Government should show farmers it cares

11 June 1998

Government ‘should show farmers it cares’

THE Government needs to convince country dwellers it cares, writes Brian Groom in an opinion piece in the Financial Times Reporting Britain supplement.

He says it is not clear that the Government has grasped the complex social forces at work in the countryside, or that it has a coherent strategy for the issues raised.

He says the farming sector deserves sympathy despite its tendency to cry wolf. He points out that even some traditionally prosperous East Anglian farmers face bankruptcy.

But he says farmers demands are unlikely to be met because the market economy cannot yield to producer groups. He says farm subsidies need more reform, not less.

• Financial Times 11/06/98 page II (Reporting Britain )