A couple of subjects have come up during the week. Both have implications for British agriculture of all shapes and sizes. One is immigration and the other is State subsidies.
There are some tales being told by the Westminster Government and its supporters that should be making their noses grow in the way of Pinocchio. Problem is that these tales tap into the basic prejudices held by a high percentage of the readers of the right-wing Press in England. This is British politics, so I should not be surprised that a faction of the Conservative Party is driving stories to advance its own Brexit fantasies.
Let’s take immigration first. Evidence is out there to show that free movement of people in Europe does not take jobs from British workers. It’s true, Mrs May in her Home Office days, endeavoured to supress that evidence but it’s there nevertheless. With the latest announcements from the Conservative Government there is the expectation that British workers will be queuing up to take the jobs vacated by mainland Europeans as they are all sent home in a couple of years’ time.
The only que I can see forming is a line of salesmen promoting the latest systems of automation to all and sundry in farming and horticulture. It’s not long ago that the idea of robots milking cows seemed the stuff of science fiction but not any longer. Relentlessly agriculture is shedding labour and adopting such wonders as self-driving tractors and domes to monitor crops.
Telling low-skilled British workers that there will be fields of jobs post-Brexit is a horrible deception. I hope people do not fall for it.
The other subject that caught my eye was that of the future of agricultural subsidies. Whatever assurances Minister may utter to the countryside they cannot run away from the cost of Brexit. The Treasury’s store of our tax money is going to be needed for health, education and more bureaucrats above the call to spread it on the land.
The removal of subsidies is a political choice and in some cases warranted. Providing support to highly profitable large-scale farming, like the so-called “grain barons” isn’t sustainable. However, to invite wide-spread industrialisation and the final destruction of the family farm is inevitable. It’s likely to empty the hillsides, coastal margins and highlands, import more basic foodstuff and turn the countryside a semi-urban theme park.
Again, Ministers are practicing a horrible post-Brexit deception.
John Vincent 
There is so much meaningless hyperbole at the moment that the simple facts and truth don’t get a look.in. Yesterday I joined a Brexit Facebook group to try to get some debate on why they think it’s a good idea. Here’s what I said:
I’m not a Brexiteer but wanted to join this group to see the other side of the Brexit argument. I chose a group with a fairly large membership because I expected to see some informative arguments as to why leaving the EU is a good thing for the UK. My first impression after going down a few hundred posts is that there is confusion between being in favour of Brexit and a hatred of islam. Frankly I don’t see the connection. The Muslim population of the UK mostly came from immigration from the former Empire, not from the EU. They’re here and they’re staying, Brexit or no Brexit. Like it or not, they are part of British culture now and you cannot turn the clock back and why should we? Muslim Britons work and contribute to society in the same way as everyone else. They are MPs, Mayors, Lords and help staff the NHS, schools, police, the whole of society. To blacken a whole culture for the sake of a few nutters is unfair. I must emhasis that Islam and Brexit are two completely different subjects. There are so many more issues to discuss about Brexit without getting sidelined by Islamophobia. Like….who’s going to do the jobs left by the EU immigrants when they leave? What about the collapse in the value of the GBP? How about the divorce settlement? What about the fact that the EU negotiators seem to have their ducks in a row and ours do not? How about the lack of mandate of Theresa May to go for a hard Brexit? What about the possibility of it all leading to another general election? What about Labour’s stance on Brexit? (BTW, I don’t respond to abusive comments or messages in capital letters).
Well, the response was interesting. Oh, there I go again, master of understatement. It was like swimming in a sewer. I received literally hundreds of comments in a couple of hours, almost all abusive. The members conflated Brexit with Islamophobia and child abuse and I have never seen such a collection of ignorant, ill-informed, prejudiced, foul-mouthed people in my life. It was the lowest common denominator of UK society. Absolutely horrific. They closed comments after a while and expelled me simply for making the original statement and that’s the beginning of fascism. It made me so sad to finally realise that the under-belly of UK society is hate-filled, racist and so ignorant. I’m so glad I don’t live there any more. It makes me ashamed to be British.