Labour should learn from Trump’s ‘Wonder Woman’ farming guru Brooke Rollins: Sarah Todd
FARMERS took to the High Court earlier this week to present a landmark legal challenge to the Government’s proposed changes to business and agricultural property relief when it comes to inheritance tax (IHT).
Readers are probably sick and tired of reading about the so-called family farm tax but this latest development matters.
This judicial review put forward by the claimants and campaign group Farmers and Businesses for Fair Tax Relief is important because it is a formal legal stand arguing that the Government acted unlawfully by failing to comply with prior promises to consult properly with affected taxpayers and undertaking only a limited technical consultation in relation to certain narrow aspects of their changes.
Outside the London court, one of the group, farmer Thomas Martin, said: “I should be on the farm today planting barley or spreading fertiliser, but instead we’re at the High Court for a judicial review where we’ll ask the court to step in and declare that the Chancellor’s decision not to consult properly over IHT changes with the public was unlawful.”
Whether people care about the future of farming or not there will doubtless be something comes along in their life – a new piece of legislation or tax – and these farmers will have done everyone a massive favour for showing the powers-that-be that the downtrodden worm can turn.
Time will tell whether these sons and daughters of the soil get the results they want, but by putting their heads above the parapet this group has sent an important signal to everyone from our Prime Minister down.
Like the pub landlords or hair salon owners who hit the headlines for putting posters up banning Labour MPs, these rural rebels have done their bit to battle against our nation’s worrying epidemic of the general public taking whatever mucky end of the stick is thrown at them lying down.
This legal challenge coincidentally came in the third week of March, just as the annual National Agriculture Week was taking place across the pond in America. Something that has happened over there since 1973.
This special week is led by the Agriculture Council of America (ACA), a non-profit organisation made up of leaders from the farming and food sectors, with the mission to increase public awareness of agriculture’s ‘vital role in society.’
Social media isn’t your correspondent’s thing – and maybe not yours – but anybody who hasn’t looked up the USA’s Agriculture Secretary, Texas farmer’s daughter Brooke Rollins, is missing a trick.
She might not wear the cape, but she is nevertheless a modern-day incarnation of that go-getting comic book heroine Wonder Woman.
Her outlook is in such stark contrast to the wishy-washy going-on we have had from successive administrations when it comes to supporting British farming and food security.
There can be no greater example than the revolving door that is in situ at the headquarters of our equivalent of Secretary Rollins’s role – the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). There have been ten different leaders in as many years. To be honest, all interest has now been lost in keeping up with the current incumbent’s name.
None of them seem to have had any background or interest in the subject. In fact, is it still that woman with bobbed hair this week?
Meanwhile, over in America, Secretary Rollins is fighting for farmer relief amidst the surging fuel and fertiliser costs caused by the war in Iran. 18 new trade deals for farmers have been made in the space of just one year.
She’s overseen the overturning of the farm death (inheritance) tax, pushed to stop foreigners from being able to buy up American farmland, which she describes as “one of our most valuable national assets”.
There just aren’t enough column inches to list all this amazing lady’s achievements. There are simple ones like the re-introduction of whole milk to the nation’s schoolchildren to the far-reaching cutting of red tape with a ‘one farmer, one file’ new way of dealing with administration, announced with the line: “Farmers shouldn’t have to wrestle with paperwork just to work with their Government.”
In her speech for this National Agriculture Week, she declared: ‘It is the honour of my lifetime to wake up every day and fight for the American farmer and the way of life that built this country. I’m proud to stand with the men and women who rise early, stay late and work tirelessly to feed, fuel and clothe our nation!" She’s absolute and utter mustard.
Now, there are thousands of wonderful people promoting agriculture here in Britain, but the point that seems to be crying out to be made is that the message isn’t (like Secretary Rollins) coming in a one-umbrella fashion from the top.
The National Farmers’ Union, which contrary to public belief not every farmer is a member of, runs an annual Back British Farming Day in September and the LEAF education in farming movement organises the ever-popular Open Farm Sunday in June. There is Great British Beef Week, UK Sausage Week, Love Lamb Week and many, many more initiatives and events. Also dozens of different awards ceremonies, all championing separate sectors within agriculture.
Never has it been more important for British agriculture to plough one straight, united furrow.
Sarah Todd is a journalist specialising in farming and country life. Read her weekly column in Wednesday’s edition of The Yorkshire Post.