Gwyn Jones Farm Diary: We need a more can-do attitude to take this country into the New Year

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Another year gone and they seem to fly past faster each time. Weatherwise its been another difficult one, as a challenging spring led to a wettish summer and then more wet weather this autumn (although not nearly as bad as last year), and storms! Several of those in the last few weeks with the damage, flooding, and power cuts they bring. We are lucky in the South East as the western side of the country take the brunt of it all, and whilst it causes enough problems in our area, it is not nearly as bad.

The weather has been quite similar to the politics in 2024, as we remember a very wet Prime Minister announcing an election in the late spring, a summer of campaigning under a cloud, only for spectacular storms to arrive with the new government.

Agriculture can’t escape politics as we produce food, energy, landscape and environment, all of which are highly political. This time with the inheritance tax debacle, farmers find themselves at the epicentre of that particular storm.

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It is odd that a government who’s main election pledge was to grow the economy, has decided to tax businesses, which experts say will cost jobs and stifle growth.

Without growing the economy everyone agrees that there will not be the money to do what we want to do, never mind reverse or lower taxes in due course. How do we grow the economy in 2025 given the challenges?

Somehow we need to get back to basics I fear. I have been watching a documentary on the Industrial Revolution, and how it all started in this country of ours when we had a can do attitude and were ingenious, entrepreneurial, free of regulation and constraints.

This is what put this country on the map (literally) and it is an extraordinary story, which by any stretch of the imagination not be credible if written as a work of fiction.

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Of course some terrible things happened too, and whilst some aspects of the Empire which was built on the back of that success were shameful, it was let’s not forget the 17th century. Environmentalists claim that this is where the climate change problem started and they may well be right, but the key to it all at the time was giving up on the weather giving us intermittent power, turning to fossil fuel; namely coal.

Four hundred years on, we have almost come full circle, reversing that, but a few decades to go yet I think.

University students these days cannot bring themselves to look at, never mind take an interest in our history with many referring to the Industrial Revulsion.

On campus, no discussion, no debate, just black and white, a mirror image of social media, with all the mental health problems associated with the concept of, you are either for me or against me, and if you are against me I remove your platform.

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Looking at this country today, it is hard to imagine how it all happened, who were these people who conquered nature and built the industrial world, building roads, rail, factories, coal mines and steel works.

When did we last build a reservoir? Why, we can’t even fix Hammersmith Bridge!

Our roads are full of potholes and a few leaves or the wrong sort of snow is all it takes to stop our trains.Who on earth would want to be Prime Minister or in the Cabinet today? How does one find a way to help those who (during covid) clapped for the NHS on Thursday, but now, no longer terrified, don’t want to pay for it, or social care.

We demand better, a functioning NHS and proper social care, but don’t want migration which provides the people who deliver those essential services.

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We cry out for houses, but we don’t want any built anywhere near us. Those of us who own houses don’t want them devalued, so we worry about cheaper housing.

As an ageing population, we need immigrants to look after us in our old age and build the houses for the younger generation who are missing out. However, our baby boomer generation chose to put an end to European tradespeople who came over for a few years to work, earn some money before going back to Poland or some other country, and now we complain.

Climate change brings risks of up to a million more homes at risk of flooding, a sobering thought. Apparently we have 2.8 million homes at risk of flooding by river and sea, and 4.6 million homes at risk of flooding by surface water. This all calls for more industrial revolution thinking and freedom and the sooner we start the better.

Politicians do not have answers, they never have, regardless of political party.

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What they can do, and should do, is provide the conditions for the country to thrive, and stand back.Brexit promised less regulation, but we have more, a great deal more. That needs sorting out, and quickly. Neither can we have pressure groups dictating what happens, the environment and green spaces are of course important, but we need common sense.

Bat tunnels costing £100 million, huge surveys and costly bureaucracy, whilst rare and extinct creatures are found on almost every potential building site are unaffordable and ridiculous.

Government needs to take control of its various bodies, from the Environment Agency which has failed totally in its core responsibilities, to Natural England which is out of control. Strategies should be agreed and adhered to, so that there is no mission creep and unnecessary interference stopped.

We cannot grow the economy unless we do something about those who go around finding reasons why things cannot be done or projects cannot go ahead, adding huge costs wherever they go.

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The Bank of England also needs to be brought into the equation. The economy needs a boost, and the slow reduction of interest rates is a real hindrance.

Yes, we need to control inflation, but it should be one of many measures and responsibilities and not the only one. I believe the way interest rates go up, just like fuel prices and take as long to come down, is a hindrance; I would go so far as to question the wisdom of the central bank’s independence thirty years on.

So, 2025 the year of opportunity. Will we grasp it? I sincerely hope so, and whilst it has not got off to a good start, to say the least, this government is only a few months in and if it makes adjustments to some of the decisions it has made and delivers on the promises it made to business, we have a chance.

It could be our last chance, and we need quick action or we once again fail to rise above the endless failures of recent years.

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More alarming, if things get much worse, a disruptor will appear, supported by those who have had enough and want change at any price without looking at the tag.

We have done that once, let’s not do it again. In agriculture we look for some sensible adjustments on the inheritance tax and better weather in 2025.

A Happy New Year to all our readers!

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