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There is no such thing as countryside. Can anyone define it? Where does the suburb stop and countryside begin?

No. We have areas of low population density and areas of high population density and both have their problems. Problems of low density population are usually solved by increasing the population to a level where services become economic.

'This most ignored group' get a public subsidy of 4 billion a year to keep them in their lifestyles. Why are tractor sales booming?

still any mention of 'their' countryside is bound to get ambridge foaming....

Blair has handled the countryside just as we thought he would in '97: badly! He doesn't understand the countryside and he doesn't care about it because there are not many voters living in rural areas.

It will take us years (if ever) to recover from the damage his administration has wreaked

Here in Scotland free access to the countryside has been enshrined in legislation under the politically correct Mr Blair (everyone had the right anyway) - but there has been no attempt to ensure that education has gone hand in hand with that 'right'.

Rights come with responsibilities. What do we see now? Dogs out of control in areas where vulnerable (and often rare) ground nesting birds are attempting to nest/fledge. Litter (including human waste) left lying around - round here that 'waste' is left on the banks of an important salmon spawning river, trees cut down for firewood by campers...

It is time that we were governed by people who recognised the responsibility society has to ensure future generations can enjoy the countryside and its wildlife - to do that, the people who manage the countryside should be given the tools they need to do their jobs and regulation should be cut! Education about the fragility of the countryside's balance should be taught in schools.

Article 9 of the Birds Directive should be correctly applied where necessary! I don't suppose Mr Blair even knows what the Birds Directive is!

I have lived in Newcastle upon Tyne for the last 18 years, but for the 18 years before that lived in rural south Lincolnshire, where many of my family and friends still live.

In my experience, there is little doubt that the "countryside", and in particular the rural ways of life, are not at all a priority for the current government, which does appear to rely for much of its support on the "metropolitan elites". Let's face it, simple demographics indicate that there aren't many votes in the countryside for this government (or many governments, for that matter).

But the countryside is important to many of us who live in urban areas too, and the government would do well to remember that. Without the people who live there looking after it, there would be no "countryside" for the rest of us to visit. It is important, therefore, that things such as rural shops, post offices and transport, are protected by the government. It is all too easy for those of us who live within easy reach of such services to forget that.

I agree. I think rural areas have been seriously ignored by the government and there is a real problem. The power of the Supermarkets have been used to really undermine the rural economy

I feel though that the Countryside Alliance is partly to blame for that. By focussing on the issue of fox hunting (where it was unlikely to get support, even in rural areas) rather than the issue of farm prices, which is at the root of the problem, it has diverted attemtion away from what really matters.

I'm not overly familiar with farmers in the UK, despite having lived there for around 20 months, but having grown up on a farm and then spent the next 25 years in cities - Sydney, Cambridge, Salzburg, Melbourne and Coventry and now Sydney again - I'd have to say that farmers have just as much, or little, knowledge of city trials and tribulations then do city people of farmers'.

Compounding the issue for farmers is they're, on average, a more conservative group and support political parties whose main interest is big business.

I take the view that farmers are really agrarian socialists, they need to get better organised, and they need to form a trade union(s). Farmers don't unite with one voice on the important issues affecting them.

They can't complain city people don't understand them when they're unable to get the message across.

Cheers
DG

I wholeheartedly agree that country folk are the most ignored minority group, and I'd go one further to suggest that Tony Blair actually used them as a scapegoat to take pressure off himself by bringing in the ban on foxhunting. True, the ban received a lot of support, but the fact is that for many, hunting not only provided an income, but was the basis of community life. It felt very much like a 'crowd-pleaser' designed to attract some voters, and certainly ignored the needs of rural communities.

Furthermore Mr Blair's farcical handling of the BSE and then the foot & mouth crises most definitely led to some farmers losing their income, their livelihood, their homes and their way of life. Only time will tell how this legacy affects our farming communities in the future, but for me it was not the war in Iraq, but the (then) Prime Minister's utter betrayal of our farmers that will forever blight his leadership.

I think we should stop seeing the policies needed in the countryside as completely separate from those in towns/cities.

During Blair's time in office, I have moved from the countryside to the inner city, yet I am still affected by the same policy failings.

* The march of supermarkets has wrecked local shops in my area - and made life for farmers incredibly difficult. It has also added to trasnport problems and road congestion.

* House prices in my area have rocketed making homes unaffordable for many - but given those who have made money on the property ladder the means to buy second homes and cause countryside problems too.

