Farmers on brink ...as SNP Cabinet can’t be trusted to run a bath
WALK around the Royal Highland Show – as I just have – and you will see the best of Scottish farming, and the people, machinery and animals that drive it. It gives an impression of an industry in rude health, but sadly the truth is very different.
The farming community has just been hit by another hammer blow by this Scottish Government which continues to treat us so shoddily.
Common Agricultural Policy payments will be late again this year, as they were last year. It is an ongoing fiasco.
It is hardly surprising so many people I meet are suffering from depression, and debt levels are soaring to a record high.
Nicola Sturgeon apologised to farmers last week – that is not good enough. It is gross incompetence from a government which seems to have no understanding of our industry, and no sense of responsibility for the lives relying on it.
And no wonder. Because whether Ministers or civil servants are good or bad, they will still pick up their index-linked pension and get paid every month.
Meanwhile, the farmers relying on them are sitting at home wondering when they are going to get their money, and indeed how much they will get. Because there are a lot of people – and I’m one of them – who don’t know how to work it out. I don’t know how much I’m due. It’s a mess.
I have been in farming my whole life and the last thing the farming community needs is more uncertainty. I fear for other farmers and their state of mind.
I have met people who are suffering from depression. They won’t speak about it, but you can tell by their attitude and their air of resignation that this is getting them down.
Agriculture has the highest suicide rate of all the professions. The effect of this delay could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
I started farming in 1979 and own a 200-acre suckler beef farm just outside Bathgate, West Lothian.
I also hold a degree in agriculture and was an adviser on the team that developed and oversaw an earlier rural payment computer system on behalf of the then Scottish Executive. That job saw me liaising with both UK and EU auditors in relation to the payment of subsidies between 1996 and 2001. We never missed a beat for five years. About £500million went out and it landed in people’s accounts bang on time, no problem.
Now we have an IT system which appears to be completely out of control, which means this problem could crop up year after year, until the Government finally gets to grips with it.
THEY don’t seem to care that people can be sitting around waiting for income that doesn’t arrive. The result is farmers are having to extend their overdraft or they are not purchasing. The level of indebtedness has risen to record levels.
And it affects the entire economy – this was underlined at a meeting where Nicola Sturgeon, was speaking alongside the National Farmers Union. They said that for every pound that goes into agriculture in the form of subsidy, £5.83 is generated for supply industries further down the line.
So they are missing out too – that is the knock-on effect. And the problems do not end there. To have a thriving economy you need new businesses starting up. But there are hardly any young people coming into farming. There are safety issues too. The accident rate and injury have now surpassed mining, building and fishing.
I think in many ways that is a reflection of a lot of the pressure farmers are under.
It doesn’t help that many are working alone – they are lucky if they have a collie dog to talk to.
How do they feel? They are scunnered – your average Scottish farmer is now in their late fifties. Slowly but surely they are quietly giving up and being pushed into retirement.
PERSONALLY, I am winding down and have other business interests. I farm because I love it. But for others, I think, it’s a bit like banging your head against a brick wall. And it feels so terribly good when you stop.
Farmers do not generally talk about their finances openly. They are proud. So this is a hidden problem.
It is hard for the wider public to understand, because farmers’ perceived wealth is so visible. People see the land and fancy machinery, but what they do not see is the tiny return we are getting back on this capital.
A recent survey found farmers now earn on average £12,000 a year. That is less than the national minimum wage.
And yet, last week, I worked 14 to 15-hour days. And my brother-in-law, who milks, is working about 16 hours a day. If you see him socially he’s usually asleep within an hour.
The incompetence that led to this mess comes from the top down, and it is political as well as managerial.
It is time for the SNP to own up to its failings and stop looking for scapegoats. It is a grievance party which seems to think everything falls at the door of the Tories.
All we hear is: ‘It’s the Tories’ fault.’ Farmers do not want to hear that. They deserve a government that will get on with what they were employed and elected to do.
The agricultural wagon is already slipping all over the road. If all the SNP is interested in doing is blaming somebody else, instead of getting on with the day job, the wheels are going to come off completely.
If nobody is taking responsibility it suggests nobody cares. And so if it fails, they just shrug their shoulders. They must think: ‘It’s nothing to do with me. It’s not affecting me directly. I still get paid every month.’
Their priorities are all wrong. They care about independence when the rest of Scotland has moved on, and a crazy perception that if you are wealthy you are evil and somehow deserving of punishment.
I wouldn’t trust many of the Scottish Government Cabinet to run a bath, let alone a department. And I will not stand idly by while the industry I love goes down the plughole.