Sketchy details of CSR impact testing farmers’ faith in Government

The Comprehensive Spending Review announcement was not the ‘big bang’ many in the farming industry had feared.

The October 20 announcement certainly delivered on its promise of massive budget cuts for Defra and its agencies’.

But establishing how the £700m cut would impact on the industry has not been straightforward. The details were initially sketchy, at best, and on occasions where they were provided, confusing.

Spending cuts will test Defra to its limit

Farmers and civil servants are not natural bedfellows.

Ask anyone who has been on the receiving end of an RPA inspection or who has been subject to an Environment Agency investigation.

For many, the very mention of bureaucracy and inspections is enough to bring on a feeling of impending doom. So, is it any wonder that the story most commented on this week at www.farmersguardian.com is headlined Defra spending cuts will be bloody.

There were precious few people on our website willing to stick up for Defra, and even fewer who were positive about Natural England and the Environment Agency.

The day of a thousand cuts dawns

IT IS the day reality bites – for the Coalition Government and its public.

The pre-election debate, between Labour and Tories in particular, was defined by the age old left-right debate how to drag yourself out of recession – spend or cut.

The Tories, with a little help from their Lib Dem friends, won and today – October 20, 2010 – is the long promised day of reckoning. The day that will change people’s lives and, even at this very early stage, could define how long David Cameron stays in power.

The Comprehensive Spending Review, set to be unveiled at 12.30 today, is as the NFU’s Martin Haworth said yesterday going to be ‘bloody’, with the aftershock felt across Government and society.