* Problems (or perceived problems) in cities - whether crime, or poor schools, or noise and pollution - have driven families away from these areas to "safer" areas further out, but left them dependent on car transport, and often commuting back to the city - adding further to the pollution and noise problem for those left there.

One of the best rural policies would be to massively improve our cities so they were seen as vibrant, dynamic, safe communities where people wanted to live - not just a place you stay until you can escape to a perfect green idyll somewhere else - displacing the people who live there at the same time.

This government's attitude towards countryside issues has been contemptible - Blair is only interested in how to spin issues to a predominantly urban electorate.

Low rural wages - and the chronic lack of affordable housing - are issues which have attracted little or no government action. These have been exacerbated by post office closures and the single farm payment fiasco.

The only countryside initiative has been the hunting ban - a pathetic and irrelevant PR issue.

What Blair has done by his brazen disregard of the countryside will be seen in due course as a worse legacy than the chaos he has bequeathed Iraq. But the two sagas similarly reveal Blair's shallowness and weakness. He was steamrollered by left wing interests into the ban on hunting just as Bush pushed him into Iraq.

Countryside the ignored minority? What a joke, theres always news about the countryside - rural post offices, fox hunting, farm prices too low, farm prices too high, too many people from town moving into villages, too many people moving out of villages - you name it country people whinge about it and manage to get coverage on the news.

The bottom line is that nobody in the countryside votes Labour and the Labour Government governs only for the urban population.

To many on the left of the Labour party it is more than just apathy, it is downright hatered. It often seems that they are using rural Britain as a revenge target (the ban on hunting with hounds immediately springs to mind) for the way the unions were emasculated by Margaret Thatcher's government.

The farmers in Northumberland, the Lake District and Yorkshire were left devastated by the Foot & Mouth Outbreak. The funeral pyres of the livestock were pitiful to see and people avoided walking in the countryside as they were afraid of spreading the disease. Some farmers committed suicide at the ruin of their life's work. Many farmers were handled so insensitively.

Travelling on the Settle/Carlisle railway was no longer a pleasure as the countryside was bare of animals.
The S/Carlisle railway was used to transport much of the dead livestock to Bradford to a rendering plant in closed wagons.

The compensation received by some hill farmers will not make up for this bungling farce but will ensure they leave farming forever. This means the UK will change for ever as farming will be taken over by huge conglomerates with no interest in looking after the countryside as we know it now.

Lots of other people in the countryside were left penniless as well as the farmers viz. B & B hotels, pubs, garden centres and even ice-cream sellers! None of these received any compensation at all.

There was definitely a city v. country feeling about the problem as it was felt the Government had no interest in these people who would probably not vote for them anyway and certainly will not do so now.

The farmers in Northumberland, the Lake District and Yorkshire were left devastated by the Foot & Mouth Outbreak. The funeral pyres of the livestock were pitiful to see and people avoided walking in the countryside as they were afraid of spreading the disease. Some farmers committed suicide at the ruin of their life's work. Many farmers were handled so insensitively.

Travelling on the Settle/Carlisle railway was no longer a pleasure as the countryside was bare of animals.
The S/Carlisle railway was used to transport much of the dead livestock to Bradford to a rendering plant in closed wagons.

The compensation received by some hill farmers will not make up for this bungling farce but will ensure they leave farming forever. This means the UK will change for ever as farming will be taken over by huge conglomerates with no interest in looking after the countryside as we know it now.

Lots of other people in the countryside were left penniless as well as the farmers viz. B & B hotels, pubs, garden centres and even ice-cream sellers! None of these received any compensation at all.

There was definitely a city v. country feeling about the problem as it was felt the Government had no interest in these people who would probably not vote for them anyway and certainly will not do so now.

I am a 鈥榯ownie鈥�, but even I have recognised how Blair has ravaged the countryside.

Their one and only agenda over the past 10 years has been 鈥榟unting鈥�. This was/is totemic to Blair and he has failed in just about everything else in the countryside. It鈥檚 bio-diversity, public services, housing, post offices oh and yes鈥�.farming. Remember we used to have farmers out there!

His ten year attack upon the countryside has truly been 'Foot IN Mouth'.

I think Blair has handled the countryside as well as he has handled everything else in his reign of ten years, with total unbelievable incompetence which the UK may never recover from!

This government does not give a damn about the countryside, Blair and his friends could not care less. I was brought up in very rural Scotland and still have close family who are tenant farmers and their lot has certainly not improved during the tenure of this labour government.

