Rural communities overlooked by both leadership candidates - Yorkshire Post Letters

In their no-holds barred tussle to be Prime Minister, Sunak and Truss have ignored, or deliberately hidden, the consequences of their party’s previous commitments. Just one example is how they pay lip service to rural communities now, but constantly row back on the major policy decisions which would help our farming community and our environment.

In the middle of a heatwave, with extreme weather warnings and severe water shortages, Truss plans to reverse the green levies vital to the farm produce we all need to survive. The recent crop fire in Walkington or field fire in Flamborough highlight the danger to East Yorkshire, and such events have occurred in many parts of Yorkshire.

The Government has already lost one court case for not providing enough detail on its Net Zero strategy. It looks like another court case in Norfolk will accuse the government of breaking its commitments on climate change by allowing large road schemes to go ahead without proper assessment of carbon emissions. The rampant housebuilding on green land is another aspect of this Government’s disregard for our well-being.

Farmers are outraged by the water companies’ immense waste of water: they call it “immoral.” This wasted water is precious and could be life-saving in future droughts. It’s all very well telling water companies to produce a water management plan, but the Government should be properly regulating the water companies. Instead, it lets those companies discharge ever more raw sewage into our waterways, often against the farmers’ wishes. Nearly all Conservative MPs voted to allow increased discharges of raw sewage.

Added to this are the disastrous trade deals in which Truss has made with Australia and New Zealand, in which British beef farmers and lamb farmers have been sold down the river. Lower standards of animal welfare, hygiene and food quality are inevitable, but prices won’t fall for hard-pressed consumers.

Sunak and Truss also promise a bonfire of EU laws and regulations by the end of next year. That is pure baloney. In such a short time Parliament simply cannot abolish over 100 laws, passed and usually promoted by Conservative governments.

So, we may wait a long time for this Government to produce credible environmental plans and negotiate agricultural deals which benefit the rural economy. But perhaps we should not count on them appearing at all.