Given the outraged reaction of British farmers to the Starmer/Reeves ‘farmer harmer’ tax, some people might wonder why this new tax was ever introduced. After all, it will be collected quite slowly as it will be paid over 10 years after a farmer dies. Moreover, it will raise very little money as, like all new taxes, it will generate considerably less revenue than planned as it will lead to a change in behaviour as farmers consult tax consultants to find ways of avoiding the new tax.
In Britain, we’ve had several taxes which have come and gone due the inevitability that they change people’s behaviour. There was Henry VIII’s Beard Tax, reputedly introduced in 1535. Avoidance was easy – you just shaved off your beard. In 1662, Charles II brought in an early type of poll tax, the Hearth Tax. It was considered too difficult to count how many people lived in each house, so instead the tax was based on the number of chimneys per property. The result was that enterprising citizens started combining several fireplaces into a single chimney. A few hundred people are thought to have died in the ensuing fires. In 1696, William III brought in a Window Tax, which led many householders to brick up some of their windows. 1795 saw the introduction of a tax on wigs and wig powder. Result: wigs became less fashionable. And around 1800 the Government started a Hat Tax. Each hat had to have a stamp sewn into it to show that it was legal. The penalty for forging these stamps was death, which might give some people odd ideas about how to deal with today’s large tech companies which avoid many taxes.
There are several possible explanations for the ‘farmer harmer’ tax. These are not mutually exclusive. So some or all may be true at the same time.
On a basic level, some people might see this as a typically vindictive Labour assault on a group Labour feels have traditionally voted Conservative and therefore there are no votes to be lost by penalising this group. In fact, just as Stalin demonised the ‘kulaks’ for allegedly causing food shortages by hoarding grain, Labour may be hoping that its mostly inner-city electorate will cheer its farmer-bashing when supposedly greedy millionaire farmers are landed with new taxes on their supposed ‘massive wealth’.
A further explanation is that the ‘farmer harmer’ tax may force many smaller farmers out of business. Given the low financial returns on most British farms, many farmers are asset rich but cash poor. This may mean that there will be few buyers able to afford to buy the farms which the ‘farmer harmer’ tax forces inheritors to sell. This would allow the Labour Government, possibly using the vehicle of the Government-owned Great British Energy, to pick up these farms at knock-down prices and convert them from what Labour seems to see as ‘useless’ food production to much more useful (in Ed Miliband’s eyes) wind and solar farms.
While on the subject of Miliband’s wind and solar farms, it might be worth mentioning that the head of one of Germany’s largest electricity companies once remarked that trying to get energy from solar power in Northern Europe was like trying to grow pineapples in Alaska. Ooops, silly me. I’ve just given Ed Miliband another unhinged idea. Looking at the amount of fossil fuel used to transport pineapples from South America or wherever they’re gown, Miliband could claim he’s saving the planet by squandering billions of our money subsidising pineapple farms in, say, the north of Scotland, thus creating thousand of supposedly ‘well-paid and highly skilled green jobs’ on British pineapple farms to replace the hundreds of thousands of real, well-paid, highly-skilled jobs in the Scottish offshore oil and gas industry which he is intent on destroying.
Anyway, back to the ‘farmer harmer’ tax.
There is a third, rather more sinister possible reason for our Government’s enthusiasm for this tax. In July 2024, the think tank Demos published a report titled ‘The Future of Inheritance Tax in Britain‘. On its home page Demos describes itself as follows:
Demos is an independent think-tank set up to improve the breadth and quality of political and policy debate. It encourages radical thinking and solutions to the long-term problems facing the U.K. and other advanced industrial societies.
A LSE review of think tanks concludes that Demos is a: “Think tank focused on power and politics – historically Left-leaning, but independent of any political party.”
A key issue covered in the Demos report is the number of exemptions from inheritance tax in the U.K. The report notes: “The U.K. is unusual in offering 100% relief for owned businesses and agricultural property, and not counting most private pensions for inheritance tax purposes.” If you’ve looked at Rachel Reeves’s changes to inheritance taxes, in particular those concerning SIPPs and inheritance tax on agricultural land, you might detect more than coincidental similarities to the recommendations of the Demos report.