As for DEFRA, I have it on good authority that the Scottish farmers fare a lot better than down south - according to my source at least in Scotland they are on the farmers' side which does not seem to be the perception of the civil servants who run the shambles that passes for DEFRA in England.

I live in the countryside in a reasonably high per capita income. We subsidise lower per capita income areas by a reduction in our funding of local NHS PCTs. Ambulances cannot reach my village within the 8 minute target time - unless they are helicopters, perhaps. The local community hospital has had its MIU removed from it. I pay higher petrol duties as I have further to travel for employment. My 4x4 is taxed more highly. `The local post office has a closure threat. The mobile library seems to have disappeared. The bus service has been reduced. What has the government done for us - oh yes, regional government adding another layer to bureacracy without accountability and with improverished examination of its activities by the media.

As a working farmer the greatest handicap I have had to face during Blair's premiership has been a series of incompetent, ill-informed ministers. Not only have they failed to get a grasp on their brief in relation to agriculture, but they have allowed themselves, through sheer ignorance, to be manipulated by partial interests into wasteful, costly policies. The fiasco of the Single Farm Payment is perhaps the most visible of these.

The countryside.....who cares? Nobody it would appear. New Zealand Lamb,Irish butter,Romanian beef,Danish bacon,milk from goodness knows where, why do we bother? Just let 'Tescopoly' rule. They will buy where it's cheapest, irrespective of distance or freshness, the British housewife will only look at price. Then we can then build on the countryside, irrespective of whether or not the occupiers will have jobs, the social security can then bail 'em out and they can all go on holiday to other country'sides', in their foreign cars and on foreign airlines!
We used to say "will the last person to leave Britain put out the light" but there will be no need to bother -there won't be any energy 'cos we can't pay for imported fuel. Maurice Chevalier used to sing "I'm glad I'm not young any more!" I thought he was daft, now I'm not so sure!
Seriously tho. we must get a grip and sort out our future energy and food supplies and not rely on others.They won't bail us out in the same way we used to come to their rescue!

Once upon a time, every little hamlet had it's petrol pump...not so any more. In the part of rural Lincolnshire where I live virtually all the village filling stations are now closed so we have to trek into the nearest town, wasting petrol and time, and usually having to get in a lengthy queue! It's like living in a Third World country. Thanks Mr.Blair. You could have made some effort to preserve our facilities..."market forces" don't work for everyone!

Britain鈥檚 treasured landscape is managed and farmed because of the communities who live and work there; it is they who have created it.

Since Blair and his urban mindset MP's came to power they have done everthing in their power to undermine the countryside.

The funding to rural areas has been lower, the interest displayed in furthering rural development is tied up in euro-speak, not an ounce of thought has gone into sustaining communities, but the two biggest blunders which will live on, was his gross incompetence, nay gross negligence of handling foot-and-mouth and of course Labour's favourite play thing, fox-hunting.

He has no care or consideration for the wake of destruction he has left behind and that too goes for his Ministers in Beckett, Alun Michael, Morely and Bradshaw.

Unresolved issues still are: Milk prices, affordable housing, rural schools/buses/dentists/midwives/doctors/ Over 6,000 farmers have left the land. Bovine Tb costs the taxpayer some 拢50 million a year, no border controls on food imports, tax on working vehicles (4x4's)...have you ever tried to tow a 2,000lb bull with a Ford Ka?, upland management, wetland habitats, making forestry profitable, wool prices, supermarket domination and so the list goes on.

Blair is oblivious to his legacy thrust upon the countryside, but it is inherant of his utter hatred of his own people; rural people.

I live in Oxfordshire in a small village. I can honestly say that the countryside is being forgotten. We were without a car for four days last year and we were stuck in the village for days. No public transport, no shops, no post office, only two pubs. Our village school is excellent, all parents (and I mean ALL parents) are involved in activities and voluntary helping. And what happens? Because there are less than 100 children, we had to justify its existence. I believe that only London and Blair's constituancy get his attention.

