Brexit, C A P And Farmers

[Gromit]

Brexit means that farmers are no longer getting any subsidies from the Common Agricultural Policy.
Farmers were told in 2016 that the UK Government would pay them the same subsidy.
But the truth is rather different. The Government allocated a budget of £2.4Billion. Last year the subsidies to farmers totalled £10.6Million, less than 0.5% of the budget.
Wonder where the rest of the money went :-)

[New Judge]

I imagine it didn't go anywhere. It simply wasn't spent. Which begs the question: was such a large budget necessary?

[Gromit]

Here is the promise
// The Chancellor has today confirmed nearly £3 billion of funding for 2020 to support farmers once the UK leaves the EU.

The UK will leave the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Direct Payments scheme, which supports farmers across Europe with subsidies in 2020. This will be replaced by a new system based on public money for public goods.

The cash injection will allow the funding for Direct Payments for 2020 to continue at the same level as 2019 and supplement the remaining EU funding that farmers will receive for development projects until 2023 at the latest. We will guarantee the current annual budget to farmers in every year of the Parliament. //
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/farmers-3-billion-support-confirmed-in-time-for-2020

And here is what actually happened
// Agricultural businesses risk closure as figures show government paid only tiny fraction of slashed EU farming subsidies //
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/12/farmers-post-brexit-payments

[ynnafymmi]

Perhaps the Tories are as economically disastrous as the SNP are up here in Scotland?

[THECORBYLOON]

Where is the £10.9 million figure from?

[douglas9401]

Or perhaps they're just liars, frauds, charlatans and scum.

[Gromit]

TCL
// Data revealed to the Observer under the Freedom of Information Act from the Rural Payments Agency shows that a total of £10,692,415 was paid out under the sustainable farming incentive scheme in the 2022 calendar year. //

[douglas9401]

Boz Scaggs. Sierra

[ynnafymmi]

@13.29.A wee bit harsh on the SNP,douglas.However i agree with you.

[douglas9401]

Hmm, sure I switched threads. :-)

[New Judge]

Well based on that explanation I believe those in charge of the budget should be congratulated. All that's needed now is for other government departments to behave in a similar manner and government debt would decrease substantially.

There's no reason why farmers should be paid huge sums to look after the land they own and work.

[Gromit]

I agree NJ.
But they were promised a like for like subsidy post Brexit. And that hasn’t happened.
But A lot of Brexit promises have failed to materialise.

[New Judge]

//But A lot of Brexit promises have failed to materialise.//So it's back to my oft-repeated adage: never believe anything that politicians tell you (especially if it involves money).

[THECORBYLOON]

"The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is the first of 3 new environmental schemes being introduced under the Agricultural Transition Plan. The other 2 schemes are Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery."

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/a-summary-of-the-sfi-in-2022

That shows that the amount mentioned in your quote is for only one of the three schemes replacing the CAP.

I don't know what the projected budgets are for each of the schemes so I don't know if the £10.9 million is a reasonable percentage of the SFI budget or no.

[Gromit]

// Farmers have said they are noticing an underspend, with money missing from the rural community. Jake Fiennes, a conservationist who manages a large farm on the Holkham Estate, Norfolk, saw the farm’s subsidies cut by about 45% last year.

“In the last financial year, there was an underspend of about £100m. It looks like this is to be the case again. Our direct support has been reduced and we want to know where that money is going,” he said. //

[ynnafymmi]

@14.04.Sometimes i think that we would be better off without any politicians at all.Do we actually need nearly 700 MPs,do we actually need the same amount of fast asleep HoL eejits?For Funks Sake,the Chinese government doesnt have the same amount of useless chancers in their parliament as we do.Something has to change.

[Old_Geezer]

You actually want a government like the CCP ?

[ynnafymmi]

No,a lot less than that.Perhaps a hundred or so gifted or clever individuals.The present situation is surely unsustainable.Pis...sorry,spitting into the wind i might be.

[Hymie]

Judging by the number of union jacks flying on farming land that I saw in the first half 2016 (while driving around), a fair number of our famers must have voted for Brexit (believing the lies of Boris et al).

At the time I thought these people were turkeys voting for Christmas (biting off the hand that feeds), how true that has proved to be.

[ynnafymmi]

Same up here in Scotland,Hymie.Did you know a bigger percentage of SNP voters voted for Brexit than other voters up here in Scotland.Down in England the English Tories voted for Brexit,up here in Scotland the Tartan Tories(theSNP)voted for Brexit.

[THECORBYLOON]

I didn't know that.

I'm surprised you've not mentioned that before now...