some terrible consequences. It will be interesting to see the outcome of the coroners report.
What we should do in these difficult times is to keep that spirit that I've always known in farmers, to help each other out. That may be a difficult one at times because it takes a true friend to spot when someone truely needs help and to find the strength to tell them so. Even so some people find it difficult to accept help but at least you have tried.
Farmers may be bucking the recession trend but there is still plenty who are on the brink. Keep a look out for each other because farming can be a lonely business these days.
Yet again the spread of TB is progressing through the different species, it won't be long before it comes into Human population as Swine Flu is now. It's only a generation since it was eradicated from humans in this country.
I was reading last weeks FW (8th May) and the article about the pig herd infected. Now this weeks has 14 (yes Fourteen) different species infected with TB. Bovine TB Blog has some good points about the fact that the so called Badger Trust burrying it's head in the sand about this disease. It is a awful disease. No farmer would allow an animal to suffer in the way badgers must suffer with TB.
It is quite simple really, if there is not a cull of badgers soon then within ten years there will be no badgers for the badger trust to protect let alone the damage done to many other species of wildlife. It's not about cute stripy animals, I don't want to see a widespread cull, but it is too late. To little has been done for too long. Mass cull is the only way to control this now otherwise TB will become to badgers what Myxomatosis was to rabbits.
The story of a young mans efforts to become a farmer without the aid of inheritance!
So I started college. One day a week. Desperatly putting leave in to get the day off to ensure I could attend college. It was exciting. I was finally doing what I wanted to do twenty years ago. It was great!
Then there was the Farmers Weekly Awards to look forward to. Mildred found out I was going from Essex and arranged to meet me at Liverpool Street station so we could travel across London together and have a chat on the way. We had never met before and I was looking forward to meeting a fellow blogger. Imagine his surprise when we met at Liverpool Street and he realised I was one of his students!!!!! I wish I could have put it up on the blogg it was a picture. After the initial shock we had a great time a fantastic evening at the Grosvenor House Hotel. A great Advertisement Window for the world of UK Agriculture. There are some great people out there. In particular it was great to chat with Jimmy Doherty after his win of the "NFU Farming Champion of the Year". He is a inspirational figure who believes in UK Farming and is an advocate of "get out there and get on with it". With all this talk of the demise of The Royal Show, it was Jimmy's name that sprung to mind as someone who's ideas could save The Royal Show. LEAF and Ian Piggot would be another. If The Royal Show dies there is no hope of getting Agriculture back into the mindset of the public.
Anyway, college abound. Lot's of work, writing of notes, practical hands on experience and assignments AAARRRGGGHHH. But it feels good, really good.
Being twenty years older than most of the other students has it's fun at times. One of the students said to his mate on my second day after having to drive (slowly) behind me down the lane to the farm, " We had to follow The Old Guy down the lane". To his shock when I raised my eyebrows and gave him a look, I might be much older than him but I'm not deaf!!
What is really funny is they all extract the urine from me in class. However having had two assignments back with distinctions they seem to want to ask questions on how to complete the subsequent projects! Ha Ha
Lambing a few weeks ago was good. Having delivered my daughter, I thought it can't be much different!!!! I think The Better Side Of The Fence was pleased I didn't have to intervene in the birth of our daughter though.... I was given three night shifts. The kids thought it great that I was going to assist with the lambing at "Farm School" as my eldest calls it. With thirty ewes already lambed and nearly forty to go it looked promising for some "action". All we got was cold, wet and tired. Nothing even thought about it. Huh. Three days later the next night shift. Nothing again. The Better Side Of The Fence was upset that I'd been out all night for nothing. It was a bit of a blow.
The third night started a week later. Still not much had happened in the shed since the last week. It was looking like the Ram served over a couple of oestrus cycles. Nothing was showing any signs.
So I settled down to write my next assignment I'd just been given about Intensive and Extensive farming systems. I'd written most of the pass criteria before a check at 2100 revealed a ewe with feet poking out. A couple of minutes later a lamb was born. At last the duck was quashed, action. 15 minutes later her second all fit and well. We moved them to individual pens and I settled back to my assignment.
