Mr Dyson is cleaning up..!

Hooby Farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
roe valley
Fair play I love seeing people do well especially neighbours and friends. This is the thing, I don't do what Mr Dyson does so I can't expect to have what he has, simple. Our ideas and visions are on different things.
 
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DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
There is a bit of a point though in the argument that when just a few people corner the limited assets of the land, what do they expect everybody else to do? Go and crawl under a stone presumably? We look at all the people on run down inner city estates rife with drugs and crime and we say "look at those feckless lazy barstewards" and in some cases we are right but in other cases they have simply run out of options for gainful employment, a purpose or meaning in life.The continued concentration of the very limited assets of the earth into the hands of the super rich few is not helping that situation. Truth is we have millions of what used to be labouring, small business or enterprise families on the scrap heap now. I used to live amongst them in Manchester. Luckily I had an education and a well paid job but many had debts they could never clear and wages that left sweet FA after paying their rent and living costs. Drugs and alcohol became a sort of anaesthetic to them.

Its easy to please to yourself if you don't think of others. Would I want another 200 acres? No thanks. I have enough to do here. Why would I want more money? I have had flash motors and all that bent and shiny tin but it never brought happiness. None of that brings happiness and then we die. What's the point of amassing a fortune that deprives others of a livelihood? The whole of society is so fudged up its unbelievable. Nobody is satisfied with their lot. A new car, a new wife, a new house, and still its not right or its not enough. Bollox to all of that. Have a pint and be happy.
 

onthehoof

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cambs
There is a bit of a point though in the argument that when just a few people corner the limited assets of the land, what do they expect everybody else to do? Go and crawl under a stone presumably? We look at all the people on run down inner city estates rife with drugs and crime and we say "look at those feckless lazy barstewards" and in some cases we are right but in other cases they have simply run out of options for gainful employment, a purpose or meaning in life.The continued concentration of the very limited assets of the earth into the hands of the super rich few is not helping that situation. Truth is we have millions of what used to be labouring, small business or enterprise families on the scrap heap now. I used to live amongst them in Manchester. Luckily I had an education and a well paid job but many had debts they could never clear and wages that left sweet FA after paying their rent and living costs. Drugs and alcohol became a sort of anaesthetic to them.

Its easy to please to yourself if you don't think of others. Would I want another 200 acres? No thanks. I have enough to do here. Why would I want more money? I have had flash motors and all that bent and shiny tin but it never brought happiness. None of that brings happiness and then we die. What's the point of amassing a fortune that deprives others of a livelihood? The whole of society is so fudged up its unbelievable. Nobody is satisfied with their lot. A new car, a new wife, a new house, and still its not right or its not enough. Bollox to all of that. Have a pint and be happy.
So true
 

onthehoof

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cambs
what would ypu do if ypu Won the lottery tomorow?
the wise man would invest in property . the greedy man would blow the lot
I would beg to differ - if he invested in property he would be doing it to make more money for himself which as he doesn’t need the money anyway could be seen to be being greedy as he is only making himself happy.
If he were wise he may invest it to help people who really need it, to make a difference to society and to make a lot of people happy.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I’ve got to page 3 of this thread.
It’s been spoiled by your repeated childish utterances that don’t add anything to the debate. Can’t be bothered to read any more of it (or of the threads where you’re continually sh1t-stirring). Please stop.

He has a point. He is entitled to add it. There wouldn't be any debate if we all sat here agreeing that ever increasing farm sizes are a good thing.

I'm not going to fall out with big farmers either. Many are my friends and had helped me out. They play the system that's laid in front of them to their advantage in terms of tax breaks and subs and on many levels I don't blame them. But I do find it just a bit greedy I have to say. Especially when we are considering a very limited resource such as land.

Mr Dyson has done a lot of good work on the estates he has bought which were already huge estates and had been for many years. He has created a fair amount of employment and is investing in the education of our future engineers. His good work should be recognised.

He has his way. I have mine. That's fine.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I would beg to differ - if he invested in property he would be doing it to make more money for himself which as he doesn’t need the money anyway could be seen to be being greedy as he is only making himself happy.
If he were wise he may invest it to help people who really need it, to make a difference to society and to make a lot of people happy.

Absolutely right. We need more benevolent entrepreneurs like Cadbury and Rowntree and the Titus Salt who used their profits to the lives of those who helped earn those profits for them. Otherwise there going to be a revolution and it won't end well.
 

Longlowdog

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Aberdeenshire
The counter argument to the land falling into the hands of too few people is simple. They can't do it themselves so they employ people. Lots of people. Those people have jobs with holidays and benefit packages and they pay tax back to the country on land that was probably claiming all the vat back and not making enough profit to pay tax previously. The same argument also covers the likes of Starbucks who are pilloried for tax avoidance yet employ tens of thousands of tax payers and provide employment packages that allow folk to live and prosper if they apply themselves.
There is a net gain for the nation. If the person facilitating this gets a inheritance tax concession or they find a tax loop-hole then so be it. If the family continue to farm it they continue the cycle. If they sell it presumably they get clobbered by capital gains tax.
 

BBC

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
As someone who has created a major worldwide, highly successful business that is providing high employment, is still majorly expanding in the UK, providing lots of training and opportunity for young people, and is resident in the UK and paying tax here, I would far rather that it is James Dyson buying the land than some absentee Russian and Arabic oil baron, who has no interest in the farms, invests the barest minimum and just has it as part of some worldwide property portfolio, and probably doesn't even realise they own land here because it is held in some obscure company based in the Cayman Islands.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
a man who was greedy for land would buy land
Dad worked like a dog all his life, very often mentioned the Workhouse like a lot of old people did , never hear it mentioned anymore .any way dad invested all he had in land, i do wish he had taken more time off but the farm was his life , from all his hard work his children including myself have benefited, as will my children
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
The counter argument to the land falling into the hands of too few people is simple. They can't do it themselves so they employ people. Lots of people. Those people have jobs with holidays and benefit packages and they pay tax back to the country on land that was probably claiming all the vat back and not making enough profit to pay tax previously. The same argument also covers the likes of Starbucks who are pilloried for tax avoidance yet employ tens of thousands of tax payers and provide employment packages that allow folk to live and prosper if they apply themselves.
There is a net gain for the nation. If the person facilitating this gets a inheritance tax concession or they find a tax loop-hole then so be it. If the family continue to farm it they continue the cycle. If they sell it presumably they get clobbered by capital gains tax.

They tend not to employ as many people as were employed before they amalgated the holdings into a megafarm. There are arguments for and against this depending on your overall vision for what consititutes a happy society.

You are right though in that wealth creation is generally a good thing where it creates worthwhile jobs.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I once read a bit of Schumacher "Small is beautiful". He reckoned you could produce more off the land if you built houses with big gardens all over it than if you farmed it conventionally with big fields of wheat.

It was a bit dry, but that was the gist of it, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was right.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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