Farm Payments progress - and about time too !
I was pleased to learn this week that at least some farmers in Cumbria have had their Single Farm Payment money within the past fortnight. But why did it take so long ?
Obviously it is very good news that the rural payments agency are belatedly pulling their finger out and the money is finally arriving.
However, relief at the fact that this dire problem is at last being addressed should not blind us to the fact that it is disgracefully late. It should have been paid late last year. When other parts of the EU es ran into similar problems and their farmers were forced to scream for help, at least some member countries managed to pay the money by January.
In Britain, for the first two months of this year, farming minister Lord Bach promised categorically that the money would be paid by the end of March.
So the fact that it money was finally handed over in the latter part of June does not really constitute grounds for congratulation. It’s not as if the inland revenue and all the other people demanding money from farmers were prepared to turn round and wait until the Single Farm Payment money had been given out to farmers before insisting on being paid. Many farmers have lost large sums of money in interest on the money they had to borrow to bridge between the two.
I doubt if it is entirely a coincidence that the money finally arrived a few weeks after Margaret Beckett was given different responsibilities. What a pity she was promoted rather than sacked. It has been reported in the press that her reaction on being offered the job of Foreign Secretary was a well known Anglo-Saxon four-letter word. I suspect that this word would be mild by comparison with the profanity which would be inspired if you asked many farmers to describe how they feel about how long they had to wait for their money.
I suspect most farmers will be too busy to be reading this, but if anyone who is reading it knows of farmers who still have not received their Single Farm Payment money I would be interested to hear from you on chris4copeland@btinternet.com
Obviously it is very good news that the rural payments agency are belatedly pulling their finger out and the money is finally arriving.
However, relief at the fact that this dire problem is at last being addressed should not blind us to the fact that it is disgracefully late. It should have been paid late last year. When other parts of the EU es ran into similar problems and their farmers were forced to scream for help, at least some member countries managed to pay the money by January.
In Britain, for the first two months of this year, farming minister Lord Bach promised categorically that the money would be paid by the end of March.
So the fact that it money was finally handed over in the latter part of June does not really constitute grounds for congratulation. It’s not as if the inland revenue and all the other people demanding money from farmers were prepared to turn round and wait until the Single Farm Payment money had been given out to farmers before insisting on being paid. Many farmers have lost large sums of money in interest on the money they had to borrow to bridge between the two.
I doubt if it is entirely a coincidence that the money finally arrived a few weeks after Margaret Beckett was given different responsibilities. What a pity she was promoted rather than sacked. It has been reported in the press that her reaction on being offered the job of Foreign Secretary was a well known Anglo-Saxon four-letter word. I suspect that this word would be mild by comparison with the profanity which would be inspired if you asked many farmers to describe how they feel about how long they had to wait for their money.
I suspect most farmers will be too busy to be reading this, but if anyone who is reading it knows of farmers who still have not received their Single Farm Payment money I would be interested to hear from you on chris4copeland@btinternet.com
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