SIR, – Well what a party pooper Lord Duncan’s turning out to be! There was hardly time to check if the BPS loans had arrived in bank accounts, before he lobbed his grenade into the NFUS conference and announced that ag and fish would be out of the EU and the single market in March, 2019.

How is that going to work if processors and retailers remain in the single market under a transition agreement? What trading agreements for agriculture and fisheries can realistically be in place by March, 2019, if the government can’t even get major trade negotiations under starter’s orders? Besides, it’s not right that the government has made this decision without consulting the devolved administrations or the farming and fishing industries and it does nothing to foster good working relationships.

Back at the ranch, the CabSec’s agitating for the convergence cash that Defra decided to divvy up between all parts of the UK instead of forwarding it to Scotland. According to the CabSec, Scottish hill farmers have been fleeced, robbed and are owed £160m. Scotland’s hills and glens earned it and he wants it handed over. Quite right too!

The CabSec claimed that the demand is not against farmers in the other parts of the UK, but where else can the convergence money come from? They’ve been getting it and there is no other pot of EU convergence money at Defra’s disposal. If £160m is owed by Defra to Scottish hill farmers so, too, is the £30m of convergence cash that has come to Scotland and was put in the BPS pot instead of being ring-fenced for LFA.

If Scottish hill farmers were fleeced, it wasn’t only by Defra. Is the plan to claw back convergence cash from Scottish non-LFA recipients and hand it to the hill sector? That’ll go down like a lead balloon!

If this move is successful, how will the convergence money be paid to hill farmers when the IT system is incapable of handling existing payments? Is the intention to ring-fence the convergence cash for the hill farmers who earned it or will it again be used to top up the BPS pot, with the lion’s share going to non-LFA holdings?

A long-awaited review of the convergence funding seems likely, but the chances of money being clawed back must be slim. The CabSec has created an expectation amongst hill farmers that a hefty convergence cash windfall is heading their way and he has promised to put his head on the block if he doesn’t get it.

Brave words, but he’s a lawyer, he’s no fool – and there’s always the small print!

M Paterson

Upper Auchenlay,

Dunblane.