Farmers weigh up options ahead of Thursday’s general election
With just a few days left before the General Election, Western Mail reporter Megan Griffiths visited a livestock market in Carmarthenshire to find out what farmers think are the major issues affecting them
Nearly half a million people in the UK work in the agricultural sector – and around 4% of people in Wales work the land or raise livestock to make a living.
Farmers may only be a small proportion of society, but their work fuels the nation and provides an injection of £8.5bn into the economy each year.
More than two-thirds of farmers voted to leave the European Union last year.
For them, a good Brexit deal is essential as agricultural products outside the EU can have tariffs averaging around 22%, putting Britain’s £18bn food export economy in danger.
Lifelong friends Eirian Morris and Llifon Evans both feel a Conservative government would be the best solution for the country.
However, Mr Evans was worried about Brexit and angry that such a huge decision had been made with little information.
He said: “I don’t think the public should have been allowed to decide whether we stay in Europe or not. What do we know about politics?”
They were also both concerned about public spending.
Mr Morris said: “Jeremy Corbyn wants to spend, spend, spend, and the Conservatives are costing it out. What will work I don’t know. I think the Conservatives are more towards the countryside.”
Mr Evans said: “It’s money we haven’t got. But with Labour it’s just a bottomless pit. Labour has been in power before and we nearly went bankrupt.”
Mr Morris added: “If Labour gets in again we’ll be in the same boat again.”
The hot topic among the majority of farmers we spoke to was bovine tuberculosis – although getting the issue sorted is a devolved issue, they all felt as though the Welsh Government was not tackling the issue in the right way or with enough urgency.
Trevor Thomas, a cattle breeder and former dairy farmer, thinks the solution is to bring back badger culling.
“Bovine TB is the main thing that affects us,” he said.
“The Welsh Government aren’t doing anything really to sort it out. It’s a taboo subject.
“Nobody wants to eradicate badgers, but they’ve got to be kept under control. None of the parties have got any policies to try and keep them under control.
“We nearly eradicated TB in the 1970s but that was before the protection of the badgers. We’ve got to bite the bullet and cull some badgers.”
In January the chief veterinary officer for Wales Christianne Glossop told farmers that new incidents of bovine TB were at a 10-year low.
Badger culling has been going on in recent years in England but the Labour manifesto says they will stop it.
The party says it wants to “lead the world with high animal welfare standards in the wild”.
The Conservatives want to grant a free vote, on a government bill in government time, to give Parliament the opportunity to decide the future of the Hunting Act. Foxes can theoretically spread bovine TB if they move into recently vacated badger sets.
Nearly all farmers we spoke to were leaning toward a Conservative vote. But not all.
Liam James, a Carmarthenshire dairy farmer originally from Barry, said: “I grew up in a very povertystricken area. I’ve spent most of my like seeing the damage the Tory government have done to south Wales, and how it improved as I was growing up, and how it’s gone down again. I couldn’t bring myself to vote Tory.”
“Brexit is probably the main issue. We’re still not sure where our milk’s going to go in terms of Brexit.
“I voted in [to stay in the EU]. Access to the single market and access to foreign labour is key. I don’t use it personally but I have a lot of friends who do. I’d like to see them discussed more but at the end of the day the farming public is quite a small part of the vote.”
Mr James is a Labour supporter and firmly believes in Jeremy Corbyn’s mantra “for the many, not the few”.
He said: “Personally I’d quite like a Labour government to come in. Whether it be the best for my business I don’t know, but for the country for the whole I think it would be an improvement. It would be better for the NHS and better for all the other services we all use.”
Trevor Thomas thinks that for the first time he is going to vote for the Liberal Democrats instead of his usual party Plaid Cymru.
He says: “At least they will give us a say after the [Brexit] negotiations on
whether we get a say or not. I’ve never voted for them before because they’re a bit of an insignificance.”
On why farmers voted to leave the EU, he said: “I think the farmers voted to leave the EU but not the single market, because without the single market, Wales will be down the Swanee. We’ll be lost without Europe.”
For beef farmer John Davies, there is a divide between the countryside and the urban parts of Wales.
“If you’ve got a poor milk price and you’re locked down with TB, it’s a double whammy.
“The restrictions are getting tougher but nothing gets done about the natural environment. Labour have been very weak in that area and skating around the issues and collecting votes from urban people.
“At the moment it’s got to be Theresa May – I think in Labour there is a weak leader there.”
Others, like Neath man Steve Cox, a telecommunications supplier for farmers in Carmarthenshire, are less sure.
“Unfortunately it’s a thing we have to live with,” he said.
“I don’t think politicians are particularly nice people. I think about the unfairness of society in general – inequality is increasing. The rich seem to be getting richer at the expense of the poor people.
“We need someone who sticks to their promises and delivers a fair deal to everybody, and I can’t see the Tories ever doing that. I’m not a great admirer of Mr Corbyn, I don’t think he’s a particularly good leader, [but] I know his heart’s in the right place and his policies seem to be quite popular.
“Certainly not Mrs May, she has no concept of what it’s like for an ordinary person in this country. I would rather see a progressive Labour government in place rather than a repressive Conservative one.”
It seems every party has something to say about farming in general. Labour wants to reconfigure funding for farmers and allow EU farm workers to stay in the UK.
The Tories want to grow the farming industry and give farmers the same investment that was seen within the EU until the next election.
The Liberal Democrats want to encourage young people into agriculture, and, of course, Paid Cymru want to grow the Welsh farming industry in particular.
The real question is whether the people who live outside the agricultural bubble take farming concerns into account.