Brexit-hit farmers

MINETTE BATTERS, president of the UK’s National Farmers Union, urged the government to support food producers.

This was the only way that farmers could supply British households and a growing world population, she said.

Batters, who owns a cattle, sheep and arable farm in Wiltshire, said farmers and growers had “an opportunity and a duty” to make the most of Britain’s maritime climate by producing food for consumers at home and abroad.

Farmers, unenthusiastic about the government’s postBrexit subsidies introduced to compensate for the loss of the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP), were also affected by a chronic labour shortage, Batters said.

Agricultural overheads had risen by nearly 50 per cent since 2019 and this, together with huge cost inflation, could trigger a slump in UK food production, she warned.

Full nest syndrome

THE empty nest syndrome that hits mothers when children leave home no longer affects 20 per cent of British families.

Research by credit card firm Capital One UK found that around one in five parents expect at least one of their adult children to move back as inflation and high rents put a strain on their finances.

Seventy-five per cent of the 2,000 parents taking part in the survey told Capital One that they would welcome their children with open arms if they were struggling financially. Researchers also learnt that nearly half the participants already had friends whose adult children now lived in the family home again. However happy parents might be to re-accommodate their offspring, the cost could hit them hard. The average family expected energy and food bills to rise by £272 (€308.8) a month, Capital One found.

Others Think It

WHAT a dreadful state the human race now finds itself in. Every week I mentally rumble on through possible subject matter to feature in my weekly blurb and every week I generally leave all the turmoil behind and revert to some other focus of interest. One of the problems is that world events now seem to proceed at such a pace that we sometimes require daily publications, simply to keep up. This month has been no exception.

Delilah, a song, written by pals of mine and loved by millions, is banned because it offends a handful of woke numbskulls. Biden visited the Ukraine. All well and good; if President Roosevelt had offered the same aid to Poland in 1939 Hitler would have been stopped in his tracks. Let’s just hope that China doesn’t decide the time is right to join Russia and go nuclear.

The horrendous earthquakes in Turkey have caused supposed illegally erected buildings to crumble. Let’s trust those responsible are brought to book and punished accordingly.