Best Of

Taking a step back, it is interesting that this agricultural policy change has cut across typical political dividing lines on here. I imagine most of pb is urban so not an urban/rural thing...

New MoreinCommon poll shows voters oppose the tractor tax by a 57% to 24% margin.

A massive 75% of Tory voters think a a farmer who passes their farm to the next generation should not be required to pay inheritance tax on it as do 74% of Reform voters and 56% of LDs.

56% of 2019 Conservative voters who switched to vote Labour in 2024 also believe family farms should be exempt from inheritance tax.

Labour and Green voters are more divided but still 45% of Labour voters 47% of Green voters think the farmer inheritance tax exemption should have been kept

https://x.com/LukeTryl/status/1858787981303185664

But there NEVER WAS A FARMER INHERITANCE TAX EXEMPTION. It was the LANDOWNER not the FARMER.

Imagine if, instead of raising employers' NI, Reeves had done as many are suggesting and broken their manifesto promise by raising income tax and/or employees' NI. What would businesses and other government critics now be saying?

At a guess: reducing people's disposable income will be hugely damaging to the economy - even lower growth due to less spending, and this will lead to redundancies and businesses having to close. The Chancellor must go!

To govern is to chose.

Starmer and Reeves chose to raise taxes on workers and business.

And then exempted the public sector.

They would have been better off spreading the tax increase and saying "we're all in this together".

The fuel duty increase should have been implemented as well.

“We’re all in this together” would have at least led to general groans but an accepting of the need to raise funds in the short term. With some skillful economic management, they could een have reversed an income tax increase before the next election, to say “thank you” to everyone.

Instead, they’ve picked on a few specific groups of people, who can organise against the government. Today it’s the turn of the farmers, and the news tonight is going to be of Jeremy Clarkson and hundreds of tractors on TV with opposition politicians.

Jeremy Clarkson wrote:

I’m becoming more and more convinced that Starmer and Reeves have a sinister plan.

They want to carpet bomb our farmland with new towns for immigrants and net zero windfarms.

But before they can do that, they have to ethnically cleanse the countryside of farmers.

That’s why they had a Budget which makes farming nigh on impossible.

That feels a teensy little bit over-the-top and possibly rather insulting to people who are being carpet bombed and ethnically cleansed. It's also kinda moving towards Great Replacement Theory nonsense when there is zero evidence that the new Labour government are going to increase immigration compared to the last administration.

Is Jeremy Clarkson going full MAGA going to be attractive to British voters?

It's clickbait, but I have to hand it to Clarkson: he can be a nob but he's done more to stand-up for British farming that anyone else has done in about 40 years.

Good on him.

To all those people who make farming families out to be rich: I'd like to see them get up at dawn and work until dusk, in all sorts of weathers. To have a year where the weather means all your profits are wiped out, or where government legislation floods the market with cheap meat. Where tourists routinely stray off the paths, interfere with livestock and knock down walls and fences. Where you have to go out in the snow to find ewes that are lambing. If they want us to be rich, then they should fucking well pay more for British food. Until then, I'll go work in an office and they can ****ing well starve.

Said to me, in rather stronger terms, by a farming relative.

This another strawman though. I don't think anyone thinks otherwise (particularly after Clarkson's farm). This is about a few very large and wealthy landowners, and also stopping the British countryside being bought up by billionaires as a tax dodge mechanism.

It's a relatively small amount of revenue for HMRC but a good example of them getting early before it becomes a big issue.

It isn't just about a few very large and wealthy landowners. Far from.

Incidentally, and from that conversation: how is the land valued for IHT purposes? An uphill farm might be worth relatively little from a farming perspective, which a family might want to continue doing. But it might be worth much more with the farmhouse converted into a non-farming home or B&B, and with some of the barns 'converted' into housing for townies - something that cannot be done and the farm remain as a singular farm. It'd be the highest valuation, wouldn't it? And if the inheritors are forced to sell, what happens if the land does not reach that estimate?

Tax advisers are going to be very busy.

Many farmers want to farm. From my experience they grumble and complain (including my distant relatives...), but they love farming. And that doubles when there's a many-generation familial connection with the land.

