[Diggers350] WESTMINSTER DEMO Tue19Nov: Labour’s family farm tax grab a ‘closure of the mines’ moment

Tony Gosling tony at cultureshop.org.uk
Tue Nov 5 01:58:30 GMT 2024



Why Labour’s inheritance tax family farm grab is 
a ‘closure of the mines’ moment for British farming

https://tlio.org.uk/inheritance-tax-family-farms/
<https://tlio.org.uk/inheritance-tax-family-farms/>5 
November 2024 | 
<https://tlio.org.uk/author/tony/>Tony Gosling | 
<https://tlio.org.uk/inheritance-tax-family-farms/#respond>Leave a comment

This is a turning point in British history, he 
predicts. “People will come to realise this is a 
‘closure of the mines’ moment for UK agriculture, 
in the same way it affected those mining towns 
for generations, it will change rural Britain and 
the British landscape forever. It knocks on to 
everything in market towns, the local shops, the 
pubs, the schools, the livestock auctioneers, the 
suppliers, the drivers – the lot. Family farms 
are just the base of the pyramid. The ‘£1 
million’ sum exposes it. It’s not just short of 
the mark, it’s ten times short of the mark.”

Emacs!



Why Labour’s Budget is a ‘closure of the mines’ moment for British farming

Farmers united in outrage and disbelief over the 
Government’s tax grab on their livelihoods fear 
it could be the end of the line for them

<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/31/labours-budget-is-a-closure-of-the-mines-moment-farmers/>31 
October 2024 Guy Kelly

<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/31/labours-budget-is-a-closure-of-the-mines-moment-farmers/>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/31/labours-budget-is-a-closure-of-the-mines-moment-farmers/

Clive Bailye has always known that farming is a 
long game. As a child, it was one of the first 
lessons his father taught him as they trampled 
around their family’s fields in south 
Staffordshire. A generation before, Bailye’s 
father had been taught the same by his father, 
who began with just two acres after the Second World War.

Emacs!


‘Some talk about going on strike, refusing to let 
food leave their farms 
 but everyone’s terrified 
of being imprisoned for being the one to organise 
it,’ says farmer Clive Bailye

Optimism is at the heart of things. You sow crops 
with planning, caution and a small dose of hope. 
You harvest with one eye on the next year, and 
the year after that. And in lean times, you have 
to remind yourself that things will always get 
better. Recently, as farmers across the UK have 
been hit by all manner of blights – the climate 
emergency, geopolitical strife, ever more 
powerful supermarkets, Brexit repercussions – 
he’s found comfort in that attitude.

Then opposition leader, Sir Keir Starmer, 
addresses 2023 NFU Conference in Birmingham

“This is a multigenerational, long-term vocation. 
You can’t make money in a single year, and it 
doesn’t work on a single generation,” Bailye 
says. “[Farmers] have been on our knees, but you 
keep the next generation in mind and think, ‘It 
might not be working for me, but think ahead. It 
will get there eventually, even if it’s 200 
years.’” He sighs. “Well, after this, that’s just 
not the case anymore. This is the end of the line.”

The “this” Bailye refers to is Labour’s Budget 
announcement that from April 2026, it will reform 
the Agricultural Property Relief (APR), which 
allows farmers to easily pass their businesses to 
the next generation, by introducing a 20 per cent 
tax rate on the value of all farms and businesses 
worth more than £1 million. It is an inheritance 
tax tweak that seems not just ill thought-out 
but, to some at least, wilfully capricious. 
Farmers are united in disbelief and outrage; 
behind them, a chorus of high-profile support 
grows more and more vociferous. If Labour felt 
taking on farmers would be easy, they may now be thinking twice.

Emacs!



<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/06/james-rebanks-interview-farmer-author-defra/>Farmer 
and author James Rebanks: ‘I hate the word rewilding – it’s been weaponised’

“Rachel Reeves. I literally daren’t comment,” 
wrote Jeremy Clarkson – who is, among other 
things, surely the loudest and most influential 
voice in British agriculture these days – to his 
eight million followers on X. He eventually did 
dare, of course. “Farmers. I know that you have 
been shafted today. But please don’t despair. 
Just look after yourselves for five short years and this shower will be gone.”

