We’ll support our farmers if they take to streets over Brexit
WELSH-LANGUAGE campaigners have pledged to support no-deal Brexit protests in rural communities – providing they are peaceful.
At stake is the very future of rural communities and, with them, Welsh culture, pressure group Cymdeithas yr Iaith told last week’s National Eisteddfod in Llanrwst.
As 40% of the country’s 29,000 farmers are native speakers, the organisation fears that any threat to agriculture will destroy societies that are the bedrock of the Welsh language.
The FUW is already warning of potential “civil unrest” among farmers in the run-up to October 31, while NFU Cymru has said it is “ruling nothing out” in preventing a hard Brexit.
In a meeting on the Maes, Cymdeithas yr Iaith said its support for farmers reflected wider concerns about the Prime Minister’s approach towards the Welsh language.
Spokesman Robat Idris said: “The agriculture industry, and all the families and traders who depend on it, are under siege at the moment.
“These people and communities are central to sustaining the Welsh language.
“We will support farmers 100% in their protests or any peaceful means they choose to use to prevent Boris Johnson’s Brexit from destroying our rural communities.”
The comments came during a Brexit debate in Llanrwst that was hosted by FUW president Glyn Roberts, who has written to Mr Johnson seeking urgent talks.
He believes a no-deal Brexit will devastate farming and the wider rural economy in Wales.
Analysis by meat levy body Hybu Cig Cymru suggests 92.5% of Wales’ lamb and beef exports could disappear after October 31.
“We are absolutely clear, no responsible UK government would allow the UK to leave the EU without a deal,” he said.
“It won’t only be farmers suffering but all the secondary and tertiary business that rely on agriculture.”
Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s Brexit stance is part of a wider campaign to halt the depopulation of rural communities and the out-migration of young people from Wales.
It believes Mr Johnson poses a threat to the Welsh language “on a number of levels”
“It represents a growth in prejudice against Welsh since the referendum,” said Mr Idris.
Meanwhile the National Sheep Association (NSA) has warned of a breakdown in agricultural systems in Northern Ireland if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
A hard border will leave producers unable to send livestock to the south for slaughter, as is commonplace now.
And for those animals that are slaughtered in the north, they would have to meet tariffs to be sold in the south.
“It could easily lead to a swift collapse of rural communities, said Edward Adamson, the NSA’s regional development officer.