NFU in thrall of Government

6 February 2001



NFU ‘in thrall of Government’

By FWi staff

THE National Farmers Union must distance itself from the Government and Brussels, claims a Conservative MP.

Speaking at a fringe meeting at the NFU AGM in London on Tuesday, (06 February) Christopher Gill said Britain could argue its case for farming better from outside of the EU.

The Ludlow MP said the EU regime was undemocratic, bureaucratic and corrupt, and issues such as red tape which the NFU bemoan originate with the EU.

He said: “Its time to break the spell of the NFU being in thrall of the Government and the Government in turn being in thrall of the EU.”

Earlier Mr Gill criticised large farmers who should have been taking a lead in opposing EU policy for “taking their subsidies and keeping quiet”.

Fellow speaker James Gladstone, author of the book Crisis in the Countryside said that 7.7bn could be saved each year if agriculture was “repatriated” from the EU.

“Bringing farming home would pay whopping dividends,” he insisted.