Clarkson’s neighbour, the popular YouTuber and 
farmer Harry Metcalfe, simply called it “the end 
of family farms in the UK”. Rachel Johnson, the 
writer and broadcaster, asked if it is “really 
worth f­ing family farms, undermining food 
security, forcing land clearances and fire sales 
of agricultural assets, breaking the continuity 
of generations of stewardship, just to raise a 
measly £500 million to chuck into the black hole?”


<https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd9n2nev17ko>‘Inheritance 
tax change will cripple family farms’

James Rebanks, the bestselling author and upland 
farmer, also took to social media to rail against 
various decisions and betrayals – both by Labour 
and Conservative governments – against the 
farming community. “The damage done to these 
relationships will last for a very long time – 
it’s a disaster of epic proportions,” he said, as 
well as referring to the UK as “one of the 
stupidest countries on earth when it comes to [agricultural] policy”.

And Kirstie Allsopp, the TV property presenter, 
wrote that Reeves has “f- – – -d all farmers, [
] 
destroyed their ability to pass farms on to their 
children, and broken the future of all our great 
estates. The Government has zero understanding of 
what matters to rural voters.” Later she wondered 
aloud what all this meant for The Archers.

Emacs!


Bailye, 51, is less sweary but, being in the 
direct line of fire, even more distressed. He 
variously calls it a “kick in the teeth”, a “kick 
in the b- – ­ ks” and a “complete blindside” for 
farmers like him. The 750 acres of combined 
arable crops he farms near Lichfield was 
inherited from his father, who took it over from 
his father. Through sweat and toil, judicious 
borrowing and wise investments, each generation 
“worked, made a profit, paid their taxes and 
managed to grow the business a bit”.

But that was then. “I’ve got two boys, one’s 13 
and one’s 11, and they’ve shown an interest but 
I’ve never known whether they’d take it on after 
me. Well, I do know now: it isn’t available to 
them. And quite frankly I’d encourage them to do 
absolutely anything else, given the way we’re treated by governments.”

In Bailye’s view, Labour’s decision to treat 
farmers as excessively wealthy types who aren’t 
paying their fair share suggests the Government 
has fallen for the great fallacy about his 
livelihood: that because farmers have vast lands, 
usually a big old house and some very expensive 
machinery, they must be stinking rich.

“The idea of ‘farmers pretending they’re poor’ is 
ridiculous. In terms of asset wealth, there’s no 
getting away from the idea that if you own a 
farm, and you have the equipment to farm, you 
have significant asset wealth. But you can’t live 
off assets. You live off the profits those assets 
generate, and typical farming returns, if you’re 
good at it and smart with subsidies and know what 
you’re doing, you’re doing well if you’re getting 
1 or 2 per cent return on investment.

“That doesn’t make people wealthy when it comes 
to putting food on the table and keeping the 
lights on. There are family farms with well in 
excess of £1 million in assets that are living 
below the poverty line, and certainly far less 
than the living wage. But that’s a difficult 
thing to get across to the general public if you 
see a farmer in his big house and shiny tractor.”

Victoria Vyvyan, president of the Country Land 
and Business Association, called Labour’s move 
“nothing short of a betrayal” of the agricultural 
community, given now-Secretary of State Steve 
Reed had last year said: “We have no intention of 
changing [Agricultural Property Relief].”

Vyvyan added that an estimated 70,000 family 
farms could be hit by the new rules: “This puts 
dynamite beneath the livelihoods of British 
farming, and flies in the face of growth and 
investment.” Tom Bradshaw, president of the 
National Farmers’ Union (NFU), agreed, calling it 
a “disastrous Budget for family farmers”, 
especially since there was a “shameless breaking 
of clear promises [that] will snatch away the 
next generation’s ability to carry on producing 
British food, plan for the future and shepherd the environment.”

How agricultural property relief works

You can pass on some agricultural property free 
of inheritance tax, either during your lifetime or as part of your will.

Agricultural property that qualifies for 
agricultural relief is land or pasture that is 
used to grow crops or to rear animals.

