I can see myself cycling past in the video. I let the driver at the front know what was happening behind. I agree not deliberate but also no great to block streets around a hospital.
"Arrest the rain.
Handcuff the wildfire.
Take the flood to court.
Give the clouds a suspended sentence.
Dress the heatwave in an orange jumpsuit.
Sentence the melting ice to 10 years in the cooler.
These forces of nature are just causing trouble - don't listen to them."
Right-wingers now struggling with the mental gymnastics to explain how the disruption to vital health services due to this protest is different to Just Stop Oil.
Farmers are protesting because they think they're going to lose money..
The others are just concerned with the catastrophic end of the world being brought about through greed
Climate protestors would have been arrested by now, and end up facing 5 years in jail. The farmers....? free pass, it seems. Inequitable application of the Law. 🤬
Stupid bastards. Clearly on the breadline with the inheritance tax lark driving an 8 litre tractor into central London from their 1000 acres in Wiltshire.
Time for the government to trace some tractor registrations and find out which farmers are actually real farmers and not tax dodging crooks that are weaponizing food and blocking ambulance while doing something about the legit farmers having to pay the taxes that the crooks are dodging.
Surely it is deliberate? The purpose for them driving their tax-free fuelled tractors to London is to protest by way of blocking and holding up traffic. Otherwise they could all take the train, or coaches, to London and assemble in Whitehall and Parliament Sq as many protests, and protestors, do.
I believe the Met were colluding and had meetings with the ‘farmers’ about tactics prior to protest. I have a fairly reliable source. There are hard working dairy farmers who couldn’t spare the time to protest and don’t earn enough to pay inheritance tax. Right wing stunts blocking ambulances stink
Weird. Farmers appear to get a free pass almost every week.
The outrage if it's a climate protester or when teachers or health workers want the pay they sorely deserve. Suddenly the "get back to work" crowd are silent"
Also these are land owners. They are mega rich, they don't actually work the farms. Those actual workers have all my respect, we do not need to bow down to these jumped up real estate landlords having a jolly on London roads.
Blocking roads but taking care to let emergency vehicles through while protesting inaction on civilisation-threatening climate change - LOCK THEM UP AND THROW AWAY THE KEY!
Blocking everything including emergency vehicles in a protest about tax - marvellous work, carry on
I am against the blocking streets method used by Just Stop Oil in the past, and these farmers are being just as disruptive. They should also be arrested.
When JSO blocked Shoreditch High St they nearly prevented a man taking his sick partner to hospital.
Moving them on?!! If they'd been a bunch of hippies and art students demonstrating about climate change, they'd be in the back of a police van and awaiting a four year sentence already!
How are tractors not deliberately blocking ambulances? How often do you see tractors on roads in central London? They shouldn't be there in the first place. They shouldn't get a free pass.
Pull every one of them out of their tractors and lock them up, they wouldn't think twice if they were regular protesters just sitting there.
The same people who demonise people like the just oil protestors, are championing these brain dead farmers
Also I do not believe all those tractors are running on duty paid fuel
' HMRC is clear that it is illegal to use rebated fuel for a non-allowed purpose – and if caught doing so you will be liable to prosecution and may have your vehicle or machine seized.'
All to continue avoid paying any tax. All the farmers round here are multimillionaires, kids in private school, etc.
I get, that hill farms in N Yorks are not as profitable.. but come on.. they gat a great deal, half as much as the rest of us, & 10 yr interest free to pay! Ffs.
Indeed, & actually to stop the upper classes having such a strong hold of all the land, in the country.. no bad thing, imo. Lots of these ‘farmers’ with estates.. have had them since they were stolen from commoners, in 1776. This is also a class war. Protectionism.
Been some holding up of ambulances appaz . And the fuel… to get them there… and the pollution…?
Wow.
Twats.
Pay your freaking taxes, like the rest of us.
Tractors blocking roads, not news to us who live in the country, at least they're not coating the roads with manure and mud as well as they also do here.
Tories brought in laws to prevent this from happening but many are now supporting the farmers in their vain attempt to overturn IHT.It’s partygate all over again.
Not thought of that, but most likely, yes. I have a feeling it's not a thing these days. About 25 years ago I bought a house the farming owners heated with red diesel. Red dye absolutely everywhere outside where the exhaust was.
Just checked Gov website. Looks like regs were tightened in 2022, but red still allowed "for vehicles and machinery used in agriculture ... This includes allowing vehicles used for agriculture to be used for cutting verges and hedges, snow clearance and gritting roads".
Diesel-y house? 😱
I don’t wish the farmers any ill will but I can’t forget their long history of supporting governments and policies that have caused widespread suffering and poverty. And I know we depend on them but they depend on other workers too.
You were filming a few hundred yards from St Thomas's A&E. Presumably they drove over Westminster Bridge past the hospital and over the roundabout outside it. Deliberately or not it's irresponsible at best
I've got a feeling it's to do with weird DVLA rules on tractors in general. Tractors are also exempt from vehicle tax, and bizarrely for such big vehicles (yay bale spike!) you can drive them with an ordinary car licence. From age 16. It's nuts.
