British farmers are angry, even if their response is not quite as dramatic as that of their French counterparts. Across the Channel, they besieged Paris and exacted concessions from the government over fuel costs.
Here, a burgeoning protest over the impact on incomes of cheap foreign food imports reflects a deep malaise in the industry. Tractors lined up on roads outside the port of Dover with slow-moving vehicles causing traffic hold-ups. One farmer said supermarkets were selling British produce at prices “cheaper than the cost of production”.
They are caught between the consumer’s desire for cheap food and the need to make a decent living. Politicians purport to sympathise – but more of their voters are shoppers than farmers.
A Whitehall spokesman responded to the Dover protest by insisting: “We firmly back our farmers.”
If that is true, why are farmers threatened with losing inheritance tax (IHT) exemptions that apply to agricultural land if they turn it over to rewilding projects? They are being encouraged to be more environmentally friendly by apportioning some of their land to green schemes yet the taxman will then deem it to be within the ambit of IHT.
Only if it is used to grow crops or raise animals in a commercial undertaking does it benefit from Agricultural Property Relief designed to ensure farms can be passed down through the generations.
In his Budget last March, Jeremy Hunt said this matter would be subject to a consultation. It concluded in June. On the eve of another Budget, the policy remains unannounced. How can it take so long? Mr Hunt should use his Budget to give farmers some clarity about their IHT eligibility. Better still, he should scrap it altogether – for everyone.