Cookies & Privacy
in

DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

Last post Tue, Feb 23 2010 8:12 by Dick. 21 replies.
Page 1 of 1 (22 items)
Sort Posts: Previous Next
  • Fri, Jan 15 2010 8:34

    DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    Thumbs up Derek Mead declares war on the closed shop of a toothless NFU

    The farmers union

    What is the farmers union for.
    Is it for looking after the welfare of British agriculture or is it for letting a handful of notable families and farmers rub shoulders with members of the British government at everyone else s expense.

    At last a man with courage steps forwards to try to change the Union and what is the first obstacle he his met with, a total refusal to give him the Unions list of farmers , in order for him to write directly to every member of our union enclosing a return slip asking them are they wanting to change the union by allowing every member to chose its leader in the future or not. A few years ago I ran a personal survey a t Smithfield show asking well over one hundred stranger farmers to me did they want chance to vote on the union not one of them wanted anything else.

    Run a personal poll in your area and find this out for yourselves and post the results on here.

    If we are to speak to any government or supermarket we must do it with strength, the strength that comes from choosing a leader with more then 50% of its members behind him .

    Derek Mead has the courage to stand up directly to be counted as a capable Businessman farmer milking over three hundred and fifty cows as one part of his farming enterprises. At sixty two years of age farming hands on since he was fourteen years old.

    Make sure you ask your local union member why should Derek Mead be denied the membership list we are not in the Mafia.


    Or are we


    Derek Mead declares war on the closed shop of a toothless NFU
  • Fri, Jan 15 2010 9:51 In reply to

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    If i am correct in thinking Kendall needs 75% of the vote to be reelected........ I reckon he will still nail it!

  • Fri, Jan 15 2010 15:47 In reply to

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    I'm not that surprised Derek Mead can't be given a list of members - it would probably breach data protection laws.

    If he chooses to there are other ways and means of connecting with the wider membership - through the farming press, through forums, blogs, attending meetings etc. These days with the internet it is easy to get some momentum behind a campaign - if it is an issue that people really feel strongly about.

     

    Content Editor for Farmers Weekly
  • Sat, Jan 16 2010 1:02 In reply to

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    Re: Derek Mead declares war on the closed shop of a toothless NFU


    Derek Mead declares war on the closed shop of a toothless NFU

    Have we really got to put up with a situation where one member of a common interest union cannot speak to all the other members within that union directly, what if the management of the union was systematically stealing money from the union how long should the members be left uninformed.

    UNTILL ALL THE MONEY HAS GONE

    This situation regarding the farmers union is a complete farce, when will we face the fact that this union has been taken over by an inner caucus and they are changing rules and manipulating the situation to protect that inner caucus.

    If there really is a legal reason why Derek Mead or any other member cannot have the list of members can we not have a clear explanation has to how this has come about.

    A simple expedient to reach the members if there is a genuine law preventing it, would be for Derek Mead to be told how many members there are let him prepare his mail to ever member and the union address those letters, I am sure Derek will willingly pay for the postage and NFU time involved in sticking on the addresses.

    NO MATTER WHAT happens at this election refusing to ask the membership if they would like chance to vote on the matter of one member one vote is indefensible.
  • Sat, Jan 16 2010 8:55 In reply to

    • Dick
    • Not Ranked
    • Joined on Thu, Jul 12 2007

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

     Isabel

    If it is corect that a duly nominated  Presidential candidate such as Derek Mead is denied access to the membership information held by our Union on our behalf then I am staggered and after 50 years of membership of the Union I would never have believed that this could be the case. It is like the Captain of a ship not being able to find out exactly who the members of his crew are before setting sail on a long and difficult voyage.

    Is this just another attempt to prevent full democracy developing in our Union by some shadowy inner circle or is it really the case that the nominated candidates are not allowed to see exactly who their potential members are? Can someone from the NFU HQ answer this question as it is vital that we,the ordinary members, are aware if there are any sneaky methods being used to thwart a candidate who believes in one man one vote.