A couple of hours later and the next ewe decided it was time. First one out ok. 15-20 minutes later lots of straining but no sign of he second lamb. Time to have a look. Correct way round but one of front hooves tucked back. A quick push back and manouvre and out it came. Fantastic what a thrill to have assisted, but I was so pleased to have waited, observed and got it right that I need to intervene. More sorting of pens.
By the time we finished the night three more ewes had delivered and I'd had to assist a breach. Just like London buses, none for ages then they all come at once.
A week later when at college we were tagging, dagging and castrating during our lesson, when the person in charge of the pregant ewes brought our attention to a ewe that had been in labour for some time with no result. We quickly went to the ewes aid. The ewe was expecting triplets. The first lamb was breach and took some lining up, eventually being dragged out backwards. It was quickly motivated and started to breath. We went to get the second out. This was even more difficult. Eventually we got it out. Dead. Some of the others tried to revive it but I could see there was no life. There was still another in there. Thankfully this came out quite easily and was alive. But it was my first loss, what would have been a nice lamb, most annoying.
That's sheep though. There sole intention is to die. Your job as the shepherd is to get them to slaughter before they manage it.
The story of a young mans efforts to become a farmer without the aid of inheritance.
So we had missed out on a opportunity to own our own land and to start to farm. Hindsight is a wonderful thing or is it that it's a real pain. The land that we missed out on was priced at a little shy of £3,000 per acre. Not long afterwards everything for sale in Essex was priced at £8,000, £9,000 or even £10,000 per acre. There was no way we would be able to afford anything at that sort of price. As I've said previously we couldn't rent as we had no experience.
So it was back to reading the back pages of Farmers Weekly at the latest land for sale and dreaming of winning the lottery!! However, Farmers Weekly then started to play a role. They started "The Big Debate" about the last 50 years and the next fifty years of agriculture. I started reading the debate and thought, "I want my two pen'th." Also for those who were under the age of 35 there was places at the Oxford Farming Conference up for grabs. I wrote a little piece about my thoughts on the influences in Agriculture over the last 50 years and where farming could go in the next fifty years with the right attitude.
Shock Horror. I was really surprised when Isabel contacted me to invite me to the Oxford Farming Conference. Bayer Crop Science were my sponsor and very good to me they were too. I met some good people and made some new friends too. That was a turning point. I was delighted to find out that how I perceived the industry is how a great many other people felt. I learn't a great deal about how the leaders of our industry see the future. This did help me decide that there was a future for farming.
However the highlight had to be meeting Her Highness Princess Anne. She wanted to meet the future generations of the farming industry and find out what they thought they might be inheriting. Our group had been discussing this just before hand. Almost rehearsing what we were going to say. However when the time comes for these great moments things don't always go to plan.
The Princess Royal asked me my plans. I told her that I was looking to buy land near where I lived in Essex. But that the trouble is that prices are really high due to the large numbers of lifestyle pony paddocks. There was too many horses in Essex!!!! Not something you tell the Princess Royal that there are too many horses in the world really is it! Oops. It was only afterwards that I thought about it and realised with embarrasment what I'd said.
That few days in Oxford gave me a renewed drive that I wanted to farm and be in charge of my own destiny. I also started this blog. Now that really surprised me. That people, you, wanted to read about my efforts to become a farmer! Some good encouragement I've had too, thanks.
We started to look at the South West as prices there where still available at between £3,000 and £4,000 per acre. We found a small ex dairy farm for auction in Somerset. It had a house but in estate agent speak it had "potential." It was priced higher than we could afford but indications came clear nearer the auction that it wasn't going to make the guide price. It did mean we would have sell up and move even with the house in a state.
In the end we couldn't go to the auction as we didn't have the bank fully behind us and it would have been too risky. I spoke to the agent after the auction and found out the property did not sell at auction but just afterwards by negotiation. Time to give my shins a good kicking again as it sold for what I had expected, and what I was prepared to pay. Another opportunity slipped through our fingers.