The Blair government has sought to manage the countryside without having much understanding of how it works. They seem to have forgotten (if they ever knew) that one of the reasons that the countryside is beautiful is because it has been farmed and managed by those who have a real interest in it; after all, if it's not managed well then next years income is severely affected. So it is in everyones interest that it continues to be farmed well. Yes there are those who play the system for their own selfish ends, but they are not confined to the countryside. Beautiful, expansive (and expensive) it may be but it is also equivalent to a factory; people actually work and live here as well as it being a place of leisure for those who wish to come. BSE, Foot & Mouth, the loss of amenities (Post offices, shops, schools, pubs etc) has all been overseen by a government that considers big and central to be the only way to manage anything. Incompetence in paying out Direct Farm Payments; using hunting as a political football; milk prices to the producer; these are all serious issues that have simply been ignored because there aren't many votes for Labour here. He's certainly left a legacy but not one he has any right to be proud of.

The point is how People treat themselves. The rest is only use of space. "Space is holy"

Blair and his government have only paid lip service to the countryside until recently when Natural England came on to the scene. A strongly biased quango that has little or no grasp of true rural issues.
Blair should have been booted out of office after the Foot and Mouth debacle, but that has been convieniently forgotten about. However the rural communities - markets, suppliers, farmers and others cannot forget about it, we are reminded by the mass of paper work that we have to deal with. Blair's stance on the control of Bovine TB leaves much to be desired, demonstrating his lack of knowledge and inability to act firmly.
The Hunting act was a farce, Open Access cost an absolute fortune and in this area (Peak District) only proved that government bodies can waste money. Lets stop the coastal access proposals before they end up the same.
Finally we have to congratulate Blair and his government on the implementing of the CAP review. English farmers are now going to be worse off than Scottish, Welsh, or any other farmer in the EU. The handling of the Single Farm Payment scheme just exemplifies how inept Mr Blairs DEFRA can be. Where else would the head of such an organisation be upgraded - to Foreign Secretary.
Well done Mr Blair!
The big concern now is how Mr Brown will cope.

Countryside? Who cares? Seriously.

You set the question 鈥淲hat do you think of the way Blair has handled the countryside? If you live or work in the countryside we'd also like to know your views.鈥�

I don鈥檛 think Blair did much at all for the farming fiasco and the slaughter of cattle. He is titular head of Government and as such his powers are vested in others to do the work, I look at him as Parliaments Chief Executive.

Why can鈥檛 we have the silent men from the Ministries to explain their views to the country and that they may be questioned at length, be able to explain why certain things were done that way as well as explaining their departmental shortcomings and if these deficiencies were the result of bad management or shortage of funds and/or staffing levels. I would also suggest that some blame can be put to the Whitehall Mandarins (and others) who may be responsible for the Departmental running.

We live in a society which seems to only be concerned with profit and the economy.So it's no surprise that there is hardly any countryside left. The issues we have now were all caused by 'Maggie Thatcher' and her urbanisation, leading to the majority of people living in the south of England. In hampshire, where I live it has become a Concrete Jungle!

I don't know why the countrysiders are so bitter. Blair spoke time and again about 'the many, not the few'. It even said it on my cut up party membership card. The 'countryside' minority probably have had a raw deal, but so has every other minority. I am a socialist and I've had the worst deal of all. But you still have your flies, rabbits, foxes, your lovely smell of the earth, the sunsets and sunrises, cows, sheep, goats, donkeys. Cream teas, home grown food, jam making contests, who has the longest runner bean....Stop complaining and enjoy what you have. Apart from your blood sports it never was any different when the Tories were in, and it won't be any different if they get back.

IT'S A CONSPIRACY...FARMERS WAKE UP!

Not only did Heath stuff the fishermen "22,000 fishermen are irreleant",looks like he stuffed the farmers as well.

We pay France and other countries subsidies to farm while our own dairy farmers go to the wall.
We import too much food when we should be growing our own instead of covering the countryside in concrete.

We are not always going to enjoy the luxury of 'cheap'food. Even now affluent China and Asia, are enjoying more western diets and importing lamb and dairy products from New Zealand.
Woe betide when food gets scarce, that's when the real fun will begin. We are an island race and need to be more self-sufficient. It will be too late when our politicians wake up to this fact

the self centred farmers are moaning again. why is their cup always half empty and yet while subsidies for all industry has ceased theirs is ever growing. either get out of farming or get on with the job without waiting for the next state handout!!

Give him credit where it is due - He has together with his Government screwed everything British and in particular English!
I don't think Iraq is happy place either!
So they have been consistant!
Touch it and they wreck it!
Would Adolf Hitler have done as much damage?