    A reply from the Secretary to the National Farmers Union would clarify this situation for members of this forum and for farmers generally.

    I await a response with baited breath.

    Dick.

  • Sat, Jan 16 2010 18:37 In reply to

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    DO NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH FOR TO LONG DICK IT COULD BE FATAL

    THE STANDARD RESPONCE FROM THE NFU GOLDEN INNER CIRCLE is always silence they have no logical reason for deigning farmers even being polled on O MO V

    I would expect any one   being a king pin in setting up farmers for action not to be regarded as satisfied with the  N F U  standard of effective political lobbying . Standing as a  farmer for action is what Derek Mead has to be about why would he bother to stand at all unless it was to bring about a more business like approach to dealing with both the government and the effective strangle hold Supermarket power effectively holds over our basic commodity prices , like many more dairy farmers he has to be appalled at the plight of our dairy farmers left entirely to the vagaries  of supermarket pressure in a leading agricultural market where high quality home produced milk has no practical foreign alternative. His business abilities and regard for his fellow farmers seeking fairer prices has to be at the back of his attempt to break the establishment mould.

     

  • Sun, Jan 17 2010 21:33 In reply to

    • Malcolm
    • Not Ranked
    • Joined on Sun, May 22 2005

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

     Are you a member of the NFU, joh nicholson?  I suspect not.

  • Mon, Jan 18 2010 10:53 In reply to

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    i agree totally with derek mead

    the nfu are useless beyond belief. i have now joined the fed of small business and the difference is staggering. frre legal help and everything the nfu wont do for you.

    the nfu mandate is to put as many small farmers out of business as possible, and let the lords and big operators clean up.

  • Mon, Jan 18 2010 12:56 In reply to

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    HOW brilliant Malcolm of course you have always been part of the NFU keep it as it is support group.

    You know my story well enough but I will repeat it for the new boys around, I am now in my seventieth year and have been trying to change the NFU attitude for twenty years now, since the Midland Bank and Unilever Combined to place my business into receivership (a business that had cost Four Million to establish which owed Two Million)  in a joint criminal action, Today everyone realises that the Banks behave like idiots and get away with Murder they are always hand in glove with government, but now in the present financial crisis both the banks and the politicians have been well shown up for what they really are self protected organisations whilst we the farmers are frightened to express our solidarity in any form whatsoever.

    THE MAIN REASON WE ARE HELPLESS IS THE LACK OF TRUE DEMOCRACY WITHIN OUR UNION

    TIME AFTER TIME THE INNER CAUCUS  DELIVERS ANOTHER UNCLE TOM INTO THE LEADERS

    POSITION.

     

      No one in the last twenty who would go out on a limb to fight against the appalling situations British Agriculture found itself in.

    THE LIKES OF ALL OLDER CATTLE FALLING FROM eight hundred pounds salvage value to three hundred pounds,(BSE) over a situation that was clearly a national Government Causation

    Dropping the legal requirements in Meat and Bone meal Production.

    This caused disastrous drop in cattle values putting horrendous pressures on farming overdrafts.

    TOTALLY UNFAIRLY

    Today we have an outsider obviously someone quite able to reform the NFU from within (clearly demonstrated by the successful organisation of his businesses so successfully)

    Fighting THE SATUS QUO support for Peter Kendall.

     

    DEREK MEAD would have the nerve to stand up to the Government and Supermarket pressures that unfairly beset our basic product Values , the likes of Milk selling below the cost of water in our shops.

    WE WILL HAVE LITTLE HOPE OF REFORM WITHOUT A CHANGE IN THE VOTING SYSTEM

     

  • Mon, Jan 25 2010 9:06 In reply to

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    Derek Mead declares war on the closed shop of a toothless NFU


    Originally Posted by Tellarian View Post
    Somewhat in contrast, I have distant cousins with whom I stay occasionally, as they do with us. (Cheap lodgings either side of the pond!)

    They are members of the National Cattleman's Beef Association, which to me seemed everythingt the NFU isn't, with marketing, technical advice and lobbying at state and governmental level.

