The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - Farmers Rally Against Tax Changes

00:00:00.000 So, yeah, so how do you think people see farmers there?

00:00:02.840 I think a lot of people perceive us as rich.

00:00:06.720 We are very asset rich, we're very cash poor.

00:00:09.620 And if we have a bad year, you know, most farms struggle to see a profit.

00:00:13.940 So, you know, we may look like we have an amazing lifestyle

00:00:17.400 and we do have an amazing lifestyle, but we're not rich.

00:00:21.760 Nowhere near.

00:00:22.540 So how is this going to affect you and your family?

00:00:25.940 Well, my family wouldn't afford to pay the inheritance tax

00:00:29.440 that we would have to pay on our farm.

00:00:31.100 So my dad can't afford to die now, essentially.

00:00:34.180 Britain in 2024, aye?

00:00:35.420 Yeah. No, seriously.

00:00:37.440 Thanks so much.

00:00:38.380 You're welcome.

00:00:39.100 So can I ask where you guys have come from today, please?

00:00:41.900 Lancashire.

00:00:42.560 Preston.

00:00:43.800 Lancaster.

00:00:44.660 Lancaster.

00:00:45.240 Lancaster as well.

00:00:46.260 And why have you come down today?

00:00:49.280 Well, primarily to protest against the inheritance tax,

00:00:53.120 but also about, well, other things in the budget,

00:00:57.560 like the tax on pick-ups.

00:00:59.640 And I don't know quite how big a tax it's going to be,

00:01:03.480 but they're going to put a tax on fertiliser as well.

00:01:05.940 And it's like the margins aren't that big as they are.

00:01:08.960 And it's just making it even more hard than it needs to be.

00:01:13.200 What's the general atmosphere in the farming community like

00:01:16.540 since the Labour Party's budget?

00:01:18.460 Everyone's just come together, really.

00:01:19.920 They just want to really fight against this inheritance tax mainly

00:01:24.400 and really supporting each other.

00:01:27.740 That's what it's about.

00:01:28.580 Why do you think Keir Starmer's doing this?

00:01:30.940 If you control the food, then you control the people.

00:01:33.480 That's like the way the world's going.

00:01:35.200 The higher powers that be can control the food

00:01:37.340 and what we're taking in, they can control us.

00:01:40.380 And finally, do you think Keir Starmer's going to back down on this?

00:01:43.260 Well, we're not going to stop until he does,

00:01:44.900 so he better do.

00:01:47.580 The government was killed, they said no one.

00:01:50.880 Why do we risk the family going to every day?

00:01:56.180 The Russian army was going to be a man. 0.98

00:02:00.980 We have to go to this man,

00:02:02.440 so you don't have to go to a hotel.

00:02:06.060 I'll tell you why.

00:02:08.540 We call for our children.

00:02:12.160 We call for the invitation.

00:02:13.860 Why do you think the Labour government is doing this?

00:02:25.660 I don't think they care, really, do they?

00:02:27.140 They don't seem to...

00:02:28.140 Well, I think that everybody thinks it's a bigger picture,

00:02:30.860 don't they, that they want to buy up the little farms

00:02:33.500 for the big people.

00:02:35.320 I don't know why is he doing it. 0.84

00:02:37.880 It's absolutely ludicrous, isn't it?

00:02:39.880 So how's the inheritance tax going to affect you directly,

00:02:42.860 do you think?

00:02:43.620 Well, it will affect us quite a lot if Paul dies.

00:02:47.320 If I die, then it will affect us.

00:02:50.580 No way.

00:02:51.720 It's a teeny farm.

00:02:53.980 It's still going to be within the limit,

00:02:57.620 and so then I will have to find an awful lot of money.

00:03:01.980 Or sell.

00:03:02.800 Or sell.

00:03:03.740 One of the things that I think a lot of people

00:03:05.860 misunderstand about farming

00:03:07.000 is that farming isn't a cash-rich endeavour,

00:03:11.920 it's a property-rich endeavour.

00:03:14.040 Would you be able to briefly explain to people

00:03:16.560 why exactly the tax is a real problem for the farmers?

00:03:19.960 Our farm doesn't pay for itself at all,

00:03:23.480 so Paul has had to diversify.

00:03:25.760 I have to work somewhere else as well,

00:03:27.540 just to make ends meet.