Does anyone remember the poisoning of the foodchain by farming on the cheap, and then the audacity of the buy British Beef campaign that followed as the farmers swanned around in their Mitsubishi tractors passing the decayed towns and cities of the industrialised north, a result of the Thatcher regime backed by the countyside.
And why did they back the Thatcher regime, because of the freedom of farming on the cheap of course.

What goes around comes around!

Comparisons to adolf Hitler is not only insulting to Tony Blair and his supporters(the silent majority), but also to the people and relatives who experienced the war firsthand.

shall we get an interview in ALNWICK CASTLE, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Northumberland, the Percy family, the largest landowners in the County, who have lived there since 1309? or with the 9th Duke of Buccleuch?

a nice chat about enclosures and subsidy and land tax and tenant contracts and do they feel it right that in the absence of a land monopoly law one person can set rents for vast areas of land knowing, that due to intermarriage etc, there is no significant competition or option? An inner empire of landowners?

why talk to the tenants [who fear to lose their houses if they talk] and second homers who keep villages empty when it makes more sense to talk to the organ grinders?

Blair's attitude to the UK countryside? He gave Prescott the environment portfolio. Prescott who openly despises the countryside and those who live in it.

At 09:34 PM on 13 Jun 2007, T Coumbe wrote:
Blair's attitude to the UK countryside? He gave Prescott the environment portfolio. Prescott who openly despises the countryside and those who live in it.

Hence he became Known as the Concrete Man Cometh. Put your own slant on 'Cometh'!

拢140,000 SFP per annum to cut some hedges and keep the land Ok, I think they should be loving Tony Blair! I cut hedges and keep my house Ok and have to pay council tax!

No wonder they have more time to chase poor defenceless foxes who obviously are not granted 'freedom of choice'

But I do think the price of 17p for a litre of milk is ludicrous, it is not good to end up having to import food, or coal, or anything that we can produce here in the UK. Our manufacturing base and productivity should be preserved and enhanced.

拢140,000 SFP per annum to cut some hedges and keep the land Ok, I think they should be loving Tony Blair! I cut hedges and keep my house Ok and have to pay council tax!

No wonder they have more time to chase poor defenceless foxes who obviously are not granted 'freedom of choice'

But I do think the price of 17p for a litre of milk is ludicrous, it is not good to end up having to import food, or coal, or anything that we can produce here in the UK. Our manufacturing base and productivity should be preserved and enhanced.

I have been saying this for years.

The farming industry is only 1 per cent of the labour force. In recent years we have seen BT lay-off over 30,000 staff, likewise the banks, the car industry and the coal industry - amongst many.

Removing the subsidary to farming is the best thing we could ever do.

Close down farming and save us all a fortune.

After all we can buy all our food cheaper abroad.

It means that farm land will revert to it true value not inflated by milk quotes and subsidies.

In the end commercial farming will return.

If this means farming by biodynamics and organics, with a rise in other sorts of land management, trees, hobby farms etc. all the better.

The point is that Europe (aka UK} has an over-producing agricultural area. France, Germany and now Poland are mainly agricultural areas and as such we do not need farmers who have to conduct their business in such a manner as they did 10 to 15 years ago.

Farming has to change, full stop, as did the mining and car industry long ago.

people who dont care about the country side should wake up!!! british farmers are screwed by the supermarkets! they dictate the price they will pay them!! british agriculture is going to the wall! no farmers want the subsides they would all prefere to get a desent price for the products the produce!! when british farming has gone, where do you think the food will come from? abroad yes, untill theres a world disaster and we wont be the slightestbit self sufficent!! Look afta our own farmers buy local, BUY BRITISH, buy the best!!

The point is that Europe (aka UK} has an over-producing agricultural area. France, Germany and now Poland are mainly agricultural areas and as such we do not need farmers who have to conduct their business in such a manner as they did 10 to 15 years ago.

Farming has to change, full stop, as did the mining and car industry long ago.

Blair is a traitor to the British people.

And as for the last daft comment that there is no such thing as the countryside: - the countryside begins where townies are too scared to venture into the dark at night.

The public subsidy is not to support lifestyles but as payment for maintaining the Disney World park which Blair鈥檚 government has created.

Tractors are being sold off to massive cartels, not being bought by small farmers. For now, farming is virtually dead in this country, but how long will it be before climate change precipitates a famine, perhaps as dire as the last one which a Labour government presided over in the early 1950s?

people who dont care about the country side should wake up!!! british farmers are screwed by the supermarkets! they dictate the price they will pay them!! british agriculture is going to the wall! no farmers want the subsides they would all prefere to get a desent price for the products the produce!! when british farming has gone, where do you think the food will come from? abroad yes, untill theres a world disaster and we wont be the slightestbit self sufficent!! Look afta our own farmers buy local, BUY BRITISH, buy the best!!