    Comparison of the two organisations makes for an interesting contrast.

    http://www.beefusa.org/

    I managed to attend the NFU meeting in York on Friday evening where all the hopeful candidates with the exception of Derek Mead where one member one vote is obviously part of Derek’s program when asked what they thought about OMOV were not for it at all Our own Essex man did say we should think about it, at some time in the future and in a one to one conversation I found our President less hostile to the concept then the rank and file candidates to the Idea.

    I am surprised no one has commented about Toms efforts to bring democracy to the union I see it as an inevitable process if are to strengthen the hand of any future President of the NFU.



    I WAS IMPRESSED WITH THE COMMITMENT TO BRITISH FARMING SHOWN BY ALL THE CANDIDATES.

    OBVIOUSLY THEY FEEL THEIR EFFORTS SHOULD BE REWARDED FOR ALL THE HARD WORK THEY HAVE OBVIOUSLY ALL PUT INTO WORKING FOR THE FARMERS UNION.

    I BELIEVE ASKING EVERY RANK AND FILE MEMBER IF THEY WOULD LIKE TO VOTE ON THE LEADERSHIP IS AN INEVITABLE DUTY ON THE PRESIDENT IF HE IS TO STRENGTHEN THE FUTURE OF THE UNION


    SOMETHING THAT WOULD CAUSE DIVISION IN THE UNION IF IT HAD TO BROUGHT ABOUT BY LEGAL MEANS. WHICH FROM INITIAL DISCUSSIONS WITH LEGAL AUTHORITIES LOOKS DISTINCTLY PROBABLE


    The hard work candidates have previously put into their county position will always be a factor in any voting system just as notable to the rank and file member as to the inner caucus but a leadership of the NFU brought about by OMOV will always carry more weight in any political decisions which need to be made.


    Also with the supermarkets a combined civil disobedience exorcise called for activists within the union would not be a breach of civil law by the union but only a private action of farmers who are union members as well as activists regarding their trading disadvantages.


    VIRTUALLY NO FRENCH FARMERS HAVE EVER BEEN JAILED FOR EXTREME CIVIL ACTION


    Small demonstrations backed by a strong farmers union who themselves are nor breaking the laws of the land would never need to be called for by the union, only the request to government and supermarkets would need to made for obvious changes in procedure.
  • Thu, Jan 28 2010 10:01 In reply to

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    Re: Derek Mead declares war on the closed shop of a toothless NFU


    I am trying to get a clear view regarding both presidential candidates intentions on

    O M O V
  • Thu, Jan 28 2010 10:46 In reply to

    • Peter Wells
    • Top 25 Contributor
      Male
    • Joined on Sun, May 22 2005
    • Gloucestershire
    • Trusted Users

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    glasshouse:
    The NFU mandate is to put as many small farmers out of business as possible, and let the lords and big operators clean up.

    Not for the first time, glasshouse has hit the nail well and truly on the head! However, the word intention is probably a better choice than mandate.

    His statement though poses the question as to why the smaller businesses continue in the NFU? My own feeling is that they offer a sufficient number of  'services' which are considered  adequate by the smaller business.

    We can then ask, what are those services which, if they were offered by someone else, would lead to an exodus from the NFU?

  • Thu, Jan 28 2010 12:15 In reply to

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    Re: Derek Mead declares war on the closed shop of a toothless NFU

    ************************************************** *****************


    I believe Derek Mead is preparing a summary of his intentions regarding his proposals for the NFU, should he be lucky enough to be elected President.

    Created in order that NFU members themselves may read directly his views on lost opportunities’ mishandled by the NFU alongside his own intentions regarding the future developments and reasoning’s in regard to the NFU especially prepared for posting on the forums’.

    Derek Mead has been denied access to NFU members contact details, are the NFU to deny him the same facilities of contacting members awarded to and paid for by the NFU on behalf of Peter Kendall.



