Farmers Protests in Holland

[Sampanviking]

The Revolution will be censored.......

Cost of Living Protests are now commonplace throughout the EU and will only get larger and angrier as winter starts to bite.
Italy has been particularly wild and there seems to be a very marked change in the mood, as reflected in the forthcoming Elections

Angry, Italian flag waving crowd tear down the EU flag from the EU Headquarters building in Rome
https://twitter.com/RadioGenova/status/1573608606632742912

[Nick]

Protests still happening and getting bigger. Similar protests also happening in other European countries.
Media coverage ........ ziilch.......

An event not worth covering in Holland today..

Wow!! This Brexit thing is bad if it's hot as far as Australia already 😉 

[Sampanviking]

Protests still happening and getting bigger. Similar protests also happening in other European countries.
Media coverage ........ ziilch.......

An event not worth covering in Holland today..

[Sampanviking]

Well it seems to be a lot more than just farmers protesting and its spreading throughout out Europe and even to Australia
While the resignation of Draghi has been reported in the press I have seen little about the massive nationwide protests in Italy that crashed his coalition
Video taken today (i believe) of an angry confrontation between German Police and Striking Dockers in Hamburg.
and yes, it is still only July!

https://twitter.com/AZmilitary1/status/1548277255092047873

[Borchester]

I admit that paying farmers to grow nothing is senseless in a nation such as ours which cannot possibly grow enough to feed itself and must import. Because clearly the more we can grow here the less we will need to import, and the less vulnerable we will be to global food shortages, especially in the staples that grow well here like potatoes. If only this nation could grow enough potatoes for it's own needs it would ensure reasonable prices and no one going totally hungry. A potato is extremely versatile - jacket potatoes, roast potatoes, mashed potato, chips.

Carrots grow very well here too and I am often struck in my job by how cheap they are, one of the few items that surprise me by their cheapness rather than their expense. Not sure how farmers make money out of them, because you can buy a handful of loose carrots for about 30p.

When I retire and can spare the time am thinking about trying to get an allotment so I can grow some of my own food, particularly the staple veg items I like the most like potatoes and onions.

Actually you can.

Grow enough spuds that is. Using traditional farming methods you would only need about 1/8th of the UK to keep us in potatoes. And probably most everything else.

The solution is simple enough. As the farmers retire (and they tend to be quite elderly), the state could buy up their land and allocate it to the general population. That would work out at about an acre for every man, woman and child in the country. And you can live off that. Easily.

The only problem is that as soon as you give anyone a scrap of land bigger than a flower pot they turn into right reactionary peasants. So that would be the end of Steve's dreams of Scientific Socialism. And any sort of human progress beyond breaking your back with hard, inefficient work and getting seriously bottled.

But it is strangely addictive. I have 70 odd tubs in which I am growing my main crop potatoes. They should produce anything between 200Lb and sod all crop wise and I could buy the lot in Sainsbury's for zilch. But in a couple of hours I am still going to creak up to the allotment and spend the evening watering them.

[srb7677]

Can't remember if I posted this before but: since I moved to Southport in 2004 the fields have been pretty much fallow, with the EU paying farmers to not grow anything. Now there isn't a single field that isn't rammed with crops, poor blighters have to actually do some farming to earn their crust.

I admit that paying farmers to grow nothing is senseless in a nation such as ours which cannot possibly grow enough to feed itself and must import. Because clearly the more we can grow here the less we will need to import, and the less vulnerable we will be to global food shortages, especially in the staples that grow well here like potatoes. If only this nation could grow enough potatoes for it's own needs it would ensure reasonable prices and no one going totally hungry. A potato is extremely versatile - jacket potatoes, roast potatoes, mashed potato, chips.

Carrots grow very well here too and I am often struck in my job by how cheap they are, one of the few items that surprise me by their cheapness rather than their expense. Not sure how farmers make money out of them, because you can buy a handful of loose carrots for about 30p.

When I retire and can spare the time am thinking about trying to get an allotment so I can grow some of my own food, particularly the staple veg items I like the most like potatoes and onions.

[johnofgwent]

Can't remember if I posted this before but: since I moved to Southport in 2004 the fields have been pretty much fallow, with the EU paying farmers to not grow anything. Now there isn't a single field that isn't rammed with crops, poor blighters have to actually do some farming to earn their crust.

I think maybe you are being a tad unkind.

I spent at least five years of the twenty I was freelancing all over the UK in farmhouse B&Bs as it got me out of the choking city hell holes I worked in.

Not one of the farmers I effectively lived with during that time had a good word to say about government interference with their crop and animal husbandry.

To a man (and woman) across four generations every farmer I came across told me the same story, of generations of their families working out how to get the most out of their holding over the long term and having to deal with ass holes who didn't know how to grow a potato telling them how to do their job.

Opinions of the setaside scheme and EU originated schemes that they REDUCE their output to meet demands that kept prices artificially inflated inside the EU were generally met with reactions I cannot repeat.

[Nick]

Cheap food I would imagine.

If the farmers are protesting it is probably because they have just had bumper crops and the various governments have cut their subsidies.

Good for the consumers, good for the taxpayers, bollocks to the farmers

Can't remember if I posted this before but: since I moved to Southport in 2004 the fields have been pretty much fallow, with the EU paying farmers to not grow anything. Now there isn't a single field that isn't rammed with crops, poor blighters have to actually do some farming to earn their crust. 

[Borchester]

Baring in mind its still mid summer, I do start to wonder what the long cold winter nights will bring!

Cheap food I would imagine.

If the farmers are protesting it is probably because they have just had bumper crops and the various governments have cut their subsidies.

Good for the consumers, good for the taxpayers, bollocks to the farmers

[Sampanviking]

It seems that German Farmers and Polish Farmers are also starting protests. Add to that we have massive protests in Italy against Draghi, plus of course the ongoing protests in France that seem to be picking up tempo again. We of course are having out own cost of living crunch protests and strikes and the situation may easily have contributed to the current political instability in the UK

Baring in mind its still mid summer, I do start to wonder what the long cold winter nights will bring!

[patman post]

Neither ITV news nor Sky are covering this,there's a lot going on

I first noted the story in general news media (as opposed to business orientated publications) in the Enfield Independent about a week ago.

There's also been an oil and gas workers strike in Norway that pushed prices up, but that was settled yesterday — again mostly a business story...

[cromwell]

Neither ITV news nor Sky are covering this,there's a lot going on

[T00ts]

Protests by Farmers against the cost of living crisis has paralysed much of Holland and resulted in near empty supermarkets.
Dutch police have even drawn arms and fired at the protestors!
Loads of footage on Social Media but seen no mention on the BBC
Has anyone been following this?

I think that's because we have a crisis here in Government that is taking everyone's attention.

[Sampanviking]

Protests by Farmers against the cost of living crisis has paralysed much of Holland and resulted in near empty supermarkets.
Dutch police have even drawn arms and fired at the protestors!
Loads of footage on Social Media but seen no mention on the BBC
Has anyone been following this?