Aren't we all getting a little bored hearing country folk moaning? They complain about their animals dying because of foot and mouth. Have they forgotten that they are in the business of killing animals? Their animals are dying all the time. If they don't like it, give up animal exploitation and become vegetarian or better still, vegan. (Hardly likely to do that when they are getting handouts though. A figure of 拢140.000 was mentioned by one of the complainants.)

How many more times must we hear farmers complaining about the animals they lost due to foot and mouth. Have they forgotten that they are in the business of killing animals? That is what farming is all about. If they don't like it, please will they become vegetarina or, better still, vegan. Hardly likely whild they are getting handsome single farm payments.

If you want cheep food now here's the deal,
family farms are brought to heal.
Hammer blows of size and scale,
foot and mouth the final nail.
The coffin of are English dream,
lies out on the village green,
Where agree barrens CAP in hand,
strip this green and pleasant land.
Part of a song by Show of Hands called Country Life, for the full version go to youtube.

The countryside is where food is produced; suburbs/cities is where lots of people live who are increasingly out of touch with the basics of life. Many more live in suburbs/cities than in the countryside; their sons and daughters go to universities where they learn more abstract than practical knowledge. The country is run by city-dwellers more than countryfolk.
City-dwellers also care about the countryside: many like to walk in it, or at least to look at it. They tend to have unrealistic views (inc rose-coloured glasses) when it comes to countryside issues, or even how to make policies concerning farming. Government really prefers the countryside to be a pretty place for city-dwellers to go, rather than a place where food is produced.
Some city-dwellers complain about subsidies received by farmers; these were introduced to keep food prices artificially low. Where a century ago a family's income was largely spent on food, that percentage has dropped dramatically. Meanwhile farmers work longer hours than city-dwellers, and make a great deal less money, also don't take the same vacations.
Farming has to become "big business" if the farmer wants to survive. Many smaller and medium-sized farms go out of business; this is a continuing trend. It is of little interest to most city-dwellers who tend not to be aware of it.
City-dwellers may come to regret their lack of interest after most farms have gone (or have become theme parks), and/or when pollution costs of transport are included in the cost of food. That's life in the modern world.

If you want cheep food now here's the deal,
family farms are brought to heal.
Hammer blows of size and scale,
foot and mouth the final nail.
The coffin of are English dream,
lies out on the village green,
Where agree barrens CAP in hand,
strip this green and pleasant land.
Part of a song by Show of Hands called Country Life, for the full version go to youtube.

J P has to do a Piljer and get his teeth into the corruption that revolves around the agricultural budget in the UK, 100s of millions diverted away from farmers and taxpayers into owners of pony paddocks, unproductive rubbish land eg. RSPB's single payment of a million? The millions and millions paid out to consultants who devised the RPS and the millions and millions farmers pay them to interprete the stupid rules. English Nature, Natural England, EFFP, National Parks, Levy Board, training consultants (who get paid for bums on seats). There are thousand of non-farming organisations scamming the agricultural budget.
CHECK THE COTRIBUTORS TO THE FUTURE OF FARMING AND FOOD 2002. This may help track which organisations recieve the funds.
Who is in charge of British agriculture?

J P has to do a Piljer and get his teeth into the corruption that revolves around the agricultural budget in the UK, 100s of millions diverted away from farmers and taxpayers into owners of pony paddocks, unproductive rubbish land eg. RSPB's single payment of a million? The millions and millions paid out to consultants who devised the RPS and the millions and millions farmers pay them to interprete the stupid rules. English Nature, Natural England, EFFP, National Parks, Levy Board, training consultants (who get paid for bums on seats). There are thousand of non-farming organisations scamming the agricultural budget.
CHECK THE COTRIBUTORS TO THE FUTURE OF FARMING AND FOOD 2002. This may help track which organisations recieve the funds.
Who is in charge of British agriculture?

Jeremy Paxman's feature on the countryside was excellent. I have lived in London and seen life from both sides. To say that Blair and his government have ignored rural issues suggests a reasonably benign attitude on their part. Here in the countryside it feels more like a deliberate attempt to destroy a way of life.

