By making Jeremy Clarkson their spokesperson, Farmers have shot themselves in the foot

Anyway - as our resident expert. What should this person do?

what a weird thing to say!! 😂

did your brothers cousin also once go to a farm?

He is just the loudest voice and a media savvy personality

no, but my accountants are.......

are you an account or land manager specialising in farming?

They don't all they need is to talk to their accountant or land manger to see this is a none issue

and Clakrson is part of the problem - millionaires buying up farm land to avoid tax - not the solution......

Farmers would have been better understanding the rules than charging of too London - i also see Farage was there the man whose done the most damage to British farming.

And suddenly everyone hates these farmers. The ones that produce over half the food you eat.

Do you think its a good idea to rely on imports for 100% of our food? Its bad enough as it is.

As a country we are trying to reduce reliance on other countries for our energy, yet seem to want to up our reliance for food. Food of all things!!

Clarkson is an example of a landowner. Many many landowners are not like Clarkson. They may have a lot of land, machinery, animals - but that does not equal cash in the bank. They are not rich in terms of money - they are merely custodians of the land, producing food for you to eat, before passing on to the next generation to continue to do the same.

You split up these farms, they become unviable. Scale really matters. That means less food security, at a time when the world is in a funny place. Sounds fabulously short sighted to me.

Massively left wing feminist etc etc here. Can't stand Grand Tour or Jeremy usually

I think Jeremy has done a lot for the understanding of what it means to be a farmer. He is good at communicating and being entertaining.

The long and short of it is that the government has done a stupid thing. I'm looking from an ecological point of view and as someone who lives amongst farmers. Farmers are mostly method agnostic. They are ruled by economic and law constraints to try and make a profit somehow - anyhow. Try and talk to them about leaving hedges a bit higher, maybe leaving a margin round a field, maybe not using neonicotinoids on the potatoes, and they will sigh and move on - the best of them would love to do this, the worst of them don't give a shit, but at the end of the day they can't afford to do it. Government needs to step up and make friends of farmers, support them to use the land in a way that won't end in environmental disaster.

They simply can't afford to do the right thing by the land at the moment, and unless government puts money into research and support for farmers to work with the land and maintain biodiversity, and keep land in a way that reduces flooding, and be able to do so because their kids will then have a farm; then we are on. A highway to hell.

Even if the government raises as few £mill it's counterproductive in the extreme

*MarkWithaC *Sorry I wasn't very clear. The signing land over early would be to take advantage of the 7 year rule, assuming we lived for 7 years after signing. The point about lowering land prices was referring to the new tax measures which might mean agricultural land is no longer attractive to big investors and if its only genuine farmers who are looking to buy then the price might fall.

90 minutes with a solicitor and an accountant would solve the IHT issue totally for most farmers.

You don't see the Duke of Devonshire worrying about IHT on his vast estates do you.

I literally was just discussing this..it's a bloody cheek of him getting involved when he admitted he bought the farm to save tax! I'm sympathetic to genuine farmers, but I do think they're making a bit of a fuss, and I'm not sure if lots of the protesters even understand the proposals judging by those I heard interviewed this morning on the radio. You still get 3 mill tax free if married, and then it's only half the tax rate every one else pays. Too many wealthy people are exploiting the loophole. Someone needs to pay more tax after the blank check Tories.

They should pay their tax in the same way the majority of us do. They keep very quiet about the ‘averaging’ of their businesses profits, rolling in their losses etc. which greatly advantages them tax wise. (Look up
farmers averaging tax scheme) to see what I am talking about.

He gives them publicity for their cause which is a good thing. He's got a worldwide following thanks to Top Gear being broadcast in so many countries so why wouldn't they let him speak to raise awareness of what they are protesting against?

Honestly though I don’t care who there leader is if it stops farms being sold off to pay tax to be able to farm. The more farm land that’s sold off the less farming will actually happen. The more we will rely on imports which places our food security in an even worse position that is already is.

Farmers don’t tend to be rich apart from assets as it costs so much to farm but those assets are the farm, one bad crop or a case or TB or bird flu can wipe out more than a years “profits” farming is a life style and for the love that also feeds us.

If you want higher welfare and more organic you want more and better farming not imports or heavily sprayed for highest yields vs managing the land well.

He has changed my view about farming and farmers for the better.

If you bother to learn about what he did on his land you'll see the challenges and why he went into it. So what if part of it is to ensure his money stays with him or his family, that quote doesnt even give IHT as the sole or main reason so your premise is flawed anyway

@MarkWithaC if you gift assets seven years before you die then no IHT is due. The average age of a farmer is somewhere in the 60s. If they pass their farms over to their children when their children are young they reduce potential of IHT becoming due. Equally putting the farm into trust will minimise IHT.

So who would you like their spokesperson to be? You? Are you going to stick up for them? Or are you just going to complain when our bread tastes like the crap they have in America.

what an utterly stupid post.

Refarmers … a sub-group of Reform ..

Hope they tax Grouse Shooting out of existence .. monoculture ruining the biodiversity of the countryside, so a few rich boys can dress in tweed, leaving piles of rotting birds behind

Farmers voted for Brexit and are now complaining because the richest 25% will have to pay tax.

They're being joined by Clarkson, Farage and Katie Hopkins.

I support them! Loves me some tax dodging rich people.

@Wellingtonspie 50pLee is the deeply unpleasant Lee Anderson. Personally I object to giving him a nickname-humanising him is a bad thing.

…at least shooting themselves in the foot, stops them from shooting protected birds

It will make land banking less attractive to the very rich who will look for some other tax minimisation scheme so land prices might fall if there is less demand.

Please excuse my ignorance asking this: how might signing land over to the next generation early lower land prices?

I disagree, I work as an Estate Manager. The same job as ‘Cheerful Charlie’ on Clarksons Farm. Jeremy Clarkson is giving shining a light on agriculture that people are paying attention to vs the romanticised Countryfile version regularly portrayed on TV.

If farmland is worth £10,000 an acre you don’t need a very big farm to reach the limit when you account for houses, farm buildings, machinery etc… particularly in expensive parts of the country.

Farage was there. No clue who 50p Lee is though.