There was a time when they rarely went on a road. Probably time the rules were updated. With an agricultural contractor In our village, there are often more tractors than cars on the road. Farming but not farmers!
I need to ask the head of the Met why don’t they have a suitably painted CR2, main gun armament optional,to crush vehicles like this blocking emergency access?
I presume that none of those tractors are driving on public roads using tax-free red diesel either? Actually surprised the police aren't checking them all, the fines would be a nice little earner surely
I hope you’re not proud that you’re blocking ambulances or any other emergency services? If you are then you should be ashamed! Take advice as other people do about steps to minimise IHT
Apparently it's ok if you agree with someone's particular grievances.
Silly me thought endangering people's lives was the same regardless of the cause.
My thoughts exactly. Most don't need the biggest most expensive all singing all dancing tractor, and if they didn't have them, they wouldn't be so in hock to the banks.
Not just impeding traffic but making a great deal of noise with very loud horns. Which is fine but thought there were laws against loud disruptive noise and blocking of traffic. @stevebraysodem.bsky.social had amplifiers confiscated for less.
If my eight million pound farm business made eighty grand profit a year I would be spending every minute farming the farm and I wouldn't have the time and money to transport my very expensive farming equipment to London to hold up traffic
if i only made 80 grand on 8 million i would find another way to make money. i can gey 4% in gilts so by a house for 2m and invest 6. oh and pay tax to help provide services such as the nhs
It was the example given by a very posh sounding person with a "farm" in Oxfordshire. Eighty grand a year on 8 million land value. It would take them 20 years of the entire profit from the farm to pay 20% inheritance tax.
That's not a farm, that's a hobby for extremely rich people.
Oh my, @nickferrarilbc.bsky.social @toryboypierce.bsky.social et al will be spitting vitriol against these selfish, antisocial bullies all over the breakfast programmes tomorrow won’t they. Won’t they?!
Why are farmers always right wing?! They enjoy the government subsidies so I guess they are like republicans here- no regulations, more subsidies to farmers so they can be in debt to the machine manufacturers and the pesticide conglomerates who make A LOT of money off them.
I mean they're just being traffic like anything else and you can see them trying to get out of the way. If they were lorries driving up the road they'd be the same problem. I'm afraid that emergency vehicles blocked by traffic is really common in london.
But those vehicles are supposed to be working in the farm. They're too expensive to not be doing that. Aren't they? Also, it's frustrating enough here where there are farms when you have to go slowly behind them, but at least here you know they are on the road for a reason, so you are patient.
Yes how could they possibly know that driving dozens of large, slow agricultural vehicles down the same road all at the same time would cause a blockage?
I think you're intentionally missing the point, which is they are being given a free pass, also by you. They could protest on foot, which would also enable them to get completely out of the way as needed. They could just wear their flat caps, Barbours and yellow pants and we'd know who they were.
No, it's desperate stuff complaining that they're holding up ambulances when you can see them getting out of the way. I used to see multiple emergency vehicles get stuck far worse than that in traffic every day when I worked in town.
‘Won’t someone think of the poor millionaire farmers in their 200 grand tractors holding up ambulances!’
If this were anyone else protesting the majority of the UK offshore tax avoiding, Tory/reform donor press would be spitting blood and feathers.
Laughable double standards…
Contrary to popular ignorance, what happens in and to Palestine absolutely effects what happens in regards to governments of the world and how they interact with farmers and farming.
Every one of those tractors subsidised by the tax payer, along with the cheap red diesel in the massive fuel tanks and the buildings they’re stored in. Selfish, greedy, entitled and misguided.
The Together Declaration aims to stoke populist uprisings by exploiting public dissatisfaction while offering no solutions. In essence, they are cynical, dishonest troublemakers skilled at creating division without contributing to progress.
The group exploits popular issues to push its own agenda, as with the farmers. NFNF, linked to James Melville of Together, opposes climate mitigation efforts, and is likely funded by fossil fuel interests. Their focus includes anti-Net Zero policies, ULEZ, congestion charges, and 15-minute cities.
I support farmers' protests against proposed changes to inheritance tax. They deserve special consideration. But my issue here is with the No Farmers No Food (NFNF) campaign, which claims to represent farmers but is run by the Together Declaration, an AstroTurf group tied to the Spiked Network.
Well I guess that a spell in prison for these landowners. Impeding an emergency vehicle has to be a bigger crime than talking about organising a traffic jam.
So they’re being fined or arrested right? People are unable to go about their normal day emergency services are being hindered either the laws on protesting must be upheld or done away with
"Arrest the rain.
Handcuff the wildfire.
Take the flood to court.
Give the clouds a suspended sentence.
Dress the heatwave in an orange jumpsuit.
Sentence the melting ice to 10 years in the cooler.
These forces of nature are just causing trouble - don't listen to them."