00:03:29.380 Or, you know, we just couldn't survive.

00:03:31.000 And this farm is three-generational,

00:03:35.380 and it used to keep two whole families at one time,

00:03:39.660 and now it doesn't even keep me and Paul.

00:03:42.400 Why are farms in Britain in such a precarious position then?

00:03:48.100 Well, it's just years and years of bad management

00:03:50.240 for government, isn't it?

00:03:52.180 I mean, we're not getting paid enough

00:03:54.980 for the food that is produced,

00:03:57.160 i.e. the fertiliser tax that he's going to put on now.

00:04:01.140 We put fertiliser on to grow good food, crops,

00:04:05.040 and then they get the tax of the food that we sell,

00:04:09.500 and yet we're paying tax on the fertiliser as well.

00:04:13.100 Can I ask why you've come down today, please?

00:04:15.120 We're concerned about the future of farming,

00:04:16.980 the future of sustainable food

00:04:19.140 and food security for the UK as a nation, really.

00:04:23.320 We can see what this really is.

00:04:25.060 It's a land grab.

00:04:26.660 It's...

00:04:27.460 They want to get a...

00:04:29.100 In my opinion,

00:04:30.800 Starmer doesn't like the fact that we produce food

00:04:33.740 and he wants control of it.

00:04:35.880 Control the food, control the people.

00:04:38.040 Do you think it's a bit suspicious

00:04:39.200 that Rachel Reeves put up a picture

00:04:40.820 of the Communist Party of Great Britain founder

00:04:42.880 in her office?

00:04:44.140 It says it all, doesn't it?

00:04:45.020 I think it does, doesn't it?

00:04:46.740 Because there's such small margins in farming.

00:04:48.680 What they've done now,

00:04:50.100 it's going to wipe out masses. 0.93

00:04:52.280 So I take it that if your family was hit

00:04:54.460 with an inheritance tax bill,

00:04:55.980 it'd be very difficult to pay?

00:04:57.620 It would.

00:04:58.260 Yeah, definitely.

00:04:59.340 Yeah, I know.

00:05:00.080 It's bigger than just the inheritance tax as well.

00:05:02.480 I mean, the last speaker from the NFU explained

00:05:05.540 this is the straw that's broken the camel's back.

00:05:08.540 Farmers work for less than a minimum wage. 0.96

00:05:10.980 There's no money left to invest.

00:05:12.580 There's no money to continue to improve anything.

00:05:15.780 There's no...

00:05:16.400 Yeah, there's no innovation.

00:05:17.500 There's no money left.

00:05:18.880 It's an industry whose prices are dictated by the end customer.

00:05:23.940 And again, that's unheard of.

00:05:26.000 So we finally made it to the back of the farmers' protest.

00:05:28.600 It's pretty big.

00:05:29.460 Probably about 20,000 or 30,000 people,

00:05:31.180 quite similar to the Freedom Rallies that we've been doing.

00:05:33.680 And everyone seems really nice.

00:05:35.440 The weather, as you can see, is atrocious.

00:05:37.360 It was snowing earlier.

00:05:38.620 Thankfully, it's just degenerated into a light rain,

00:05:40.700 so not too bad.

00:05:42.160 But everyone seems to be in fairly high spirits.

00:05:45.360 And weather aside, everyone's having a good time, I think.

00:05:49.120 How do you feel the atmosphere at the protest was today?

00:05:51.740 I think it's pretty heavyweight, pretty wonderfully well behaved.

00:05:55.700 There's a sense of purpose and...

00:05:57.860 Very well supported.

00:05:59.000 Very well supported.

00:06:00.280 We're organised, yeah.

00:06:01.180 And why did you, chaps, come down yourselves? 1.00

00:06:05.080 I'm 84.

00:06:06.720 I've got two boys in the business.

00:06:08.380 We've paid the mortgage off in 35 years.

00:06:10.980 And they're asking us to find a million pounds

00:06:13.200 for them to start all over again.

00:06:15.140 And it's not on.

00:06:16.640 My purpose as a retired veterinary surgeon who supports farmers

00:06:20.660 is that I'm particularly anxious about the impact

00:06:23.400 of this inheritance tax changes, potentially,

00:06:27.200 on the mental health and well-being of farmers,

00:06:29.460 as well as the infrastructure of the whole agricultural industry

00:06:34.520 and the rural economy.

