YP Letters: What will EU exit mean for farming and flood support?

The EU stance of NFU boss Sir Peter Kendall and other farming leaders is coming under scrutiny.

OF the many recent letters on the EU debate, two raise particular points worth emphasising. The first is from Dr Bob Heys (The Yorkshire Post, March 4) where he appears to rule out further EU financial support against flooding in Yorkshire if we leave. As net contributors to the Brussels budget, he seems to overlook the fact we would simply be getting our own money back less hefty EU administrative expenses.

The second point is in Mr David Tankard’s letter (The Yorkshire Post, February 25) where he has heard our Westminster bureaucrats managed to convert a 20-page EU farming payments directive into 200 pages. That would be typical of two technical directives I am personally familiar with, and no doubt applies to many others.

The weight of the EU bureaucracy and financial cost is certainly one significant factor that feeds scepticism of continuing membership. It now seems generally acknowledged that the EU is incapable of radical reform, but when we leave it remains to be seen whether much of the bureaucracy will be repealed or if we shall continue to suffocate under what our own UK administration has imposed.

From: Bruce Falkingham, Cliffe, Selby.

SIR Peter Kendall of the NFU (The Yorkshire Post, March 5) says leaving the EU would see support payments ending. Not true. Direct support payments are guaranteed for at least two years at current rate. Beyond that it is well conceivable that the UK Government will not reduce support. Fact. The cost of the CAP in Europe equates to 23p per citizen per day. Fact. UK farming is paid £1.bn and UK population is 65m.

For the UK Government to continue to pay support at the current rate, it would only cost seven pence per day per citizen.

From: Martin Fletcher, Thorpe Hesley, South Yorkshire.

AT 70 years old, I know little about farming but I have travelled the UK for 45 years. And I do know about French farmers’ strikes and their subsidies.

We get little subsidies by comparison to the lazy French who go on strike whenever they do not get more subsidies.

So why suddenly say we will not get subsidies if we leave the EU? Remember the utter mountains, cheese mountains etc.

Do we want this again for the British consumer and taxpayer?

Do we not subsidise them enough to grow nothing?