At 11:24 PM on 13 Jun 2007, j noddings ........... YOU are a sooo short sighted!!! why dont you leave the countryside people to manage it the way which is best!! after all they have been doing it for many generations!! not like u townies!! subisides is wrong every farmer thinks that!, they would MUCH prefere to get a decent price for the food they Produce instead the supermarket screwing them down to the last penney which is why they need support i mean come on 17p for a litre of milk water cost at least double that!!!

British farmers loose money, they dont make it!!! get that in to prespective!!!

if british agriculture goes you are reling on forign farmers to produce our food that isnt any where near the quality of british standard!! support you local farmers before you kill the most inportant industry in the country!!

..Oh dear, what a load of 'Daily Mailite' bile; so it's the government's fault if the countryside is 'full' of rubbish, etc....

In most of these posts I see the 'philosophy', 'the world owes us (poor country folk) a living'

This thread should get a 'Golden Globe', (or should that be Cowpat?) for the applied whingeing within it...

.....Hi Ho....

Prescott changed planning so green gardens are now classified as 'brownfield' sites.
Then the big city boys decided that centuries of hunt tradition should be trampled on and hunts abolished.
New Labour was, and is, so big city orientated that the country is a mystery to them.
They don't understand green England so it's easy to see them blundering into Iraq where there is little grass
- that's another country they can mess up!

Where do we start? Yes, in the past (at least 10 years ago) farmers could make a reasonable living.
Now it is an absolute disaster.
When the reforms started and we moved over to the single farm payment system it was the worst thing this Government could have done.
The Rural Payments Agency are so far behind with payments and administration. Their staff are rude, disorganised and inefficient.
If any other sector of society acted like this they would be sacked.
Our forms are sent in on time - they come back again with completely different information on - the RPA had 'lost' three of our fields altogether. Nearly every farmer you speak to is in the same boat.
We had to give up milking in 2000 because we could no longer afford to keep going. We converted a barn into three holiday cottages. We still keep some beef animals and grow corn. We are just scraping a living even now. We receive Tax Credits because our joint income (I work in the office of a local school) is still less than 拢16,000 p.a. Not many people in this country live on that amount now.
The worst thing is that Margaret Beckett and others in her Department kept their jobs and were even promoted to other more important positions (God help the Foreign Office!). This needs to be revealed to the general public. The countryside will go to rack and ruin and then it will be too late. What checks are put in place to test food imported from Eastern Europe to make sure there are no chemicals and medicines used which are banned in this Country?
It physically hurts to see some of the comments from people about farmers' lifestyles. They should try living like this - it's hell.
I will watch tonight's debate with great interest.

After watching last nights programme i think it just highlights how Blair does not understand the Countryside.

As an 19 year old, i think i have a better understanding of rural affairs compared to Blair.

All i can say is long live the countryside, if it can recover from the pummeling its received over the last 10 years!

The ox is supposed to be the back bone of the farm, not the soupbone. Similarly, the farm is supposed to be the foundation of civilized culture, not its "patsy."

I live in what was a delightful big overgrown village in Italy that has grown into a presumptious bigger town thanks to the local administration who believe as others before, that weird traffic flow and paid parking would upgrade the place and make it into a metro.
The outskirts earlier made up of farms and agricultural land have now been converted into badly served multistoried residential appartments where drug peddlers and crime abound.

This is the case of most Italian village-towns. The countryside has lost its farms as it's too costly to legitimately hire labour; the young don' like hard work, so agricultural land has been made over to buildings and whatever medioeval villge/towns have remained the same are all underpopulated if at all, with very, very old people who merely survive to die as it were, there being no sign of political will to make them (the villages) live again.
Life frankly has been reduced to computers, fast food and the superfluous. If you can't use your cellphone as there is no signal, or work your computer, is't hardly likely that young people will go back to their villages or work farms. It just does not pay.

So I think that this is a problem that all Europe is facing. Either you really integrate young immigrants who come from agrarian societies and accommodate to them as well, or you let your countryside wither away and import all your food from ...China?

I think country folks are much better off ,now adays, ignored than recognised due to the fact that administrators,officials,or politicians that one would hope to find in time of need , are the very predators he or she needs to keep away from .Governors govern under the influence of money,much like people driving under the influence of Alcohol; both lead to chaos .I am afraid the wrong kind of attention will be given to those who ask for it.Visits by officials should be few and far in between.Finally country folks should give each other the attention and recognition needed of one another. Best of luck to you all