Flindt on Friday: Brexit’s not perfect but I’d vote Leave again

Blimey, this is going to be a difficult column to write – not least because I’m not sure what the protocol/etiquette is for disagreeing publicly and strongly with a fellow Farmers Weekly opinion writer – and a director of the Oxford Farming Conference, too.

However, Will Evans threw down a bit of a gauntlet a few weeks ago: “Even the most vocal of pro-Brexit farmers must be realising by now that they have been had,” he said.

Well, I’ve had a bit of think about this. I’m a vocal pro-Brexit farmer and, no, I don’t think I’ve been had.

About the author

Charlie Flindt

Charlie Flindt is a National Trust tenant in Hampshire, now farming 40ha of recently “de-arabled” land with his wife Hazel – who still runs a livestock enterprise. He also writes books and plays in a local band.

Read more articles by Charlie Flindt

Mr Evans quotes Leavers’ failed predictions: “opportunities”, “bonfire of red tape” and “sunlit uplands”.

To this I reply: “companies desert UK”, “immediate recession and 500,000 unemployed” and “house price/stock market crash”.

See also: Opinion: Tories are the ‘party of the countryside’ no more

So let’s leave pre-referendum promises and platitudes aside, and concentrate on farming.

This mediocre mixed farm, run by the world’s most mediocre farmer (and his brilliant wife), has had a splendid half-decade.

We’re in a better position now than we have been for years. The Brexit result sent the pound plummeting, which boosted our output prices and our subsidy payments.

It appears we are not alone: the main reason for the unbelievable delays in new kit arriving? Demand – and that’s straight from the salesman’s mouth.

Tough times

Even now, I can hear a Twitterstorm brewing, seething with bile and fury: What about the pig farmers? What about those who have built businesses based on busloads of good-value labour?

Of course they have my sympathy; it must be utterly grim.

But Hazel’s precious suckler herd, built up over many years with meticulously chosen heifers and Jester the blonde bull, was blown out of the water on 21 March 1996, and the years after that were hideous for the whole farm.

Only the bank of Mum and Dad, and a very tolerant landlord, allowed us to carry on. Yes, we were putting half loads of red diesel on personal credit cards. And we were in the CAP back then.

And what about those subsidy payments, and their imminent demise? Well, it’s not exactly a bed of roses on the other side of the Channel.

There has been a battle royal waging over CAP over the past couple of years, and the watermelon Greens have won.

“From the Farm to Fork” is a policy which will cut pesticides and antibiotics by 50%, and artificial fertilisers by 20% by 2030. Organic land is to be pushed up from 10% to 25%.

The EU Commission and the European Parliament demanded a subsidy cap of €100,000; the Council refused it – for now.

Greener pastures?

And let’s not forget that the all-powerful Greens, with their hatred of natural gas, are behind the fertiliser price surge, and the imminent power cuts.

Oh, and the fact that our German cousins are going to be without glyphosate from 2024. Not sure I want to be subject to that sort of farm policy.

Mr Evans proposes that we riot. Well, we could take hints on strategy from the Spanish farmers, who were protesting in Madrid last month.

Or the Irish farmers in Dublin in November, or the French farmers in April. It does seem odd that they’re protesting; they’re all still in the EU.

I appreciate that not wanting to be a citizen of the EU will make me (and the thousands of somewhat less vocal Brexiteer farmers) persona non grata among the farming elite at the Oxford Farming Conference.

When I last went, it was Tory Central in well-filled suits.

Not sure I could cope with massed singing of Ode to Joy. Well, you did sort of ask, Will.