The Agri Brigade
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ATIONAL Farmers’ Union (NFU) president Tom Bradshaw has decided to wind down the union’s protests about the imposition of 20 percent inheritance tax (IHT) on farmland. Instead, it will concentrate on cautioning the government that its current policies towards agriculture risk undermining UK food production. Why the change of tack?
The obvious answer is that the protests simply weren’t working. The government has shown no sign of making any concession to angry NFU-led demands to reverse its IHT decision. Worse still, Bradshaw has concluded that the protests have become counterproductive. Demonstrations, particularly in Westminster involving hundreds of tractors, generated unfavourable headlines involving multimillionaire