Then a free range egg unit came for sale. Also in Somerset just the time we were going on holiday to Somerset. So we made an appointment to go and see it. It was the right size, it didn't have a house but did have planning permission to build a house. The kids loved it. 14,000 chickens was fascinating for a four year old, two year old and the baby just stared in amazement. But then too many people were interested and the price got beyond us. Back to the drawing board.
The other problem was we would have to move away from our family. I know, wanting my cake and eat it. But there we go. It has to work for all the family. No doubt having the family around will be very useful at some point.
By now I was determined that I was going to get some farming education. What I'd wanted to do twenty years ago I was determined to do now. I started to look at the local colleges and plan as many courses as I could to get some practical experience. I contacted one college and the head of Agriculture Dept was very helpful. Basically creating a bespoke course as part of the the National Diploma In Agriculture. Now all I had to do was organise my work shifts to ensure I was not working on the days I wanted to go to college. Easier Said than done!
So it's Sunday and I'm spending my time sat in Kensington, West London, writing my assignments for college and hopefully I'll get round to a blog or two. It's a lovely day, the temperature is creeping up slowly although some of you had snow again at the end of last week. Hopefully sowing of the spring crops can begin in the next couple of weeks.
The next installment of "Diary of Becoming a Farmer" is coming along and will hopefully be out later this week. I've got to finish a presentation for Tuesday first on meadows for Farm Habitat lecture first.
College is really interesting at the moment. Although, time is just dissappearing at the moment. We have constantly had at least one research assignment on the go from college since before christmas. Although I got my first result back on Tuesday. A distinction. It's a start. We have also had to do overnight lambing sessions as well. Although I've seen no action other than a dead lamb sat on by a ewe! Living up to the old saying "If your going to keep sheep, keep a shoval !"
Trying to squeeze all this in with a full time job and three kids is a huge juggling act, but hey that's life.
Mildred says he's been busy, I don't know where the time has gone since Christmas we are in MARCH !!!!
College is taking up so much of my time but is great, I'm learning so much. Hopefully I'll have another installment of the series "Becoming a Farmer" before too long. But in the meantime I've just logged on and seen Jonathan Taskers piece about the supermarket price wars and need to have a good rant and get it off my chest.
It makes me so mad. In fact I've just been talking to Mildred about this and his trip to SIMA. Everyone complains about the French going on strike at a whim. Well they have got it right. They take pride in what they do and are passionate about what they feel strongly about. Which includes agriculture and food.
A supermarket price war should not be a problem to a farmer. The farmers contract should be for the price of the commodity and it's quality. The NFU and Countryside Alliance should be ganging together and drawing up contracts for it's members that state the price for the produce to the producer which will not fluctuate after the contract has been signed regardless of the markting ploys af the retailer. If the retailer wants to be rash about getting customers through it's doors then it should work a bit harder at customer loyalty and take the price cuts on the chin themselves not expect the producer to suffer.
If enough poducers get together and start insisting on these sorts of contracts the supermarkets will eventually listen. The British shopper is a little more savy than the supermarkets sometimes give them credit for. They are becoming aware and demanding more british produce. The supermarkets are clammering for british produce at the moment because of the band wagon that has been produced by the likes of Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fernly-Whittingstall and Jimmy Doherty. If the British producers get together and hold out, not necessarily for high prices, but fair prices that are above the cost of sensible production, then I think in the long run these price wars will be a problem of the past for British Agriculture.
Don't Demand that Somebody Else does Something for you, (i.e.ombudsman). Get out there and do it for Yourself.
Ahhh that's better. Rant over and it's stopped raining, back to the lambing I suppose!
Good luck and best wishes to all those livestock farmers who have no option but to commute to their fields and animals around their holdings.
It is a while since I remember snow like this. I know some of the coverage may seem a little London centric however I think it is justified this time. It has actually snowed in London as has it and it is expected to snow heavily over the rest of the country later today.
However do check out this rather unexpected scene from the BBC Website of a Lightning Strike.