It also includes:

Growing crops
Stud farms for breeding and rearing horses and grazing
Trees that are planted and harvested at least 
every 10 years (short-rotation coppice)
Land not currently being farmed under the “habitat scheme”
Land not currently being farmed under a crop rotation scheme
The value of milk quota associated with the land
Some agricultural shares and securities
Farm buildings, farm cottages and farmhouses

These do not qualify for agricultural relief:

Farm equipment and machinery
Derelict buildings
Harvested crops
Livestock
Property subject to a binding contract for sale

Source: Gov.uk

Bailye is now having to face his own future. His 
parents, who still own the land, are alive, 
albeit elderly and in ill health. “When things 
pass to me, to pay that tax bill I’d have no 
choice but to sell at least 20 per cent of the 
assets passed to me, and what would be left 
wouldn’t be a viable farm, or I’d have to borrow 
to pay that tax bill, but with 1 per cent 
returns, you can’t afford the interest, never 
mind the repayments. No bank would lend it. So 
I’d have no choice but to sell the lot. And that would be it,” he says.

Even if he could secure that loan or make the 
business viable again, the next generation only 
inherits a burden. “Let’s say, for argument’s 
sake, that you did manage to get through that, 
why would you want to pass that on to your own 
children for them to go through the same? You 
wouldn’t. It’s removed any incentive to invest in UK agriculture whatsoever.”

Emacs!


In his spare time, Bailye runs the Farming Forum, 
a website he calls “Mumsnet for farmers”. On 
Thursday it was ablaze with “thousands” of 
apoplectic agricultural workers and landowners at 
a loss as to why they have been targeted. Bailye 
now wonders what form of protest they’ll take. 
“You’ve got a demographic of people now who I 
think feel they have very little to lose. And 
there are very few industries that have the 
ability to literally shut down the economy. I 
mean, can you imagine just a thousand tractors 
driving, quite legally at 20mph, at rush hour, on 
main roads? You’d grind the country to a halt,” he says.

“Others talk about going on strike, refusing to 
let food leave their farms. But can they afford 
to do that? Everybody wants to do something, but 
everyone’s terrified of being imprisoned for being the one to organise it
”

Family farmers are, he concedes, “a small 
minority”, but they are also the vital warp in 
the fabric of rural communities already under 
profound stress. Rip that out and the whole lot 
falls apart, Bailye says, leaving behind only 
vast “megafarms” or, more likely, former family 
farmland that will “will inevitably fall into the 
hands of large corporations and institutional 
investors that really will have no desire to farm it”.

“They’ll be far more interested in potential 
development, energy uses and carbon offsetting – 
all the other uses for farmland that I don’t 
think most people want. And the irony is that 
those companies will probably be non-UK or based 
offshore and not even paying tax anyway
”

This is a turning point in British history, he 
predicts. “People will come to realise this is a 
‘closure of the mines’ moment for UK agriculture, 
in the same way it affected those mining towns 
for generations, it will change rural Britain and 
the British landscape forever. It knocks on to 
everything in those towns, the local shops, the 
pubs, the schools, the livestock auctioneers, the 
markets, the suppliers, the drivers – the lot. 
Family farms are just the base of the pyramid. I 
just cannot believe this wasn’t thought through, 
and the ‘£1 million’ sum exposes it. It’s not 
just short of the mark, it’s ten times short of the mark.”

On Thursday, farmers on social media were sharing 
a clip of a politician making very sound points 
to an audience at the NFU conference just last 
year. He seemed to get it: “Losing a farm is not 
like losing any other business, it can’t come 
back. That’s why the lack of urgency from the 
Government, the lack of attention to detail, the 
lack of long-term planning
 It’s not on, you deserve better than that.”

The speaker was Sir Keir Starmer. Bailye has now 
shared the clip himself. “And frankly, the last 
prime minister who told lies like that had to resign,” he says.

