Agricultural Labour
It almost hardly needs repeating that after a decade in power, this Government still has the urban-obsessed views borne of its inception in the trendier parts of Islington. Most Ministers have very little understanding of rural areas and this permeates their thinking in every Department.
Their lack of understanding has had devastating consequences for those who not only live in the countryside, but who depend on it for the livelihood. Even with the recent rise in land prices in Britain, many farmers are still struggling to make a living in the agricultural sector. Only last month, dairy farmers warned of a ‘meltdown’ in their sector, with three farmers leaving the industry every day.
Yesterday, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee published their report examining the catastrophic handling of the Single Payment System which was supposed to distribute £1.5 billion of EU subsidies to farmers. The whole process was a disaster with 96% of farmers still not receiving their payments last June - seven months after it was set up.
The final cost to the taxpayer of this “serious and embarrassing failure” is in the region of £500 million with many farmers having their lives ruined, in some cases tragically, due to the mishandling. The warnings were clear that the system was “complex and very high risk”. They were ignored. The bitter irony is that the Cabinet Minister responsible for overseeing the process, Margaret Beckett, rewarded by being given one of the top offices of state as Foreign Secretary. What a bitter taste it must leave in the mouths of agricultural workers of the contempt and arrogance this Government has for them.