I wonder how long before these Brit farmers start waving Soviet flags & asking for help from Putin to "fix" things like these anti-Ukrainian Polish farmers did. I guess the Katyn massacre where Stalin murdered 22,000 Polish officers was nothing to these useful idiots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0ygbMNHFlc
Bless, oh look.
Not an arrest or manhandling in sight.
If it was any other protestor it would be a different story.
These water table poisoning, pesticide loving privileged assholes get a free pass.
Greene King is owned by CK Asset Holdings Limited, a real estate and investment group based in Hong Kong - chaired by Victor Li, the son of Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-shing.
Why is Farage promoting their beer? (He's not even a beer drinker).
As with climate change protestors and the black cabbies who used to block Whitehall every Wednesday, people will turn against them and get bored. There used to be hoards of bikers too who protested but I can’t recall against what now.
Critical Mass. Used to cycle around London on a Friday after work to call for safer cycling routes. Never blocked emergency vehicles though. Much easier to move bikes out of the way to let them past of course.
I was referring to the motor bike riders who used to pour through Trafalgar Square and block roads. I reminded myself as to why by courtesy of Google…a new bike parking tax. No one likes taxes. Fact. 🙃
Time that such protests were made illegal and the organisers prosecuted. Not a political statement but one purely on the grounds of public safety and convenience!
Every sympathy for farmers that are struggling to make a living. The tax isn’t going to affect them, just the major land owners who have ploughed (lol) their cash into farms TO AVOID PAYING TAX. So, no sympathy for these at all.
Comments
"Arrest the rain.
Handcuff the wildfire.
Take the flood to court.
Give the clouds a suspended sentence.
Dress the heatwave in an orange jumpsuit.
Sentence the melting ice to 10 years in the cooler.
These forces of nature are just causing trouble - don't listen to them."
But is it large enough for justice to see these protestors treated as harshly as Just Stop Oil protestors?
@jackabbott.bsky.social @yvettecooper-mp.bsky.social
Or is Labour's corporate partiality on display?
Farmers are protesting because they think they're going to lose money..
The others are just concerned with the catastrophic end of the world being brought about through greed
Is this what the right ment by two tier policing?
The outrage if it's a climate protester or when teachers or health workers want the pay they sorely deserve. Suddenly the "get back to work" crowd are silent"
Blocking everything including emergency vehicles in a protest about tax - marvellous work, carry on
I am against the blocking streets method used by Just Stop Oil in the past, and these farmers are being just as disruptive. They should also be arrested.
When JSO blocked Shoreditch High St they nearly prevented a man taking his sick partner to hospital.
NOBODY should do this.
#BoycottBritishFarmFood
(Goose and gander etc)
((And no, the climate change protesters should not have been arrested either))
Oh…
Probably just a collector.
The same people who demonise people like the just oil protestors, are championing these brain dead farmers
' HMRC is clear that it is illegal to use rebated fuel for a non-allowed purpose – and if caught doing so you will be liable to prosecution and may have your vehicle or machine seized.'
https://www.fwi.co.uk/machinery/red-diesel-rule-changes-hmrc-spells-out-dos-and-donts
I get, that hill farms in N Yorks are not as profitable.. but come on.. they gat a great deal, half as much as the rest of us, & 10 yr interest free to pay! Ffs.
Wow.
Twats.
Pay your freaking taxes, like the rest of us.
They shot themselves in the foot.
Rural bellends.
Diesel-y house? 😱
Anyone around testing what fuel they were using?
Protest, yes
Blocking ambulances, major no no
(rhetorical question)
Why not farmers?
Silly me thought endangering people's lives was the same regardless of the cause.
That's not a farm, that's a hobby for extremely rich people.
And fuck em all. ✊🏽
If this were anyone else protesting the majority of the UK offshore tax avoiding, Tory/reform donor press would be spitting blood and feathers.
Laughable double standards…
Contrary to popular ignorance, what happens in and to Palestine absolutely effects what happens in regards to governments of the world and how they interact with farmers and farming.
#FreePalestine
And ULEZ exempt no doubt.
dont like paying tax the same as us those farmers do they?
Note: Without the big tractors, you'd realise that the protest is made up out of just a handful of people.
Source: https://www.fwi.co.uk/business/markets-and-trends/land-markets/who-owns-britains-farmland
It'd be terrible if environmental protesters did it.
When most protestors come to our city they have the respect to use the tube. Why are this lot coming in their work vehicles, exactly?
It’s not a necessary part of the protests.
Unless it’s to block our roads, that is….
#doublestandards #police
"Arrest the rain.
Handcuff the wildfire.
Take the flood to court.
Give the clouds a suspended sentence.
Dress the heatwave in an orange jumpsuit.
Sentence the melting ice to 10 years in the cooler.
These forces of nature are just causing trouble - don't listen to them."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0ygbMNHFlc
Not an arrest or manhandling in sight.
If it was any other protestor it would be a different story.
These water table poisoning, pesticide loving privileged assholes get a free pass.
Why is Farage promoting their beer? (He's not even a beer drinker).