Here we all thought there was nothing like pissed-off French and Danish farmers. Blockading highways, spraying manure on government buildings, dropping rotting haybales on sidewalks, and organizing massive protests of tens of thousands of people in the streets over the arcane, restrictive, and ruinous interference in their industry by local and European bureaucrats.
I mean, just two days ago, the Danish government actually passed a tax on cow farts.
Oh, gosh! What a thrill to be footing the bill for 'the world's first.'
Denmark has agreed on how to implement the world’s first tax on agricultural emissions, including flatulence by livestock.
This comes after months of negotiations between the country’s major parties, farmers, the industry, trade unions and environmental groups. The Green Tripartite agreement was first announced in June.
From 2030, farmers will have to pay a levy of 300 kroner ($43; £34) per tonne of methane (as per carbon dioxide equivalent) on emissions from livestock including cows and pigs, which will rise to 750 kroner in 2035.
The Green Tripartite minister said they will “do what it takes to reach our climate goals” after receiving a “broad majority” in parliament.
Shoot, even British farmers were looking at their fellow field workers on the continent just a little while ago, and thinking, "Man. The bull Schlitz those guys have to put up with..." Grateful they could potter around their fields unmolested, attend to their gassy untaxed livestock, and mostly try to eke out a living in challenging conditions for farmers in general.
They felt they were muddling through alright, fighting off the local loons (the Welsh have really been giving their farmers fits over climate cultish concerns) and the financial trials accompanying being keepers of the land. All this without the weather cooperating...or not.
...Since 2019, pig farming costs have risen by 54%, cattle by 44% and cereal by 43%, as food, fuel and fertiliser prices increase at a rate far outstripping the increases farmers can charge on what they produce. Subsidies that farmers get have also been declining since Brexit.
A socialist Labour party headed by Sir Keir Starmer took control of the country, and the measures they are proposing to help fund the government's various schemes have taken the country by storm.
They've already taken back the small fuel allowance the government gives pensioners to help them with the ungodly heating costs that accrue over the course of a British winter.
...To help them survive the mad government Green schemes and consequent skyrocketing costs of British electricity, the UK government has been forking over a "Winter Fuel Payment" subsidy for the least among them of some £300 a year.
In a classic election bait and switch, what Starmer once promised? The opposite was done when elected.
There are more pressing expenses for the British Labour government than the possibility of Grannie freezing to death because she can't afford a semi-warm home anymore.
Keir Starmer is scrapping Winter Fuel Payments for pensioners of up to £300 per year.
— Welsh Conservatives 🏴 (@WelshConserv) September 18, 2024
Meanwhile, Labour in Wales is paying a £1,600 per month 'basic income' to 74 current and former asylum seeking migrants.
Out of touch. pic.twitter.com/rRnclPNnA0
But a scrawny £300 clawed back from the fingers of frozen retired folks isn't going to do much, so the Labourites went in search of bigger prey.
They landed on jacking up the "inheritance tax."
Why not, the socialists thought - none of the people inheriting earned any of what they're getting to begin with, so why shouldn't the state get a bigger chunk? And they chopped into the formerly sacrosanct agricultural carve-out for family farms.
Pish-posh said the Labour minister in charge of the policy. Stop the fussing. Only 500 farms will be affected.
Labour is as deficient in #mathz as our Democrats are. And farmers, by their very nature, are very good at math. The figured out the error almost immediately.
...Since 1992, agricultural property relief (APR) has meant family farms have been passed down tax-free in a policy intended to bolster food security and keep people on the land. This tax exemption was made because farming is often not a lucrative business, and the work is difficult, so people often do it simply because it is the family business. If farmers sell up, this affects food security. The UK now produces less than 60% of the food its inhabitants eat.
The budget changed this: from 6 April 2026, the full 100% relief from inheritance tax will be restricted to the first £1m of combined agricultural and business property. Above this amount, landowners will pay inheritance tax at a reduced rate of 20%, rather than the standard 40%. This tax can be paid in instalments over 10 years interest free, rather than immediately, as with other types of inheritance tax.
THE WEALTHY SHOULD PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE!
We've heard that line somewhere before...and it never works out that way. Even when they use the "trust us" line.
...Labour says those with the broadest shoulders should bear the largest tax burden in order to fix the UK’s creaking public services. The environment secretary says this change could raise £200m a year for the NHS and other services, and that the changes would not affect most farms. Steve Reed said: “Small family farms will not be affected. Only about 500 estates a year will pay more under the new scheme than they do today.”
"Only 500 farms"? Not so fast. More like 66% of the UK's total number of farms could be eligible.
...This claim comes from the number of estates that qualified for APR last year. Some say this is misleading, however, as the new rules roll together APR and business property relief, which used to give separate allowances for farmers – they could claim APR for their land, and BPR for all business assets such as farm machinery. Now, when farmers are given a £1m threshold – and a combine harvester can cost as much as £500,000 – you can see how BPR could eat this up.
