Farmers who voted for Brexit- views now?

? Cameron got a “deal” with the EU. Did anything go away? Of course not. The agitation for Brexit only calmed down with Blair and Brown. The Tories had been at each others throats over the EU for years and years. Cameron’s big mistake was thinking complex arguments for staying in the EU could beat the three word slogan “take back control” which appealed to any person wanting a simple reason for putting an X on a ballot paper to leave.

Teresa May got a better deal which still had trade links. It was better for business. Politicians with no business experience got rid of May. I don’t blame Cameron for going. He was in a nest of vipers and so was May.

It wasn't Teresa may who triggered it Cameroon did then quit and there were other ways to go the electorate woupd have calmed down had they done the talking to the EU first they chose to fuck us over on an advisory referendum and broke trust with the public

The ballots are private but that doesn't excuse the number of people who are cowards because they tell lies about how they voted. If you want it be private fine - but don't tell lies about how you voted....

@Theunamedcat Could you imagine the furore if Teresa May had done nothing! In fact her deal would have been better. But no. In comes Boris bouyed by the Brexit regions giving him a mandate! We have a foolish electorate who are easily led. Many people were clear about how they would vote. The silent majority trotted along after them.

Possibly not;

Paris would need four member states representing 35% of the population to form a blocking minority.

Or they can refuse to ratify the deal but there's this;

Brussels could also propose to have part of the deal implemented in a provisional manner in order to avoid a lengthy ratification process that requires a sign-off from every national parliament.

The split would mean that the trade part of the deal would be “EU only,” meaning it will not require member states’ unanimity and only the approval of the European Parliament because it would only cover EU-level competencies. Brussels hopes this would accelerate the deal’s implementation even if the final go-ahead on the remainder of the deal stays pending. Concerns remain however that such a move by Brussels could further fuel Euroskepticism.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/investing/commodities/2024/11/08/france-seeks-to-rope-in-poland-to-block-mercosur-trade-deal/

I mean if they wanted a united Ireland then they've advanced that cause immensely! Somehow I don't think many farmers in County Antrim are of that persuasion though.

I live in North Antrim and I was a field worker for Ipsos in the lead up to the referendum so I interviewed a lot of people who all were saying leave

North Antrim is farming

Leave got the vote up here by a huge majority

We all know how thats worked out for NI

I considered voting leave. I debated and was very vocal about my discontent. However, at the ballots I voted remain, most people would have assumed the opposite, considering how I was talking

The ballots are supposed to be private, for a reason

Also as I'm constantly pointing out it was ADVISORY no-one should be blamed for the government's insane response

Wouldn't the French have a veto on this deal though?

Somewhat ironic that Michel Barnier and Donald Tusk are leading the opposition on this:

Mercosur deal ‘disastrous’ for French farmers — don’t do it, [Michel] Barnier says.

https://www.politico.eu/article/mercosur-deal-farmers-france-country-eu-bloc-trade-south-america/

"Poland does not accept, and we are not alone, we will not accept in this form the agreement with the countries of South America, that is the Mercosur group, on free trade," stated Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

https://www.freshplaza.com/north-america/article/9682512/poland-and-france-unite-against-eu-mercosur-trade-deal-over-farming-concerns/

French farmers are always protesting over something! They were paid to produce wine lakes and butter mountains remember!

As an aside, has anyone been following French opposition to the EU's proposed trade deal with the South American trade bloc Mercosur?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/mercosur-ap-brazil-france-european-commission-b2653806.html

25 Nov 2024
Almost all of France affected as farmer protests enter second week.

https://www.connexionfrance.com/news/almost-all-of-france-affected-as-farmer-protests-enter-second-week-what-to-expect/691313

Mercosur deal ‘disastrous’ for French farmers — don’t do it, Barnier says.

https://www.politico.eu/article/mercosur-deal-farmers-france-country-eu-bloc-trade-south-america/

If Brussels were to overrule Paris, it would mark an unprecedented decline in France's influence in Europe. Worse still, the episode could leave a damaging and lasting mark on French public opinion, feeding anti-EU sentiment.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2024/11/18/eu-mercosur-trade-deal-france-up-against-its-own-powerlessness_6733173_23.html

It amazes me that people voted to leave the biggest market for their goods. Utter madness. We took back control of nothing and completely over estimated our place in the world of trade. Trade is not just about selling. As the farmers have found, it’s about imports too.

