Give me the child and I'll give you the man

[roscoe erf]

Those sort of views are very prevalent throughout society - not only in the UK, but pretty universally throughout the Western world. Its the main reason why Brexit happened, Trump got elected, the current Italian and Hungarian governments were elected, Austria has the right wing Freedom Party in its governing coalition, Marine Le Pen was in the last round of the French Presidential election and why Gert Wilders is the head of the second largest party in Holland.

Currently there is a fundamental divergence of the opinion in Europe between the ruling classes and the ruled. And when the ruled manage to overrule the ruling classes via the ballot box they see the sort of antidemocratic behaviour that Brexit has produced, which will only exacerbate the problem. If the masses discover that voting for change is ignored or stymied by those doing the ruling, then they may forget about voting, and take more direct measures to ensure their wishes are fulfilled.

the peasants are revolting

 

[FonterraFarmer]

Those sort of views are very prevalent throughout society - not only in the UK, but pretty universally throughout the Western world. Its the main reason why Brexit happened, Trump got elected, the current Italian and Hungarian governments were elected, Austria has the right wing Freedom Party in its governing coalition, Marine Le Pen was in the last round of the French Presidential election and why Gert Wilders is the head of the second largest party in Holland.

Currently there is a fundamental divergence of the opinion in Europe between the ruling classes and the ruled. And when the ruled manage to overrule the ruling classes via the ballot box they see the sort of antidemocratic behaviour that Brexit has produced, which will only exacerbate the problem. If the masses discover that voting for change is ignored or stymied by those doing the ruling, then they may forget about voting, and take more direct measures to ensure their wishes are fulfilled.

Think you'll find people from Holland do not like being referenced to Wilders as he is from Limberg, think even his own family don't like him

 

[Wooly]

Farmers are one of the least important segments of modern society; a mere tick on the body politic.

Only because people have forgotten what it’s like to be hungry and take food for granted.

As the Chinese proverb goes, ‘Man with full belly has many problems. Man with empty belly only has one problem.’

 

[Bill the Bass]

The UK is about 40 years behind us and probably 70 year behind Grandad. Stewart is right , the best thing you can do is get a one way ticket /Airbus out of Heathrow !!!

In what way is the UK 40 years behind New Zealand?

 

[Red Fred]

In what way is the UK 40 years behind New Zealand?

Everyone I talk to who has visited NZ says "oh, we loved it! it was just like it used to be here 50 years ago!"

 

[Bill the Bass]

Everyone I talk to who has visited NZ says "oh, we loved it! it was just like it used to be here 50 years ago!"

Me too

 

[Kiwi Pete]

The Jesuits knew that you have to get your indoctrination in early.

One of the most interesting aspects of farming fora is the insight into other people's upbringings; opinions are conveyed, and attitudes formed, by the time we are 14. The sad reality is that farmers bequeath their opinions and attitudes quicker, and often more enthusiastically, than they bequeath their farms.

Read TFF any day of the week and you can see beliefs, values, and perceptions that are at least a century out of date; it's like listening to my grandfather - immigrants are unwelcome, welfare claimants are 'scroungers', bureaucrats are parasites, and farmers are the salt of the Earth upon whom everyone depends.

But the world has moved on - a modern democracy has rather different priorities than those fondly imagined by my grandfather. Social welfare is important, and an effective bureaucracy is essential, in small and crowded countries.

Farmers are one of the least important segments of modern society; a mere tick on the body politic. Year after year, their influence wanes inexorably: the nurse is a heroine, the farmer a nuisance.

English DEFRA Ministers no longer even pretend that domestic food production is useful, which ought to suggest to farmers that continuing to hallow their grandfathers' beliefs and allegiances is purposeless.

But the voices in their head tell them otherwise.

I wonder who is right?

I take that as one of the biggeat compliments imaginable - thank you.

A chip off the old block in many ways - or at least I try to be. Dad was more of a gentleman.... and they were perhaps gentler times.

But agriculture seems stuck in the industrial era, relying on Union Power when perhaps there is little point lobbying?
Our type of agriculture preceeds all that: dog and stick, just the modern dog and fibreglass rods... in NZ the principles haven't been pawned.

Sure, our current gov't doesn't really get it; they deal as industrialists do, piecemeal approach to problem creation and solving, whereas agriculture and environment is much more holistic than a sum of the parts, and our economy is very much underpinned by the export dollar.

Again, thankyou Walter, food for thought indeed.

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

Another day, another autoethnographical post by Walter. I will take this opportunity to commend him on his persistent 'analysis of self' and his continuing efforts to disassemble the contents of his mind and seek answers regarding their origins.

Referring to the actual words of his post, rather than what is between them;

The average Joseph or Joanna Public openly admits to despising our democratically elected MP's, but they are much more palatable than the alternative.

Likewise, the average shopper perceives farmers to be greedy, dim, rich scroungers, but buying food from a shop is always going to be easier than having to grow it yourself.

 

[Red Fred]

Likewise, the average shopper perceives farmers to be greedy, dim, rich scroungers, but buying food from a shop is always going to be easier than having to grow it yourself.

I always find that the greedy, rich, dim scroungers are not us local folks who let them have a few sausages or eggs, or hold their charity functions in our field. The "bad" farmers are somewhere else wherever it is that all this factory farming takes place- maybe East Anglia or the Midlands or somewhere vague that no-one knows much about but their Auntie's Husband visited in 1984. It is a form of racism really, just as it would be if we generalised about any group. I suppose lawyers become thick skinned as they have whole sections to themselves in joke books, but the evil ones are never "nice Mrs Biggins down in the market place who sorted out mum's will," but some vague crook from somewhere else. Obviously a few are crooked and evil just like farmers, but most are just getting by.

 

[Fallowfield]

In the UK at least what differentiates the farming sector from the rest is the sense of entitlement.

Hardly surprising really given that since 1947 it has been protected by a combination of subsidies, quotas and tariffs.

People have known nothing else and just see it as normal

If you stand back for a minute and look at it with a degree of detachment it seems very odd.

Particularly when you try to square it with farmers' views of themselves as independent and self reliant.

 

[FonterraFarmer]

In what way is the UK 40 years behind New Zealand?

1984/5 Rogernomics and subsidy removal. As harsh and ruthless as it was , it made primary industry stand on its own two feet and farmers survive on their own mertit without unnecessary government intervention. Its not perfect but its way better than what I've seen in the UK ,EU or North America.

 

[FonterraFarmer]

I take that as one of the biggeat compliments imaginable - thank you.

A chip off the old block in many ways - or at least I try to be. Dad was more of a gentleman.... and they were perhaps gentler times.

But agriculture seems stuck in the industrial era, relying on Union Power when perhaps there is little point lobbying?
Our type of agriculture preceeds all that: dog and stick, just the modern dog and fibreglass rods... in NZ the principles haven't been pawned.

Sure, our current gov't doesn't really get it; they deal as industrialists do, piecemeal approach to problem creation and solving, whereas agriculture and environment is much more holistic than a sum of the parts, and our economy is very much underpinned by the export dollar.

Again, thankyou Walter, food for thought indeed.

+1 for that Pete
Thanks Walter for reminding us!!!