...The farming minister, Daniel Zeichner, has also said there is a “discrepancy” in the numbers, with the National Farmers’ Unionsaying Defra’s own figures show that 66% of the UK’s 209,000 farms are worth more than £1m and so potentially eligible to be taxed. Tom Bradshaw, the NFU president, said: “Far from protecting smaller family farms, which is what ministers say they’re doing, they’re actually protecting private houses in the country with a few acres let out for grazing while disproportionately hammering actual, food-producing farms, which are, on paper, much more valuable. Even Defra’s own figures show this, which is why they’re so different to the Treasury data this policy is based on.”
Imagine that. Socialists protect the well-heeled country estate owners - usually themselves - while boning the dirty fingernails, bovine babysitters of the fields and fallows.
It's what socialist elites do. Besides, when any good modern socialist sees a farmer, he doesn't see a provider of sustenance.
Oh, no.
The true socialist sees a land hoarder.
How exactly? By concreting over it with housing estates or cack useless wind turbines and solar farms? I find these sneering city types to be utterly reprehensible. pic.twitter.com/TLqt7UvBca
— Darren Grimes (@darrengrimes_) November 18, 2024
And you know what socialists think of those.
If it hasn’t been collectivized, it’s hoarding. Good I hate these people
— Prof. Russian Chicken Spider Spam Bot (@Kamikuza) November 19, 2024
These two young farmers explain the math and the conundrum facing the British people.
Fantastic video from these young farmers explaining the basic economics and mathematics of the inheritance tax law that Rachel Reeves from customer service and is clearly incapable of.
— Alex Armstrong (@alexharmstrong) November 18, 2024
Please share this to inform the left wing echo chamber where needed. pic.twitter.com/c8yLt7w6oA
"...The public needs to ask themselves, who do they want owning the land in the UK? British farmers who can farm the land for generations or big corporations buying land to offset carbon emissions?..."
British farmers have organized and taken a polite page from their European brethren, with some French farmers crossing the Channel to lend moral support.
They were in London yesterday for a peaceful rally in epic proportions.
UNITED KINGDOM 🇬🇧
— BABS D (@Barbara14130169) November 19, 2024
Tens of thousands of farmers blockaded London during their protest against Prime Minister Keir Starmer's agricultural policies including controversial changes to the inheritance tax. pic.twitter.com/sIYqh9qw2B
The visuals are something else.
🚨FARMERS LONDON - This doesn’t look like a small gathering of millionaire farmers to me….
— Bernie (@Artemisfornow) November 19, 2024
This looks like the backbone of the UK taking a stand!
Pay attention Starmer, you just became Britains version of Macron 🚨 pic.twitter.com/uo11FgihiP
Of course, it's all being portrayed as right-wing extremists marching peacefully in the cold London rain to protest.
Woke brigade claim Barbour jackets are 'fast becoming a new overt symbol for the right' after thousands of farmers protested against Keir Starmer's tax grab in London https://t.co/9juAHol8nR pic.twitter.com/mnbEiIFjTn
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) November 20, 2024
This fellow is a classic example - he looks about as right-wing extremist as you can get. He certainly sounds like a toxic white radical, talking about 'work,' 'family,' leaving something for his 'children.'
Oh, It's too ghastly. No one should be forced to listen to such things.
UK: An estimated 40,000 farmers are currently en route to London, furious about the government's new 20% inheritance tax on farms, which will leave countless farmers with no option but to sell their farms.
— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) November 19, 2024
"Farmers will be liable for inheritance tax at 20% on farms worth more… pic.twitter.com/v7vbUaUlnO
The farmers are fighting back cleverly, framing it as a "tractor tax", which again emphasizes the difference between those bucolic country estates with a cow or two or a sheep flock and a working agricultural enterprise.
Their farm equipment counts against the total value of their property.
...The planned tax, announced last month as part of the government’s budget, would impose a 20 percent levy on farm values exceeding £1 million ($1.27 million) starting in 2026. The policy aims to raise funds for public services but has sparked significant backlash from farming communities.
...Before this policy, farms could be passed down tax-free. Farmers argue that while their land and equipment hold high monetary value, their operations often run on tight profit margins, leaving them unable to pay the proposed tax without selling their farms.
Will Starmer's government back down?
Pressure is mounting on the Starmer government on all sides. Conservatives like Nigel Farage and beloved celebrities like Jeremy Clarkson are front and center in the effort. GB News, the pseudo-conservative non-government network, has regularly featured fiery debates between tax advocates and farming defenders, so it is an issue most Brits will know about and have an opinion on.
So, while there hasn't been any moovement yet, it doesn't mean the battle is over.
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