Column blasts main parties on rural issues

A columnist in The Times had launched a blistering attack on the three main political parties for their lack of rural policies.

Alice Thomson claims Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg are either unaware of – or ignoring – the plight of farmers and other country voters.

“The parties think the bumpkins are easy to ignore because farming accounts for less than 0.5 per cent of GDP,” she writes. “Yet nearly ten million people still live in rural areas and millions more in the suburbs vicariously live the good life.”

She outlines some of the issues currently affecting rural constituencies – such as soaring unemployment and the 920,000 rural households living below the official poverty line.

Villages, she points out, no longer have shops, post offices or vicars. “The elderly have become trapped in their villages as bus services are curtailed. With GPs refusing to operate an out-of-hours service, the ill must travel up to 50 miles to reach city A&E departments. NHS dentists are rarer than red squirrels. First-time buyers are squeezed into caravan parks.”

Read the full column in The Times or have your say on the parties farming credential on FW’s forums.