Militant French farmers: We’ll help show British how it’s done

Thousands set to march on Westminster on Tuesday against Government’s inheritance tax raid

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Militant French farmers are offering to show their British counterparts how it’s done as they take to the streets over the Government’s inheritance tax raid.
French farmers have dumped manure and blocked roads in their latest round of protests this week, this time against the Mercosur trade deal between the EU and South American countries.
Serge Bousquet-Chassagne, the head of the militant Coordination Rurale union in the southwestern Lot-et-Garonne region, said he was happy to offer tips to British farmers.
“I’m prepared to receive my British farmer colleagues or to travel over there to lend a hand,” he said. “We have a lot of form when it comes to more radical forms of protest. We’re all in the same boat.”
Thousands of British farmers are expected to march on Westminster on Tuesday against the Government’s plans to impose inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1 million.
Organisers have so far promised protests will be peaceful and non-disruptive, with attendees asked to pledge that their behaviour “will not way compromise the image of the agricultural industry or the co-ordinators of the event”.
But there have been calls for French-style tactics to ramp up pressure on the Government and organisers have suggested action may be increased if ministers do not change course.
Proposals have included a “sewage strike” under which farmers refuse to spread fertiliser, leaving water companies backed up with sewage, and calls to down tools and stop producing food.
“We are focused on Tuesday’s non-disruptive rally for now, beyond that who knows what happens next,” said Clive Bailye, the founder of the Farming Forum and one of the lead organisers behind the protest.
Mr Bousquet-Chassagne, who is a plum and cereal farmer, encouraged British farmers to step up their action to force change.
“You are perhaps more democratic in your way of governing and demonstrating but over here if you don’t block things, you get nothing,” he said.
The Government is drawing up contingency plans if farmers go on strike over the tax raid, but is understood to believe it can fill any shortages with imports.
Mr Bousquet-Chassagne said threats to the farming industry were also putting food security on the continent at risk.
“We’re drowning under a sea of norms that make no sense and that are supposed to make us produce better. But in my view soon we won’t produce better, we won’t produce anything at all!” he said.
He praised the UK for leaving the EU. “The British are our faithful allies and we admire your decision to leave the European Union, which is partly to blame for our woes.”
“The British are perhaps suffering from the transition after Brexit as they lost subsidies. But you’ll see they’ll benefit eventually. We don’t want subsidies and bonuses, we want fair prices. We’re not serfs.”
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