No Farmers, No Food, No F*****g Way!
The image below is of a protest by farmers in Central London on February 10, the second such protest, and an even larger one than the first. What are they protesting about, or rather what are they protesting against? An increase in inheritance tax which, if implemented next year, will cripple the farming industry in this country by forcing the new owners of family farms to pay an extortionate increase to the Government when the current owner dies.
Inheritance tax used to be known as death duties. The idea that people should have to pay a tax in order to die is novel. What are those who can’t afford it to do, live forever?
Seriously though, this idea may be novel but it is far from new. Inheritance tax in this country goes back hundreds of years. In the United Kingdom, it is a hefty 40%; it is twice that in Belgium; in Japan it is 55%, but many countries have no inheritance tax.
The UK 40% rate is not that simple; it is charged on the net value of the estate, and ordinary people can die leaving fairly large sums which are not taxable at all. Farms are different though, anyone who owns a farm is likely to be quite wealthy – on paper. A phrase we have heard a lot since Rachel from Accounts decided to increase the burden on them is that farmers are “asset rich, cash poor”. What does that mean in practice?
Consider this, a leading London dealership that specialises in luxury vehicles is currently offering a 2024 Ford F150 for the hefty price of £159, 950 plus VAT. Does that mean this vehicle is worth that much? No, that would be the cost of a replacement. As soon as a motorist puts his vehicle on the road, its value is halved. Now apply that to farm equipment and farm property.
Why is the British Government going down this route? There is a simple answer, and it is not a pleasant one. The people who would rule over us, want their land. They want to put small farmers, medium sized farmers, family farms in general, out of business. This worldwide assault on farmers has taken and is taking many forms. In the Netherlands, the claim is that its intensive farming leads to too much nitrogen in the soil, so half or even most of them must go. In Ireland, farmers were told they have to cull 200,000 cows because the methane they produce is contributing to an imaginary climate crisis. And yes, the climate crisis is imaginary.
In Britain, the Government is using another imaginary crisis to impoverish and then destroy our farming industry, namely a dire shortage of finance. There is no need for any government to go short of money when it can mint coins, print notes, or simply create it by writing figures in a ledger or code in cyberspace. Critics of this approach claim this will lead to hyper-inflation, citing Weimar Germany, liberated Zimbabwe and of late, Venezuela; this is a well-worn scare tactic.
By definition, taxation draws money out of circulation, ie purchasing power. That means less investment by the private sector, and less money in YOUR pocket. At the same time the British Government is backing this nefarious scheme it is plotting to give away the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and pay Mauritius billions of pounds to take them. Its imbecile Foreign Secretary David Lammy – the man who thought Henry VIII was the father of Henry VII – is currently campaigning for Britain the pay the West Indies “reparations” for dragging their ancestors out of the Stone Age. And all this is before we mention this country being flooded with impoverished migrants while the wealthy flee in droves.
If we allow the Starmer gang to get away with this insanity, we will have massive food shortages and even more rampant inflation than we have had since the covid lockdowns. Supporting the farmers isn’t simply the right thing to do morally, it is the right thing to do for your own survival.
Finally, if like our captured mainstream media and cranks of the extreme left you are inclined to dismiss the war on farming as a conspiracy theory, here is a short video by those good people at The Epoch Times that will change your mind.