    ************************************************** ***************************-----------------------------------------------------------------------
    NICKO is online now Report Post  

  • Fri, Jan 29 2010 14:24 In reply to

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    There is an unfair situation that Derek Mead faces in getting his message over.

     

    thankfully with these forums Derek Mead can speak at length telling us all what he considers the past failings of the National farmers Union has been

     

    BUT EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THAN THAT IS WHAT HE WOULD TRY TO DO SHOULD HE WIN THIS TWO MAN CONTEST FOR LEADERSHIP,

     

     

  • Tue, Feb 2 2010 1:37 In reply to

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    THIS IS WHERE WE ARE STARTING FROM

    I have been researching the brain for over thirteen years now and still I only can realise just how little we know about our human brain and our individual mind. Our brains are our species brains, developed over millions of years , we have to consider that it is most likely that our species brains are very similar in their inherited abilities, considering research that proves every one living today is related directly to one woman living in Africa over two hundred thousand years ago now proven by DNA testing.

    Allowing five generations per one hundred years that is one million generations of evolutionary history, where each of us has a proven connection, further research identifies the fact that our modern brain was already around, forty to fifty thousand years ago, given obvious physical differences which can be explained from evolving within differing physical conditions , and that children can be produced from any combination of human beings from all corners of the earth. I consider it is highly likely that our human brains are very similar concerning their physical abilities.

    The physical common ability to use language and simply teach ourselves the non technical structures of language give ever indication that this is so.
    It was from an instantaneous realisation that children could rapidly acquire a very early grasp, of simple arithmetic and a firm understanding of the way we use the decimal system, to build easily understood patterns of numbers, at very early ages, simply by repeated physical experience with an Abacus, that brought me to examine how these abilities to learn anything and everything we humans can achieve, given time and experience so quickly.


    I asked myself the question how do we manage to do everything we can do. In order to understand just how quickly we can learn something , and examine whether or not we can all learn everything so quickly, that my research into human and animal brain function began.

    There are two areas where we can gain insight into how the brain works. Directly studying human behaviour and trying to rationalise it, along side reading about brain research and trying to rationalise experimental findings and researchers hypothesise, regarding the

    First of all let us first consider our conscious mind, just how many things are we aware of consciously. You will consider with your conscious mind everything you can remember from everything that you have read and learnt in any other manner.

    What we are not aware of is the knowledge we contain within our subconscious brain. Our subconscious brain ability is far in excess of our conscious brain Ability.

    To understand this, one simply has to understand that our subconscious brain is required to work without making mistakes. Our subconscious brain is in charge of all the physical abilities. Clearly therefore it is following our conscious requirements whenever it possible can, for instance we consciously chose which way we want to walk and at what speed we want walk , unless some other necessity is signalled to the subconscious brain consciously, even avoidance of objects in our way are taken care of subconsciously. We are therefore never totally in charge of what we are doing physically. In the case of sudden danger our subconscious brain will have already made the decision as to just what to do and be carrying it out before our conscious brain is hardly aware of it.


    So there is an overriding control system acting to protect our welfare when we have made a conscious mistake within some or other physical activity.
    So also you may then ask just who is in charge of yourself, obviously when ever danger threatens and action is needed your subconscious brain acts independently taking stock of as many other factors as it possibly can.
    Ok your next question should be “if things are so well looked after between the subconscious and conscious brain” why does anyone need to know anything about it .

    Obviously we have managed our human affairs without knowing everything or very little about our brain function for thousands of years, philosophers throughout our recorded history and most likely thousands of years before any recorded history was available, will have puzzled with the same questions that have kept me engrossed for over a quarter of my adult lifetime.

    Just how can we, the only mammals on earth that can speak, achieve so much so slowly when our closest animal pet, the dog can hunt for itself at ten weeks of age, what is the difference between human beings and the rest of the worlds mammals .

    Not many animals can walk on two legs no others have a discernable language that we have decoded even after hundreds of thousands of years.
    For millions of years we have evolved along similar mammalian lines adapting to our environment utilising four legs but eventually we walked on two legs and developed language.