00:06:36.100 Yeah, I mean, the sad truth is that farmers

00:06:38.360 just can't afford to pay this tax.

00:06:40.680 Although, on paper, we look as if we're all multimillionaires.

00:06:44.200 Farming works on very slim margins.

00:06:46.440 Most farmers work on between half and 1% of their capital employed.

00:06:50.480 And the money, the cash, just isn't in the bank to pay this tax.

00:06:53.520 It will mean family farms being broken up to pay it. 0.93

00:06:56.140 What's the feeling in the farmer community after the budget?

00:07:00.660 How are things?

00:07:01.900 Just totally devastated, basically.

00:07:04.740 Particularly when the government had indicated before the election,

00:07:07.400 the Labour Party had indicated,

00:07:08.920 there was going to be no change to APR.

00:07:10.840 So we feel betrayed.

00:07:12.320 That would be the best word of the summer, betrayed.

00:07:14.300 Why do you think Keir Starmer is doing this?

00:07:16.200 God only knows.

00:07:17.720 There's no doubt the Labour Party just do not understand

00:07:20.300 the rural fabric of this country and how our food is produced.

00:07:23.740 It's going to have a massive impact.

00:07:25.260 With land being currently taken out of production

00:07:27.020 through the SFI scheme,

00:07:30.100 the insecurity in world food supplies,

00:07:33.360 particularly with the war in Ukraine,

00:07:34.920 and you can see food shortages arriving in a few years' time.

00:07:38.540 Do you think it's likely that he'll back down?

00:07:40.340 I hope he comes out and if he's a real statesman,

00:07:43.020 he'll come out and say,

00:07:44.000 I think we've made a mistake.

00:07:46.080 Maybe we should reconsider this.

00:07:48.000 A lot of the figures that the Labour Party have worked with

00:07:51.000 are totally misleading as well.

00:07:52.800 They said there was only 500 farms

00:07:54.340 that would be paying this tax in the years to come.

00:07:57.680 But that didn't include business relief,

00:08:00.400 business rate relief as well.

00:08:02.760 And if you take into account that,

00:08:05.040 which covers your stock,

00:08:07.920 your crops that are growing,

00:08:09.020 your buildings,

00:08:10.240 a hell of a lot more farmers

00:08:11.400 are going to be pulled into this.

00:08:13.280 It could be as many as 60%, 70% of family farms

00:08:15.580 having to find huge sums of money.

00:08:22.560 You're a first-generation farmer.

00:08:26.920 Why have you come down here?

00:08:28.280 So today I've come down here

00:08:30.220 to support everyone else.

00:08:33.060 So our farm was under threat a few years ago

00:08:37.300 and unfortunately we had to give up farming.

00:08:39.960 But now I was in a position to start up again.

00:08:43.920 So I've started up the family business again

00:08:45.520 and I've come down here.

00:08:46.640 But the land is in...

00:08:48.560 Well, my old man, dad, owns the farm.

00:08:51.460 So when he sadly passes on

00:08:53.340 and the farm will come to me,

00:08:54.720 it's going to hit me like a ton of bricks.

00:08:56.560 Absolutely hit me like a ton of bricks.

00:08:57.880 Do you think you'll be able to afford it?

00:08:59.480 No.

00:08:59.860 Just go across that bridge when we come to it.

00:09:01.640 Hopefully today we'll sort something out, but...

00:09:03.820 Why do you think the Labour Party are doing this?

00:09:05.880 To line their own pockets, I think.

00:09:07.320 That is my honest answer,

00:09:08.720 to line their own pockets.

00:09:09.600 I'm going to pinch some of my speech

00:09:12.540 from some greater statesmen than I.

00:09:16.200 Winston Churchill once said

00:09:18.000 that you can't tax your way to prosperity.

00:09:21.600 This government, unfortunately,

00:09:24.480 despite wanting to hit the ground running,

00:09:26.660 I think it tripped at the election

00:09:28.420 and at the budget it fell and hit its head on the pavement.

00:09:32.160 I can't believe how you've turned up.

00:09:34.980 Thank you so, so much.

00:09:36.980 Thank you so much.

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - November 20, 2024

Farmers Rally Against Tax Changes

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