The main sponsor of the Demos report is the ludicrously vowel-less abrdn asset management firm through its abrdn Financial Fairness Trust operation. Abrdn manages at least £506 billion of U.K. and global assets. In 2015, abrdn bought the multi-billion dollar U.S.-based FLAG Capital. FLAG stands for ‘Forest, Land and Agriculture’. In a 2018 report abrdn seems to express frustration at the difficulty in acquiring farmland due to so much being owned by families:
Given the family ties involved in the farmland sector, there may be multiple interests (not just financial) that could potentially create challenges in the ownership shift to purely financial owners.
“Purely financial owners” are, of course, companies like abrdn.
Abrdn is one of the biggest real estate owners in the U.K. and, in its December 2023 annual financial report, cites its ownership of nearly £76 billion of real estate assets and its intention on growing this area of its business.
It has been repeatedly reported that Microsoft’s billionaire founder and fêted philanthropist Bill Gates is the largest private owner of agricultural land in the U.S. Forbes tells us:
After years of reports that he was purchasing agricultural land in places like Florida and Washington, the Land Report revealed that Gates, who has a net worth of nearly $121 billion according to Forbes, has built up a massive farmland portfolio spanning 18 states. His largest holdings are in Louisiana (69,071 acres), Arkansas (47,927 acres) and Nebraska (20,588 acres). Additionally, he has a stake in 25,750 acres of transitional land on the west side of Phoenix, Arizona, which is being developed as a new suburb.
What seems to be becoming clear is that there is a rush by the rich and by financial institutions to buy up farmland. And in Britain, the close similarities between the abrdn-sponsored Demos inheritance tax report and some of the changes in Rachel Reeves’s budget might lead some people to suspect that the ‘farmer harmer’ inheritance tax changes will conveniently help companies like abrdn overcome the hurdle of family ownership of land.
Quite why the rich and financial institutions are so intent on grabbing agricultural land, I don’t know. But if you think that it’s due to an altruistic desire to provide us with cheap, high-quality food, then a Nigerian prince and I have a wonderful investment scheme to sell you.
David Craig is the author of There is No Climate Crisis, available as an e-book or paperback from Amazon.
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Thanks for this interesting take on the matter.
“Quite why the rich and financial institutions are so intent on grabbing agricultural land, I don’t know.”
I don’t claim to know why they are, but it’s not exactly surprising, is it? I mean, we all need food so if you own the land the food comes from then you control the food supply. Why would you not want to do that? Also, land is the classic limited commodity – if you can, why not corner the market, at a knockdown price.
The real interest of all the people is that a Land Value Tax is implemented so as to give much of the inherent value to the community leaving the added value for the owners.
Assuming you mean that this would replace most/all other taxes, I think the idea has some merit.
Follow the money, follow the power, follow the control. Classic operational Master of the Universe mentality. Masters (and Mistresses) of a kind master and mistress together.
Also known more prosaically as Headmaster and/or Head Girl Syndrome.
Resist!
Mass governmental run (wef,un,nato,who,blackrock) industrial food production for the masses = complete overarching control that beats communism out of the ball park! All this to be done nice and slowly and patiently so as not to enrage the prolls! if anyone mentions what’s happening just call it, say.. mis or disinformation!
I wonder what blue chips bought many of the Dutch farms before they voted in that new party that saves their ass! A few committed suicide because of being forced off their land because if these fake nitrogen initiatives. Evil WEF psychopaths pushing this with the Build Back Better mantra.
It is so they control the food supply. And if you control the food supply, you control the people (you allow to live).
All part of the CONTROL and depopulation Agenda.
M. Zermansky’s “Declined” looking more and more like our future.
“Quite why the rich and financial institutions are so intent on grabbing agricultural land, I don’t know.”