    It is language that has made us different, language that has created our advanced abilities, language that allows me to explain directly to my child what I think and mans development of written language that enables one man to speak to all men.

    The most important language of all has always been numerical and only within the last two thousand years have every race on earth utilised one standard set of symbols (only 10) utilising one pattern to create standard multiplication or division of ONE

    Our ingenuity knows no bounds our abilities are without any conceivable limit when we combine our knowledge and areas of expertise together. What makes us so special? The inherited facility to remember virtually everything we ever see (In a positive or negative term) we all share this ability to recall “ as images in action” the things we have seen or heard of that are vital to us.


    The positive memories are those we utilise consistently in explanation or consideration of ideas and concepts, the negative or passive memories return when we revisit something we may have only seen once or herd of imperfectly.


    We use language to give explanation of ideas and concepts that are vital to us, store ideas as images in action and recall those ideas quite naturally again in spontaneous language, created at will subconsciously, only where further explanation is so complicated as to develop deeper explanation which may be required or that we intend to specifically mislead others, do we pass the words being utilised through our conscious mental processing chamber, we call it our MIND that ability to process information we use to reason with. I consider the mind to be singular, impossible to replicate, simply because of our ability to understand language, can we then utilise our massive natural memory abilities of what we see hear and think.

    Simply because of our unlimited memory ability and the advanced processing abilities this gives us when combined with the physical ability to copy however imperfectly at first any physical procedures perfected by others which then allows us to eventually to do most things within the range of other humans.

    Given the will and the training.

    We all posses natural memory and the ability to copy.
  • Mon, Feb 22 2010 0:25 In reply to

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    Within three days the manner in which British farmers deal with British governments will change if half of those voting  use their brains and their courage.

  • Mon, Feb 22 2010 20:40 In reply to

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    lets hope kendall gets back in!
  • Mon, Feb 22 2010 21:08 In reply to

    • bovril
    • Top 75 Contributor
      Male
    • Joined on Sat, Mar 14 2009
    • Essex

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    Well done charlesa, I agree!

  • Mon, Feb 22 2010 21:39 In reply to

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    Kendall in my opinion is the best farming leader we have had in a long time, knows his stuff, charasmatic which is all important when they are lobbying in the corridors of power. Also am hoping Raymond gets in again.

     Not a fan of one member one vote myself, I dont think enough people know enough about the candidates to use their vote wisely. I have full trust in the council. Here in Lincs all the branches got to debate who we wanted, and that info will be used

  • Mon, Feb 22 2010 21:50 In reply to

    • bovril
    • Top 75 Contributor
      Male
    • Joined on Sat, Mar 14 2009
    • Essex

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    Thank-you! I felt like a lone voice in the 'Democratic.....' something-or-another thread in this Talking point earlier!!

  • Mon, Feb 22 2010 21:58 In reply to

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    im interested in an effective and respected NFU, and if that means the NFU council gets to elect the leadership then good on them.

     There the ones who put the time and hard yards in, and more importantly theyre the people who spend the most time with these guys, and will know them far better than the masses.

  • Tue, Feb 23 2010 8:12 In reply to

    • Dick
    • Not Ranked
    • Joined on Thu, Jul 12 2007

    Re: DEREK MEAD DECLARES WAR ON A THE CLOSED SHOP OF A TOOTHLESS FARMERS UNION

    Interesting thoughts Charlesa, but the same aurguments have been used by opponents of full democracy for countless years and in many different political systms but it remains a mystery to me why anyone would willingly give power over their affairs to an individual without having had the chance to register their vote either for him or against him and yet trust in the wisdom of mainly unkown strangers to make that descision for you. It is a bit like childhood where you are told Nanny knows best. I do not want anybody to vote on my behalf for an individual, great though that individual might be, I prefer to cast my own vote in a properly arranged secret ballot and will continue to campaign for that as long as I am able, despite your eloquent posting to the contrary.

    Dick

Page 1 of 1 (22 items)
© RBI 2001-2010
Powered by Community Server (Commercial Edition), by Telligent Systems