"BBC News Lightning Snow Storm"
"Lightning" I here you say "in snow". Yes in snow. It apparently hit the QEII river crossing over the Thames Estuary last night (Sunday). I was about 6 miles away at the time walking in the snow. It frightened the life out of me. The flash was so bright (because of the snow) and the bang was like nothing I have heard before. It took me an hour to stop shaking.
Jane has just written about the difficulties getting this weeks magazine together. I don't think that should be a problem with a few snow scenes pictures sent in by forum members. Good luck team. The Doe show in Essex should be interesting this week. I'm trying to go on Thursday if the weather allows. See you there.
I was very sad to learn that one of our forum members has felt pressured to remove their blog from this site.
I read the blog and felt that the comments where in no way defamatory but merely reflected the thoughts of a number of students, in the 16-19 year old bracket, as to the relevance of some of the lectures that are included in their course. However the college felt that the comments reflected badly on the college. But why didn't the college respond to the blog through the comments and right of reply system?
I know from some of the students who I attend college with (I am not 16-19 years old, not for a long time!) that their interest is all things agriculture. But the course is structured in such a way as to have formal maths or English or IT in a session called key skills. This does not engage the students and they just switch off. Then the session becomes a battle of wills, the lecturer's get frustrated the students are not interested and don't learn and this tension continues into other lectures making it difficult for everyone to learn.
I know from teaching my own children, 5 years, 3 years and 1 year, that when they have engagement they absorb information like a sponge. I taught them to count using hay bales, they learnt colours from the different manufacturers of tractors and machinery, they are learning about the seasons because of farming, they have a good understanding of where food comes from. The eldest started to learn to read from the Farmers Weekly.
I was going to write a blog about the subject of college and engaging the students, following on from the blog in question, with some other thoughts about education and our industry. Sadly I can't remember everything that was written in the blog in question, but actually it was the best blog that this person had written so far.
I also feel a little guilty as I had encouraged them to write a bit more about their life and intentions. I'm sorry.
I'm afraid to say, however, that the college has let this person down. Instead of encouraging this person and engaging them in the bigger agricultural debate they have probably made them feel scared and disillusioned. We need free thinkers in this industry as well as people keen to learn.
I may need correcting on some of the detail as I can't remember the blog in it's entirety but I throw down the gauntlet to the college's to debate the education required for our future generation of farmers and agriculturalists.
Click on the link below and Challenge Me?
"Let's Debate The Future Education Within our Industry"
The latest installment of this occasional series.
The story of a young mans efforts to become a farmer without the aid of inheritance.
So what are we going to do now. Having had the calling that agriculture is what I enjoy and care about. We've decided that we want a different direction in life. What is important is family and raising the children to understand life and where their food comes from. But where do we go from here? How do we take it forward? We can't afford to buy a farm. We can't let somewhere either. We've no years of experience and most lets require 3 or 5 years experience. So what next?
I started to look for some courses to learn a few skills. I'm a firm believer that if you have the basic skills as a foundation anything is possible. I've never been a good blagger. (Some may say blogger too)! I'm worried that I'll get found out and look a right twerp. I am confident in my own skills though once I have some knowledge. I had been to Cereals 2005 at Rectory Farm, Guilden Morden. I had a great day. Although I was supposed to be working. I managed as little work as possible and spent as much time as I could on the field talking to people, trying to learn a bit. I asked the agricultural colleges that were there if they were doing any distance learning courses. One said they might be starting one shortly. So that was a no then. I enjoyed that day so much that I also looked for some books to try and learn a some more.
So how do you teach yourself agriculture. With difficulties! It would be easier if we had our own place. Nothing teach's you faster than experience or learning the hard way.
I was so frustrated at not being able to do what I wanted, not being able to learn. I also started reading Farmers Weekly. Unfortunately at the time FW was quite negative I felt, with farmers bemoaning their plight. Still realing from Foot & Mouth in 2001 and the disasterous introduction of the Single Farm Payment. In the September Farmers Weekly relaunched and I found it a really encouraging read. I could learn from the articles. More importantly when I read some of the articles I found that the figures that where being quoted were what I had expected from my own research. Farmers Weekly is now far more proactive in encouraging British Farmers and Farming. Farmers Weekly, I think, is a good read with the monitor farms and farmers, sharing information and best practice, showing that there is money to be made in farming. This is further underlined with the Farmers Weekly Awards. More importantly though, I felt it encouraged.
