Fuel increases ‘enough to break camel’s back’ warn farmers

Farmers for Action have warned the government that protests against fuel duty may spread to England.

Speaking on GB News, William Taylor said: “Farmers for Action connects back all the way to the fuel strike of 2000 which some people may remember, and Farmers for Action was born out of that.

“Now, obviously we learned a lot back then, and we’ve also learned a lot from what’s been going on in southern Ireland in recent days, and we appreciate that something has to be done.

“But we want to make it clear, as was made clear in the south of Ireland, the problems on farms and other industries and small and medium sized businesses were boiling up before the fuel issue came to pass.

“For farmers it’s inheritance tax, and it’s all the other taxes that have been piled on us. And now we have the fuel, which is basically enough to break the camel’s back.

“So we have taken the decision that Farmers for Action will consider UK-wide tax and fuel protests.

“Now, in the meantime, we have written to the government asking them to meet with us. We do have the answers.

“If they meet with us in the next couple of weeks, good. That’s what we want to do; sit down with them and sort this out once and for all, and we have plans to do that and how to do it.

“In addition, it should be pointed out that there are sporadic protests in Northern Ireland, some which have taken place, some which haven’t, and more tomorrow, and some may take place and some may not and the same, perhaps in England.

“People that take part in those protests, as long as they do it safely and don’t impede anybody getting to the hospital or school or otherwise, then that’s fine.

“The publicity will be a help, and the pressure will be useful to be put on the government. And let’s face it, the problem for farmers and every other business and employees and everybody else that we’re taxed to death, this is the government’s fault. Let’s not put all the blame on Donald Trump.

“It’s government’s fault that we are in a position we’re in. If this government had gone forward with biofuel in 2012 and did their duty back then, you would have aviation on biofuel. You would have farm tractors and biofuel. You would have your cars on ethanol, the same as the Brazilians have had since the 1970s.

“This government and the previous one have been asleep at the wheel.”