There is a well known saying, 'no pain, no gain' and that will be ringing true in the minds of Milk Link’s 1,600 producers, who are on the brink of reaping just reward for 12 years of loyalty and investment.Hung Parliament 'can work for farmers' - McLaren
A HUNG parliament is not necessarily bad news for the farming industry, claimed NFU Scotland president Jim McLaren.
His comments came as the UK was facing the prospect of a hung Parliament, raising fears the next Government – whichever form it takes – could find itself struggling to get legislation passed.
But Mr McLaren said Scotland’s example, where devolution has seen a series of hung parliaments and minority rule, proved it was possible to work under those conditions.
Mr McLaren said: “In Scotland we are much less concerned with the issue of a hung Parliament or a minority rule Government.
“We currently have a minority SNP Government and they do it deal by deal and while not all of Scotland would agree with me, we have always felt this has worked well for Scottish farmers.
“I can understand why people are nervous about it but in practical terms I think it makes for far better legislation.
“From our point of view as a lobbying organisation it makes for a very busy time because we have to make sure we are getting our message across to all the parties. It does give a lot more power to lobbying groups because we are championing the case for our industry to far more people across the political spectrum and that can be a real benefit.”
As far as representing Scotland’s interests in Westminster is concerned, Mr McLaren said he was surprised the SNP failed to make any gains, finishing the evening with six seats, the same number they started with.
He said it was vital whatever the make-up of the next Government that the Scottish industry continued to lobby hard on those issues which are still run from Westminster such as Responsibility and Cost Sharing and CAP reform.
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Readers' comments (3)
Anonymous | 11 May 2010 11:58 am
That's rubbish, who is going to bother with sorting out the mess farming is in if they are argueing about who is in power. Farming is a business and what business needs now is a stable decisive government, not some political game playing. Yet again politicians are putting their interests first.
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westerntara | 11 May 2010 1:23 pm
once they have sorted out who got the biggest car they will not spare a thought for us has we are honest hard working people who dont rock the boat but times must chand if only our leaders had the backbone to do something
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Anonymous | 11 May 2010 5:03 pm
It does not matter who is in power they are all useless and keep wasting money, the only good thing is we are not in the euro zone and the best thing we can do is to get out of europe there would then be plenty of money in the kitty to still pay farmers subsidies, but cap it to 300,000 as it is obscence what some farmers get, it should only go to farmers who actually produce food for the country, and cut tate & lyle subsidies completely, the problem is farming is still a tax dodge for the rich land owners and we will never get decent prices for our milk, meat and crops all the time they just cover their costs, just like the super markets selling out goods as loss leaders they still make vast amounts at the cost to the farmers..
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