The farmers I know and socialise with are mainly Welsh hill farmers. I do know one very wealthy farmer in the south Midlands and another who “downsized” from the south Midlands to Wales.

Every single one of them voted leave.

Why would you think that? Has it come as a surprise to you to learn that farmers are not one homogenous group with a single viewpoint? Of course they aren't. They're people like the rest of the population who have different opinions and life experiences which influence their thinking.

Or perhaps it has come as a surprise to you to learn that people outside farming make friends and have relationships with people who work in farming. I've lived in this village for the best part of 50 years. My FIL was a farmhand on a local farm, DH was brought up in a tied cottage on the farm - and I wasn't even counting them amongst the farmers I referred to in my previous post.

The two tenant farmers I know voted remain. One of them has a son who has had to go through the rigmarole of getting German citizenship to remain living and working in Berlin after Brexit. They are both family friends.

My brother's in-laws are landowners. They farmed the land themselves back in the day, but now lease their farmland to a tenant farmer (not one of the ones I'm friends with - no idea what their opinions on Brexit were/are). They no longer actively farm themselves, save keeping a couple of horses, and now dabble in the antiques book market instead. They were very vociferous leave campaigners.

It's a little ignorant to think I'm "having a laugh". I'm very clearly talking about people I know personally - people who are my friends and my extended family. I think I know rather better than you how those people voted since we discussed it at the time. It would seem rather presumptuous of you to think you know their voting actions better than I do.

Perhaps what you meant to say was "Your experiences are different to mine". It's a shame you didn't.

Now I know you’re having a laugh

There are about 100,000 farmers in the UK and about half a million farm workers. Farms take up about 70% of the UK's land. Farmers use pubs, shops, other businesses, vets, clubs, choirs etc. Many farmers have second jobs - supplying logs, building, mechanics. My chimney sweep is a farmer and so's the woman who runs our WI.

If you live rurally (17% of the UK population) or in a small town (8 million of us do) you'd be hard pressed not to know farmers.

The posts probably aren't bullshit. Not everyone on MN lives in a a city.

@Gettoachiro duh. Every country is subject to trade rules. Apart from embargoed countries like Iran, North Korea etc. I'm

We are under WTO trade rules. Now, what influence do you imagine the U.K. has there? The same as every other member. There is no escaping it. It's simply not possible to behave like a rogue trading nation and expect trading success.

As part of the EU, we had a huge influence there.

We've just voted for economic sanctions on ourselves. So so so stupid. And now we are even more vulnerable if Trump imposes tariffs.

And yeah, people complain about the 2016 vote because it was full of lies. And the economic damage is pretty awful to the U.K.

I think it would be fair to say that a high percentage of farmers (and other business owners) are rather pissed off with the labour government.

There are hopeful signs however. Let's see what tomorrow brings!

I'd think the more relevant question is farmers who voted labour, how do they feel now?

It was never going to be workable. You cannot walk away from your nearest and biggest market and expect life to remain the same. We didn’t make any decent trade deals elsewhere because we were desperate. I think the farmers despised the one with Australia. We are now a minnow in negotiating terms and we threw away the clout the EU has. Yes, areas needed reform but in terms of trade, leave was a distaster.

Plus in the 70s Labour was against joining. They sat on their hands in the Referendum and are doing what now exactly? Oh yes. Taxing business so there’s fewer jobs and no chance of growth. No chance of anything improving.

Thanks @Gettoachiro , good to hear you're still confident about it. Sorry that it hasn't worked out so well though. Somebody like Nigel Farage in charge would have made it work maybe, instead of Frost, Johnson, Rees-Mogg etc, who's hearts were never really in it?

I voted leave and I'd vote leave again tomorrow. If you are stupid enough to have wanted to stay, to have even less of a say over who governs you than you do now, then good for you!

The bigger the organisation in charge of us, the less say you have as individuals.

How poorly it has been implemented is another matter and one of the problems since, along with stupid losers who hated the result and have moaned, griped, grimaced and put everything down since.

I also live semi-rurally and know several farmers. Of those I know, tenant farmers generally voted remain, whilst landowners generally voted leave.

Maybe. Personally I live semi rurally and my job means I often meet with and talk to landowners. So, yes, I do actually know quite a lot of farmers.
Plus living here, some of the people I know are just from normal connections - like our kids were at school together.