I think there are a lot of areas/sectors which naively thought 'all that money we send to the EU will be spent on us'.
Quite sad to see really.
Current Affairs EU In or Out
- Thread starter micknick
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Quite sad to see really.
I remember seeing that. Most of it boiled down to little englander racism than any logical reasoning.
Bluerover
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Bluerover
Player Valuation: £60m
Drico
Player Valuation: £70m
They'd be moaning whether they were in the EU or not. Farmers, Europe-wide, seem to think they are owed a living. That said, politicians tend to capitulate to them. Until that changes, there will be no Ukrainian membership of the EU. I don't see that changing...
Yes indeed, in fact, I'd argue the biggest agitators to leave the EU are serial moaners with absolutely no interest in anything other than their often very narrow interests. Profit.
That’s not entirely true. A lot of farmers struggle and are not big rich landowners, but rather smaller tenant farmers. Rural poverty, mental health problems and suicide are rife.
It can be a brutal and relentless business.
Drico
Player Valuation: £70m
Yes, it can, but then so is working in factories. Farmers like to play the "we work the land" card - and the symbolism of that plays well with certain "blood and soil" constituencies in many parts of Europe. The different way the protesting farmers were treated in Germany versus climate activists and Palestinian protestors was instructive. People like to forget that farmers were major supporters of the Nazis. The AfD know that too...
I'm all for a fair deal for small farmers - assuming they can make the transition to a green economy over time (with government help). I'm not in favour of the entitlement that often goes with farming, however, or of being held to ransom by far-right stooges.
Nevertheless, some farmers have genuine grievances that we can all support (such as being ripped off by supermarkets). We need to pay more for our food. To farmers. Not Rewe or Tesco. Yet farmers, in Germany, at least, tend to vote for right-wing parties like the CDU/CSU and FDP who will always prioritise big business over their smaller brethern. The fact that the AfD infiltrated the farmers' protests in Germany is hilarious. In their prosectus, they intend to abolish state subsidies. And farming exists on those...
Anyway, we can now see why all this talk of Ukraine joining the EU is fanciful. Farmers would be wiped out, across the continent. Politicians have little appetite for facing down the farming lobby even now, so there will be no chance of doing what needs to be done to accommodate a giant farm like Ukraine.
Can only speak for the U.K. but they tend to be traditional conservative possibly UKIP voters. Definitely not left wing anyways. I can imagine there would be a different reaction if they ever found cause to March as well.
Working a farm is absolutely brutal. I’ve done this myself. Frozen cut hands and covered in crap all day. Often working 100 hour weeks with no option to stay home if you feel ill.
Sure there are many office farmers and guys that like to drive around in their quads looking all important but it is a tough job.
Drico
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A very tough job - but many of the same farmers who tell us this refuse to pay their farm hands - the guys who really do the very tough work - a fair wage. We need to be careful that the subsidies we pay to farmers go to the people who actually break their backs not the fat cats who simply want to suck on the government teat for their own self-interested reasons.
I see "farmers" - the actual hands - the same way I see urban labourers. They are exploited and need our support. I see "farmers" - the business people with large holdings - the same way I see urban fat cat entrepreneurs. They are the exploiters. They have played a brilliant game of divide and conquer for years - rural v urban - but the country squire has more in common with the urban wide-boy "self-made" man than he ever did with those he exploits on his farm.
If you can't feed a population...
Are the Dutch farmers striking? Those blokes are mustard.
Just been shopping, tomatoes have gone up 20p in the last week.
Loving these Brexit bonuses.
Loving these Brexit bonuses.
Why are you still eating that posh food, when Thérèse Coffey already told us to suck it up and go eat turnip-based diet?
Spadge Vernacular
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