Fermanagh politicians put on a united front as joined with farmers to opposet the proposed family farm tax as part of the ‘Stop the Tax, Save our Farmers’ event organised by The Impartial Reporter and Farmer’s Voice.
There was a warmth between those attending despite the temperature sitting at four degrees, with politicians sitting side-by-side in the ring alongside panellists.
There was some criticism of Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir levelled at party colleague Enniskillen Alliance councillor Eddie Roofe from the floor.
He responded by stating that the tax is a Westminster issue and defended his colleague: “Andrew has written with the First and Deputy First Minister to call for this to be scrapped.”
Councillor Roofe described the proposed tax as “written on the back of an envelope by someone who had never been anywhere near a farm in their lives”.
He continued: “It should have been admitted as a miscalculation and accepted that they got it wrong and it simply should be scrapped.”
The Sinn Féin Fermanagh South Tyrone MP Pat Cullen emphasised the importance of people power in the movement by farmers: “I think you hit the nail on the head about needing to get the people behind you, I found that when I was fighting for the nurses. You need to get the rest of the people behind you.
“You heard the narrative last week on the media, ‘look at the subsidies that farmers are getting’, ‘everybody else has to pay taxes’, already that narrative is out there and people are questioning wealthy ‘fat cat’ farmers.
“We do need to continue to work with the public to get an understanding that without farming actually, things fall apart significantly.”
Expressing concern for the second and third-generation farmers, Ulster Unionist MLA Diana Armstrong said: “It is those farmers that are the authentic farmers that I think this tax should be removed from. Going forward and looking for a solution, I would advocate that the threshold is moved to five million.”
Later she added: “This is a really ill-thought-out policy by the Labour government.”
Chairman of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council’s Agriculture Liaison committee, Sinn Féin Councillor Sheamus Greene agreed that many in Fermanagh were from generational farms.
He told the hundreds gathered: “I slightly disagree with the general consensus to now that there has been a mistake by the British Labour Party.
“I don’t think for one second that they did not know what they were doing, I think in my personal view that this is a land grab.”
Councillor Greene claimed: “There is a climate change bill in Britain, they are going to have fines if they don’t meet the targets, I believe they need land to offset carbon emissions. How do you get land to become available? You create a tax so that farmers have to sell their land and it becomes available, so I am not so sure that it is a simple as the British Labour Party making a mistake.”
Deborah Erskine, Democratic Unionist MLA for the area, branded the proposed tax as a “disgraceful burden” and claimed: “It is going to see family farms broken up right across the UK.”
She continued: “It is cold tonight in this ring but I tell you what, the Labour government have had a cold house for farmers right up and down the UK. I am not prepared to see family farms in this constituency or any other place in Northern Ireland or the UK broken up.”
Baroness Arlene Foster of Aghadrumsee described the tax as “the politics of envy at large” as she told those listening: “No one expected Labour to be the farmer's friend, let's be clear about that.”
She said: “There is no understanding, most other people are from metropolitan areas of England, they have no understanding of what farmers do on a daily basis. The fact they work 80 hours a week to be on their own for most of the time. They are under pressure from supermarkets, under pressure from government due to environmental regulations and this is the tip of the iceberg.
“The thing that keeps farmers going is that they can leave a legacy to the next generation and that hope has been taken away from farmers. There is a debate in the House of Lords on December 12 and I will be there.”
She remained hopeful about a positive outcome for the farmers impacted by this: “I believe this can be stopped, I fundamentally believe that, but that is only going to happen if there is a sustained momentum and that has to happen in Parliament and has to happen right across the UK.”
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