To all those people who make farming families out to be rich: I'd like to see them get up at dawn and work until dusk, in all sorts of weathers. To have a year where the weather means all your profits are wiped out, or where government legislation floods the market with cheap meat. Where tourists routinely stray off the paths, interfere with livestock and knock down walls and fences. Where you have to go out in the snow to find ewes that are lambing. If they want us to be rich, then they should fucking well pay more for British food. Until then, I'll go work in an office and they can ****ing well starve.

Said to me, in rather stronger terms, by a farming relative.

This another strawman though. I don't think anyone thinks otherwise (particularly after Clarkson's farm). This is about a few very large and wealthy landowners, and also stopping the British countryside being bought up by billionaires as a tax dodge mechanism.

It's a relatively small amount of revenue for HMRC but a good example of them getting early before it becomes a big issue.

It isn't just about a few very large and wealthy landowners. Far from.

Incidentally, and from that conversation: how is the land valued for IHT purposes? An uphill farm might be worth relatively little from a farming perspective, which a family might want to continue doing. But it might be worth much more with the farmhouse converted into a non-farming home or B&B, and with some of the barns 'converted' into housing for townies - something that cannot be done and the farm remain as a singular farm. It'd be the highest valuation, wouldn't it? And if the inheritors are forced to sell, what happens if the land does not reach that estimate?

Tax advisers are going to be very busy.

Many farmers want to farm. From my experience they grumble and complain (including my distant relatives...), but they love farming. And that doubles when there's a many-generation familial connection with the land.

It'll be valued purely on agricultural purposes by a land agent, even if planning permission has been outlined unless there are houses there, or started being built. You can, if you don't like one valuers results, ask for another opinion, but likelihood is any competent agent would come up with a figure not too far out

Interesting question about a forced sale, plenty of land has been sitting on the market here (SW Scotland) for more than a year, some sales fallen through too, and not all poorer land. Spot on about tax advisers, agri lawyers, agents and accountants will be in huge demand

I inherited a farm,. well, a small field, about 15 years back (ultimately from an ancestor, as it happens). It was tiny but still had to be valued by a specialist from a major Lothian surveying firm. The rent took some years just to pay the survey fee!

And no I'm not selling, and yes, I do buy my food from farmers, or with minimum middleman, where possible, rather than supermarkets. Especially milk, cheese, meat, game and some cereals.

Mr. HYUFD, Starmer should give the green light for missiles to be used in Russia. Failure to do so would be pathetic.

He won't, he is too wary of Putin's response.

Macron has more balls and probably will follow Biden's lead and allow Ukraine to send French as well as US missiles to Russian territory. Though even then I suspect Trump will cancel that permission after his inaugration in January (albeit if the Russians do anything against US bases in Europe Trump would be aggressive in his response)

Reportedly Starmer has been pushing for US approval to allow Storm Shadow strikes into Russia, and it is also being suggested that supplies of the missiles were being held back so that they would be available when that approval was granted.

I don't think the preemptive criticism of Starmer on this point is warranted. I hope to see Storm Shadow strikes in Kursk within the week.

We should not fear Russia. It has proved itself weak, rather than strong.

Putin would not be seeking aid from North Korea, if he had sufficient manpower.

To all those people who make farming families out to be rich: I'd like to see them get up at dawn and work until dusk, in all sorts of weathers. To have a year where the weather means all your profits are wiped out, or where government legislation floods the market with cheap meat. Where tourists routinely stray off the paths, interfere with livestock and knock down walls and fences. Where you have to go out in the snow to find ewes that are lambing. If they want us to be rich, then they should fucking well pay more for British food. Until then, I'll go work in an office and they can ****ing well starve.

Said to me, in rather stronger terms, by a farming relative.

Anyone who has watched Clarkson's farm ought to be aware that while the asset might by very great, the profits are often marginal. I'm afraid in this instance, as in others, its Labour revealing its prejudices. I knew a phd student at UEA who hated, literally hated farmers because his ancesters had been farm workers. I can see him bringing in policies such as this.

The odd thing is that, up until the 1950s, there was a strong rural farming vote for Labour, particularly in East Anglia.