I read a book called "Organic Farming and Growing" which went into the structures of soils quite well and improving the soils using Organic methods, obviously. Letting nature do the hard work as long as you assist nature with the crop rotations.
I'm not a full Organic convert yet, but I do believe in learning the principals and keeping an open mind. A mix of both systems might just solve a problem more cheaply when margins are tight as they are at the moment. But if you don't understand the principals how is it going to trigger the thoughts in the first place.
I needed some of those basic principals tough. I work shifts that are long, cover 7 days a week and are unpredictable, in terms of which day I work in the week and what time of day I work. So how was I supposed to learn. Booking onto a course was risky because they aren't cheap and there was a big danger that I'd have to miss a couple of lessons or even the whole course if I had to work abroad or something.
In 2006 though we decided to move house. I had been reading the FW like most males do with the newspapers. Starting at the back. Dreaming of the machinery and property that was for sale. I started doing business plans and projections as to how we could buy the farms and pay back the money we would have to borrow. It would be difficult. It would either have be somewhere with a house and a few acres or quite a few acres and a mobile home. I could cope with that, but I'm not sure the children should have to cope with it.
Some acres came up for sale in Essex. (100 plus). I enquired of the agent and got the details. It looked good. Quite expensive overall and it would have to be the caravan or a local rented house. However whilst talking to the agent about my plans he more or less told me I was an idiot for not just buying the land putting it into arable. I wanted to do some arable and livestock. It is true, I didn't know then what I know today but that was no excuse for being treated as I was, (like a lifestyle buyer with too much spare cash)! As a result of that, I questioned what I wanted to do and found it hard to pursade "The Better Side Of The Fence" that we wouldn't loose everything and I could make us a new life in the country. Land prices were still reasonable at the time, but whilst I was umming and aaghing half the land was sold and the price went up for the second half. It would be sometime later before I realised exactly what I had let slip through my fingers!
If your new to this blog catch up with previous installments below.
"The Calling"
"The Best Man’s Speech"
"A Realisation"
"A New Beginning"
"The New Millenium"
"The Early Years"
Having just read Jane Kings leader in this fantastic christmas issue of Farmers Weekly, I have to say I disagree with her.
The RPA have said they have made mistakes with SFP of previous years and now want to claw back the money they have overpaid. I agree with Jane that it is public money and it should be spent wisely.
But I think that it is about time that people took responsibility for their own actions in this country. Someone at the RPA has got the SFP wrong. Now providing it was not fraudelently claimed and the mistake was by the government agency then they should work out how much has been overpaid and who was responsible and they should be fired.
Why should business's, because that's what they are, be put under finacial strain, at the very least, or possibly go under at this time of credit crunch because of someone else's INCOMPETENCE.
The Government is lending money hand over fist to the banks for what seems like very little benefit to us. The Car industry has it's begging bowl out. The managers who got all these companies in a mess are still in a job drawing huge salaries.
If agriculture was several large firms not thousands of individual farmers who can be bullied by the government it would be a different story I feel.
Somebody Should be Accountable. It shouldn't be the Farmers!
ps Merry Christmas to Isabel and all at Farmers Weekly and Also to everyone on the Forum.
Merry Christmas & Blogging New Year
I was listening to Sarah Kennedy this morning whilst in the shower and nearly dropped the soap!
She was doing the paper review and was talking about a possible labour Rebellion by front benchers over the third runnway at Heathrow and said, "A third runway at heathrow is to be approved next month as Gordon Brown prepares to overule ministers within his cabinet. But there could be some resignations. Hillary Benn the environment secretary feels very strongly about the noise and air pollution".
Surely we can't be that lucky can we?
It does show that he is passionate.
But he lets his personal feelings influence his political life.
He has already promised us his personal feelings had nothing to do with his decision over the badger cull.
Read the article yourself at "Times Online"
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