Farmers.

[Highland Robin]

Interesting point.....could be a prompt to a TEF debate on the socio-historical/political culture of UK.  All the propaganda we have been fed for generations is that Britain is essentially a green and pleasant land made up of cricket on village greens, thatched cottages and docile peasants tilling the land for the Country Landowners Association.  (I like the green and pleasant bit, and am glad to have had this time living in the most beautiful part - but talk to real highlanders about what is happening to their land now, and what happened to it 200 years ago, and you get a different picture.)  At the same time, even though the Industrial Revolution brought huge wealth and power to (parts of) the UK, we are still fed the notion that, deep down, it was a bad thing, and poverty and unemployment in the outer estates of our cities, brought on by the demise of the industrial base, is something that should be hidden and forgotten about.  Then when order breaks down, we are all conditioned to believe that it is some sort of feral underclass which is responsible.....

Rant over.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

When did you live in Aldbourne HR?

[leefer]

We have lost loads of industy in the uk : shipbuilding, steel, mining, engineering, car manufacture etc etc....

Always amazed me, peoples attitude to farmers, feeling sorry for them...

The ship builders and engineers can fuck off and do somethIng else (that's life) but we have to rally round farmers and bail them out when the going gets tough??

That's from me.....country boy.

Its a good point but when was the last time you ate a boat or munched on a piece of coal,or nibbled on a bit of steel,farmers feed the nation more than ever now,in older times many people produced there own food,that is not the case now so farmers are important to us all.
And lets be clear...any farmer who gets into a financial mess does not get any help from the government and never has done unlike many other industries....they do get compensated when the government/EU in there wisdom decide that they are farming to much and basicly they are paid not to produce

[Ironside]

Common Agricultural Policy, much like the Common Fisheries Policy have contributed significantly to to destroying the farming and fishing industries in the UK while giving a handy leg-up to our European competitors.

[Phil_S]

My dads side were all agricultural until the 1980's. My first home was Kettle Lane Farm in West Ashton.

Once upon a time the family had a fair bit of land in Chippenham which is now all built on (sadly not sold off by my family!). Afterwards my grandad worked on a farm in Lacock until the 90's.

Although I'm not a farmer nor have much experience, I have a lot of time for the industry.

I grew up on a farm down Forest Lane Pewsham. Where were you?

[Phil_S]

Farming is more or less the only industry, which still continues to be bailed out by the tax payer. Only something like 1% of the workforce are directly engaged in farming....sheep are quite profitable, they end up in elephant legs, the length and breadth of the country.

Farming is a curious thing...as it is largely responsible for the destruction of our natural environment, whereas many see it as its custodian.

You are quite wrong in that assertion Reg. Ask any farmer who recives less for his produce than it costs to produce.
As for the CAP, most of it goes to fictitious tobacco farmers in Italy, or the gentleman landowners for growing nought. Meanwhile we go to Sainsburies & find it hard to get British meat it's all dutch or danish

[Fred Elliot]

Farming is more or less the only industry, which still continues to be bailed out by the tax payer.

I like what you did there

[Highland Robin]

When did you live in Aldbourne HR?

My mum still does.  We moved there in 1956, when I was but a babe, and finally flew the nest in 1973....but still visit, and will no doubt do so a lot more now we are moving back to Wiltshire.  Do you have links there too???