Crikey, I’ve been banging on about how the Davos Deviants wish to destroy the country pretty much since the Scamdemic started. The intention to steal our farmland is part of this destruction. Our farmers are the backbone of this country, hard-working, enterprising, entrepreneurial and committed, qualities which must be eradicated in order to destroy Britain and its people – not discounting hordes of muslim Gimmigrants of course. And once organisations take control of land which they will not have a clue how to manage the food shortages are built in. Starving populations are of course much easier to manage.
Useless solar and wind farms are simply cover ups for taking good agricultural land out of the food production chain so let’s not be kidded by this crap.
Quite why David Craig fails to see the obvious is beyond me.
The aim of the globalists / Davos Deviants is the destruction of Great Britain. Simple as. Stealing farmland from farmers is but one part, albeit a massive part of the equation.
Agreed, those who control the food supply control the people. We will be subjected to food which has high levels of chemicals, where the prices are controlled by cartels of producers, who as they do in the States fund the political party that looks after the best interests of the corporate heads.
When the Dutch farmers were being turfed out on a massive scale, people were theorising what the purpose of all this is; we know the excuse was nitrogen fertilizer but what was the real reason. People like Dr Dave Martin talked about plans to merge some cities with towns etc with the development of ‘Smart Cities’, others talked about large Food Hubs including the Dutch PM at the time.
Chemicals, AND the mRNA clot-shots of course.
I do see the obvious. But rather than state it, I preferred to let readers come to their own conclusions. My point with this article was to do the research to expose Labour’s corruption, as not a single mainstream media journalist seems to have noticed the way abrdn have used Labour to enrich themselves at our expense.
Thanks for your response.
I’d assume they cosied up to the other half of the Uniparty before Labour had a go…
I remember arguing with a farmer who was not that clued up in the DD Globalists; He told me people have no business in looking into why Bill Gates is buying up so much farmland in the US because he is a private citizen. I hope that particular person has changed his mind on that, because being a small farmer, he is the turkey that would vote for Christmas.
He would have a point had Gates not made it clear his desire to meddle in our lives and as such negate his right to privacy.
Well the first five of us to comment on this article have all come to the same conclusions. No surprise there then.
It’s reasonable to assume this chap would also concur…LOL;
A Labour Party activist is ill advised to knock on this man’s door.
“Labour can f**k off, Labour have fucked this country right up, full of f**king Muslims & all this sh*t. This country is f**ked”.
“F**k off Labour scum”.
https://x.com/DaveAtherton20/status/1879479134356979977
Now that chap should be on the honours list!
I suspect he’s a Reform voter, personally.
Quality Mogs. Quality.
A gentleman of fervent perspicacity and admirable loquaciousness!
Top video, made me chuckle!
As government and bureaucracy has ‘blossomed’, there have been two serious implications for national government, neither of which are desirable
One. It has been possible for ‘leaders’ to avoid leading, by abdicating power upwards. A prime example of this is the EU. We could pay 650 British MP’s just to keep their rubber stanps inked, and meanwhile to amuse themselves [at our expense] chasing libidinous SPADs around Westminster. There was no longer a need for them to even pretend to manage anything, even though some tried very hard to give the impression that they did [Hancock, BoJo, Covid]. The Climate Change Act was another egregious example of this, in fact anything involving the WHO
Two. There has been a proliferation of rules, laws and requirements introduced below the level at which MP’s can intervene. 20mph in Wales; everything in Scotland. MPs are saved the hassle of having to manage matters, they just leave it to others, policies are enacted which have never been debated at Westminster.
And if you are not qualified for the job but get dumped into HM Treasury as a stooge, what better than adopting the thinking undertaken by others [Demos] and making it your very own policy? Follow the money on that one, though….
World’s most valuable farmland? Ukraine.
World’s most expensive real-estate land?
1. Maui. Up for sale after devastating fire.
2. Palm Beach. Up for sale after devastating fire.
3. Pacific Palisades. Up for sale after devastating fire.
I hesitate to comment, as my brain is starting to feel like a broken record, but we now have another connection between Labour and ‘the bosses’ wanting to destroy the structure of the country. Now if it was the Tory party, I could understand the dotted line from party, through think tank to evil globalists, but this is the workers’ party, the party of the downtrodden, and here’s where I become the broken record – who are the 25% still supporting this lawyer run, capitalist supporting, globalist lackey political party?