Across the country, farmers have been hit by an 
almighty, sudden blight. But as always, they’ll 
play the long game. The next general election is 
in 2029. Starmer and Reeves may have just sown the seeds of revolt.








































































-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/pipermail/diggers350/attachments/20241105/7874c34b/attachment-0002.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 95deb53e.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 134743 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/pipermail/diggers350/attachments/20241105/7874c34b/attachment-0005.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 95deb5e9.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 201629 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/pipermail/diggers350/attachments/20241105/7874c34b/attachment-0006.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 95deb637.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 295295 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/pipermail/diggers350/attachments/20241105/7874c34b/attachment-0007.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 95deb666.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 262512 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/pipermail/diggers350/attachments/20241105/7874c34b/attachment-0008.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 95deb695.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 169070 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/pipermail/diggers350/attachments/20241105/7874c34b/attachment-0009.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
Weekly politics show page http://www.thisweek.org.uk
Radio stream live 5pm Fridays and repeated 
11am/pm UK time http://www.talkradio.org.uk
Also on: NOT The BCfm Politics Show App 
https://apkpure.com/not-the-bcfm-politics-show/com.sweetsmile.bottom_navigation_flutter 


NB please reply with any unsubscribe request in 
the email body, leaving the subject line intact, 
if you do not wish to recieve further emails - thanks
And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, 
he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and 
gave to them. 
<http://biblehub.com/luke/24-31.htm>31 And their 
eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he 
vanished out of their sight.  http://biblehub.com/kjv/luke/24.htm
'Capitalism is institutionalised bribery' TG - 
Cancelled -> https://www.youtube.com/user/PublicEnquiry/videos


Albert Pike’s 1871 
<https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/650822/Letter-WW3-200-year-old-islam-final-battle>WWIII 
plan to cancel God – 
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/11/accelerationism-how-a-fringe-philosophy-predicted-the-future-we-live-in>Accelerationist 
multicrisis: my schoolfriend 
<https://www.philosophyforlife.org/blog/accelerationism-amphetamine-philosophy-and-the-death-trip>‘Nazi 
Nick’s Dark Enlightenment ‘death trip’ is 
designed to 
<https://qz.com/1007144/the-neo-fascist-philosophy-that-underpins-both-the-alt-right-and-silicon-valley-technophiles>discredit 
all democracy
Essentials: 
<https://www.bitchute.com/video/AH8pJ8vLnpQQ/>Michael 
Hudson | 
<https://www.bitchute.com/video/mlGKutbgByo4/>Blackrock/Vanguard 
| Tony 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAq1q1_swyM>on 
Brexit & 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsxxlpLccE8&pp=ygUWVGhlIFRyYWl0b3JzIG9mIEFybmhlbQ%3D%3D>The 
Traitors of Arnhem | 
<https://www.bitchute.com/video/s3keNigJaj63/>Evolution 
| 
<https://www.bitchute.com/video/Yhv9ZMby68Ig>War 
between God & Lucifer | 
<http://www.itsuandi.org/itsui/downloads/Itsui_Materials/Albert_Pike's_Plan_for_Three_World_Wars.pdf>Plan 
for three World Wars | Armageddonists I have 
known: 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXKz4uwZC_k>Nick 
Land (1975-8) | 
<https://www.bitchute.com/video/pkIIeuailaUt/>George 
Monbiot (1995-8) | Manna for the Revelation 
Generation: 
<https://www.radio4all.net/program/108328>CONSPIRACY 
CLASSICS, longer interviews/lectures

"And I think, in the end, that is the best 
definition of journalism I have heard; to 
challenge authority - all authority - especially 
so when governments and politicians take us to 
war, when they have decided that they will kill 
and others will die. " --Robert Fisk
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMn9GM4atN3t7AHJBbHMR0Q/videos
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/contributor/2149
http://www.thisweek.org.uk
http://www.911forum.org.uk
http://www.tlio.org.uk
Tony's free watermarked books www.bilderberg.org 
- My ebooks https://payhip.com/TonyGosling
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvPbHiqhLtpNWA_cg_1NULw
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMn9GM4atN3t7AHJBbHMR0Q
https://www.twitter.com/TonyGosling
https://www.facebook.com/tony.gosling.16
You can donate to support Tony's work here http://www.bilderberg.org/bcfm.htm
Or buy Tony's three ebooks for £10-£15 here 
https://payhip.com/TonyGosling or paperback here 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254963338161
TG mobile +44 7786 952037

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/pipermail/diggers350/attachments/20241105/7874c34b/attachment-0003.html>


More information about the Diggers350 mailing list