NFU Cymru raises concerns with Rural Affairs Minister

WALES has a decent claim to being the crucible in which UK Labour was formed.

Almost 125 years after Merthyr Tydfil elected Scotsman Keir Hardie as the first Labour MP, Labour in Wales finds itself somewhat adrift from Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.

We can be sympathetic to Welsh Labour – it is evident that it is UK Labour that has left them rather than they who have left their own Labour tradition – but the hard reality of separation is inescapable.

Starmer’s Labour have fashioned themselves as the true inheritors of the Thatcherite tradition, far closer to John Major than John Smith, rapidly scurrying rightwards into the space left behind by the old Conservatives.

NFU CYMRU raised member concerns around the tree planting element of the Sustainable Farming Scheme proposals during a recent meeting with the Minister for Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths MS and her officials.

The meeting followed the Minister’s Statement to the Senedd on Tuesday, July 11, on the second phase of the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) codesign process. The union had previously responded to the statement with ‘extreme concern’ at Welsh Government’s ‘doubling down’ on its 10% tree cover targets.

After the meeting, NFU Cymru President Aled Jones said: “It was useful to meet with the Minister and her team to discuss the recent statement in more detail. NFU Cymru remains supportive of the Welsh Government’s overarching framework for the SFS, built around universal, optional and collaborative tiers, with farmers receiving a baseline payment for carrying out a set of universal actions, provided these universal actions are practical and achievable for farmers to deliver. Our members are deeply concerned to hear that Welsh Government appears more committed than ever to its 10% tree cover target in areas it deems suitable for tree planting under the universal tier of the proposed scheme.

“I’ve spoken to many members over the last few days, and they are very concerned about what they heard in the statement. Although it is positive that Welsh Government has recognised that some types of land, or land tenure, don’t lend themselves to planting trees, farmers are understandably fearful that this will mean even greater pressure for tree planting on the remaining land to reach the 10% target.

“We fear that this will mean loading of tree planting pressure on productive farmland at the very time when food security and agricultural productivity have never been more important.

“Whilst most farms will have areas suitable for tree planting, I don’t know of any farmers who will choose to reduce the productive capacity of their farm by relinquishing their productive land for tree planting. These concerns are coupled with the fact that they won’t know the payment rates for the SFS until next year.

“I have conveyed the industry’s deep concerns to the Minister that the 10% target, coupled with uncertainty about payment rates, has not landed well with NFU Cymru’s membership, raising genuine questions about how many farmers may eventually enter the scheme. It is clear to me that Welsh Government must look again at its 10% tree cover target.”

The meeting also saw NFU Cymru discuss that Welsh farmers are currently facing a funding ‘cliff edge’ with the Glastir agrienvironment scheme due to end this year and no successor scheme in place.

Mr Jones added: “In January, NFU Cymru wrote to the

Minister asking Welsh Government to consider transitional measures to bridge the gap between the ending of Glastir funding in December 2023 and the Sustainable Farming Scheme, which will start in 2025. Glastir has delivered many positive benefits. Many of our members have committed to agrienvironment delivery for over a quarter of a century. They are seeking reassurance that they will continue to be supported and rewarded for delivering these environmental outcomes until they can access the SFS.

“I’m grateful to the Minister and her officials for meeting with us. Over the last few months, a lot of time and effort has gone into the Agriculture Bill process. I took the opportunity to commend them on all the hard work that has gone in to developing this all-important piece of legislation which has now completed its Senedd stages and is set to become the framework which will allow for the design and operation of the SFS.” the people, has become so utterly co-opted by establishment norms and so devoid of ideas, innovation and boldness.

Given the divergent paths of the Labour movement in Wales relative to Scotland and England, it is little wonder that there is some considerable tension between them.

The Welsh apparatchiks are frequently told off by their London masters. Mark Drakeford, always careful in his choice of words, repeatedly inciting the ire of Starmer’s inner circle.

Add the twin exigencies of UK media collusion and the frenzied forums provided by the social media revolution and, the decline of the UK is now catalysed, accelerated and imminent. Whatever your view of the politics, Corbyn’s Labour briefly and unexpectedly pushed a radical and different platform.

The lesson the Labour Party seem to have learned from the relatively near miss of the 2017 General Election is to do nothing bold or brave. A somewhat curious conclusion when Labour actually won 40% of the popular vote.

Whether you agree or disagree with the politics of either side of that election, to conclude that not having ideas and not showing leadership is the way to make an impact seems perverse. To then conclude that the twoparty, first past the post system in the UK, is still fit for purpose is even more dissonant.

But UK Labour, in utter defiance of its own membership, stays resolutely against proportional representation and any meaningful constitutional reform.

If I were a supporter of Labour in Wales I would wonder how, in little more than a century, this political movement inspired by

Unlike Scotland, Welsh Labour supporters are as likely to be pro-Indy as Unionist – a tension which has allowed the party to stay entrenched as the party of power in Wales by defusing the immediate political threat of Indy with the ‘Home Rule’ compromise.

This balancing act can’t continue indefinitely and becomes more challenging as Independence becomes a more prominent aspect of people’s political considerations.

For those making the connection between the poor management of the UK by Westminster, growing poverty and the threat these pose to institutions such as the NHS, independence suddenly becomes a viable solution.

When that penny drops the apathy and lack of agency of vast swathes of the Welsh population could be transformed –Welsh Labour will want to be ready to capitalise on this and ride that wave to continued electoral success. They don’t look ready.

To date, no champions have emerged to represent those who want to forge a new path for Wales.

Many are waiting for Scotland to leave before finding the bravery to back Independence. Why wait?

Such low self–esteem speaks to the absence of hope and confidence in our communities. If Labour in Wales want to restore that hope and confidence, strong and ambitious support for independence is one way to do so.