They may have been in boats, but three farmers certainly weren’t “messing about” when they took the NFU’s Stop the Family Farm Tax campaign to the River Thames.
The three, South East Farmer correspondent and NFU East Sussex Chair Martin Hole, who farms at Pevensey, John Dinnis, who farms near Sevenoaks, and George Hosford, who farms near Blandford Forum in Dorset, displayed a giant banner while canoeing 10 miles along the world-famous river from Henley to Marlow.
Martin commented: “We wanted to make the point that farmers are being sold down the river by the government’s planned changes to inheritance tax.
“This is a very serious and heartfelt message, put across in a fun and light-hearted way to capture people’s imaginations.
“The three of us have been friends and canoed together for years so this is just something we came up with as a way of continuing to raise awareness of the campaign.
“We got some lively reactions and caused a lot of laughter from people walking by the river, but there were also lots of cheers and everyone we saw was very supportive.”
The NFU is calling on the Government to reconsider its planned changes to agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief (BPR), claiming it has miscalculated the impact of its planned changes, which the union believes could force many small and medium-sized family farms out of business.
All the UK’s major supermarkets have publicly stated their concerns over the impact the changes could have on national food security and concerns have been expressed about the impact on the wider rural economy and the environment.
Martin went on: “This will rip the heart out of rural communities and damage the rural economy. Farmers are the chief deliverer of future nature recovery so an incredible amount of positive work in this area would likely discontinue if these changes do go ahead.
“The government should do the right thing, put their plans on hold and put them up for proper scrutiny and consultation.”
There is a petition to Stop the Family Farm Tax at www.nfuonline.com
Pictured: From left Martin Hole, John Dinnis and George Hosford
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