Will’s World: The tenant, the politician and that AHA moment
© Richard Stanton The year was 2017. After months of arguing that an early parliamentary election would distract from the necessity of focusing on Brexit negotiations, prime minister Theresa May stunned the country by calling a snap election in June, promising stability and certainty for the UK.
It’s fair to say that didn’t go quite as she planned. But while she was on the campaign trail, she paid a visit to Wrexham to hear the concerns of a group of local farmers, myself among them.
See also: Switching from an AHA to FBT: What tenants should consider
About the author
I don’t know if you’ve ever been involved in something like this, but it’s quite a palaver.
We stood in the middle of my neighbour’s yard, all straight from morning feeding and milking and still in our work clothes, while a fleet of black cars driven by men in black suits who could probably kill you with their little finger, or even a hard stare, swept dramatically through the gate.
Rank and file
After they were satisfied that none of us posed a serious threat, it was the turn of the army of junior Tory staff members.
Baby-faced assassins straight out of expensive private schools, most of them, and all with names like Allegra and Hugo.
I seem to remember they all had big hair and frightfully posh accents: “Yah, yah, the PM will be here in a tick, let’s run through the protocol pronto, shall we?”
Next came our local MP. At the time he was one of the first Conservatives to hold a seat in our part of the world for more than a century, was new to the job, and was obviously keen to make an impression with the big boss.
He’d arrived dressed in as close to farmer-wear as he could imagine – red trousers and a tweed jacket.
He was a nice enough bloke, so I didn’t have the heart to point out that it was, of course, land agent uniform.
Eventually, the big bus arrived and Theresa May stepped off.
We’d all been lined up beforehand by the posh kids and, after handshakes, a few pleasantries and a pose for the disconcertingly high number of press photographers, we all quickly retreated into my neighbour’s kitchen for a discussion around the table.
She listened seriously to our concerns – at the time mostly about the impact Brexit might have on the farming community, and the food system that we felt was completely broken.
Grab for glory
It was at this point that our hapless local MP seized his chance for glory, launching into a long speech about farm diversifications and what an exciting opportunity they were for businesses like ours.
He mentioned the local holiday park and farm shop, asserting that was clearly the way forward for us in the brave new post-EU world.
We all sat stunned for a few moments, before I gently pointed out to him that all the farmers in the room were tenants on the same estate, with Agricultural Holdings Act (AHA) tenancies that stipulate the farms must be “agricultural use only” – so no diversifications are allowed.
I’ll never forget the look of blank incomprehension on his face, nor my sinking feeling that no matter how hard we might try to explain or engage, politicians of any party would never really understand the complexities of farming.
More on the madness of ridiculously outdated AHA tenancies next week.