Jane Dodds has said that the Welsh Council elections in May offer an opportunity for voters who feel let down by the Conservatives to send them a message by electing hard-working Liberal Democrats, just like they did in North Shropshire.
Writing in the County Times, she highlighted the failure of the Conservative Government to meet the needs of farmers and highlights growing support for the Liberal Democrats.
Time and time again on the doorstep we heard the sheer anger of voters, many of whom had voted Conservative for decades, that the Government simply doesn’t care about rural areas.
In contrast to the Government’s ‘levelling up’ mantra, many of these communities feel they are being levelled down.
This feeling was particularly strong among North Shropshire’s farming community and their concerns echo that I’ve heard across Powys.
Whether it’s on their failure to engage with the industry over concerns over the Australian and New Zealand trade deals, a failure to solve problems on the UK-EU veterinary agreement or a failure to help address labour shortages, the Conservatives are repeatedly failing to address the problems faced by our farmers.
Many feel as if they have been sold down the river for quick trade deals designed to benefit big bankers in the City with little regard for rural communities.
In contrast, the Liberal Democrats have a lot to offer the rural communities they have always understood and served:
Our roots are embedded in standing up for our small local businesses, farms, towns and villages whereas the Conservatives and Labour continuously prioritise big business and cities.
You can read her whole article here.
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Meanwhile in England the Public Accounts Committee is saying the following about the Environmental Land Management Scheme (the proposed replacement for the Common Agricultural Policy):
Government fails to explain how “changes in land use will not simply result in more food being imported, with the environmental impacts of food production being “exported” to countries with lower environmental standards.”
DEFRA “concedes its confidence in the scheme looks like blind optimism without the details of what it has planned.”
https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/8357/documents/85142/default/
Don’t fall for the vice-Chairman of the Committee’s line: he was a big leaver.
As a Welsh farmer, I agree with every word Ms Dodds says. But why would I vote for a Party which in Wales is led by a person who will not eat the meat that I produce?