The Civil Service, wider Public Sector, University Sector, “Charity” Sector, large proportion of ethnic minorities, esp Muslims, welfare claimants and many in the traditional working class Labour-voting areas “cos we all vote Labour.”
Down to 25% in the polling. I reckon they could go down another 5% as some in the traditional working class Labour vote and Muslims abandon them.
20% will be rock bottom.
I suspect it’s because they know that the current western economic structure is likely to collapse at some point. At that point the fundamental truth will emerge: you still have to eat.
In contrast, other assets, like your latest fancy iPhone, will not necessarily be that useful.
“And around 1800 the Government started a Hat Tax. Each hat had to have a stamp sewn into it to show that it was legal. The penalty for forging these stamps was death”
Reminds me of the book ‘London’s Underworld’. Three Centuries of Vice & Crime. In it he mentioned that you could also get the death penalty of the stealing of Hops! suppose they liked their beer, and mead!
The WEF “you will own nothing” quote, was it just a prediction or an intention. There are National Plans here in the UK that they never talk about, apart when Stanley Johnson says the quiet bit out loud.
Whatever their motive it’s certainly sinister, and certainly bodes ill for normal people.
With arch globalist 2TK in downing street it’s hard to see how this ends eny time soon.
How many more families’ livelihoods will be destroyed before these people are stopped?
Anybody’d think the Great Taking was really a thing…
Makes my f@cking blood boil.
In a crowded field this lot are going to be the most unpopular government in history, and they’ve only been in 6 months, 11 days and 14 3/4 hours…
What the late Christopher Booker used to call “A sledgehammer to crack a nut that completely misses the nut”
Unless the nut is completely different from what they say it is.
Their behaviour is based on the assumption that there will be very few of us left. You need a base number, say 800,00, just to keep the infrastructure going. Making sure that nuclear power plants don’t melt down etc. Believe me they want us out of the way. The tightening of the financial noose is just a harbinger of what is to come. Everything is being strangled, fertiliser production for example. You can easily glean the effect of massive fertiliser production reductions and they have done it so that at least a third of the world population will have nothing to eat. Just in case you have a hard time in thinking of these people as ruthless.
Perhaps we should view our political leaders as “farmers” and the populace as “livestock”?
Or Prize Pigs and the other animals.
Yes, the “useless eaters” statement explains Agenda and therefore their behaviour.
Good article by David Craig, with useful information about Gates’ huge landholdings, also mentioning Stalin and the Kulaks, and asking about the reasons. Here are a few reasons:
1) Bill Gates, speaking for the Globalists, vowed to “Abolish Animal Agriculture”, including dairy and fishing, to force us all to be Docile Vegans Eating Bugs. Hence the decimation of the UK fishing industry.
2) Famine. Depopulation Agenda 21, set for 2030. Holodomor II.
3) “The Hunger Games”.
Sounds much like the continual destruction of “prime property” in the USA. Hawaii, California, which state is next? Only our financial institutions that keep getting mentioned are Blackrock and vanguard. Reminds me of the NWO…you will own nothing and be
. You will eat bugs. Up until a few months ago, the feds were harassing a famous Amish farmer who was selling unpasteurised milk to his many customers. I can tell you right now, the new administration has many battles ahead, but when President Trump says he will address the tax system in the USA, it is coming.
What I don’t understand is how all of us Global Vegan Serfs will be eating bugs, which are technically “animals”, and therefore not vegan.
Bill Gates’ plan to “Abolish Animal Agriculture” must also include abolishing “Insect Farming”, Eating Bugs and his much-vaunted Fake Bug Meat, because they are also “Animal Agriculture”.
And to think of all that money he’s invested in Bug Meat, all to be abolished under his own plan!
A farm is probably worth an awful lot in carbon credits, so ditching the fiat currency for land that will work in the new technocratic world order is very sensible for these financial only institutions.
The benefit that it gives more leverage on the people because you control the food supply, that is probably just an added bonus.