Farm crisis sparks tractor rage
FARMERS are using tractors as weapons to vent the frustration caused by plummeting farm incomes and the continuing crisis in agriculture.
Police in Derbyshire were called in yesterday (Monday) after a 36-year-old man used a tractor fitted with front-end bale spikes to ram vehicles and buildings.
The man caused severe damage to a fire engine, a house and a caravan, before driving into several walls and toppling overhead power lines.
One policewoman was almost impaled as she tried to stop the man, who drove straight at her.
The incident finally ended when police marksmen shot and holed the tractors tyres.
Northumberland farmer Dave Cannon, who has previously sprayed his local bank with slurry, was also back in the news yesterday.
Mr Cannon drove his tractor through the front door of his local NatWest branch and blocked the entrance for 15 minutes.
Mr Cannon, who has been in dispute with the bank for nine years, reversed out after police arrived, but was not charged.
In August, a convoy of pig farmers driving tractors slowed down traffic in Immingham in protest at imports of cheap meat.
The farmers said that supermarkets would soon be their next targets unless retailers stocked more British pig meat.
A banner on one of the tractors at the rally read: “UK pig producers have in excess of 30,000 slurry tankers.”