Dear Sir,

News that the Rural Budget was to be cut for a second year in a row by a figure now totalling nearly 10% of the payments made to primary food producers (farmers) has come as a bitter blow to the farming community across the length and breadth of Scotland.

What I find particularly galling is the fact that in the days when the department was known as SEERAD, they had on their own website bemoaned the fact that Scotland's farmers were at the bottom of the league table in terms of payments to agriculture right across the old EU.

Jim Walker who was a member of Lord Bew's review on agricultural support will, I am sure agree that the convergence money we received was a hard won fight. Since the publication of the Bew report the league table has mysteriously disappeared.

On Friday of last week, NFUS put out a press statement expressing the Union's anger and frustration that the budget was to see a further cut in the coming year, and who can blame them. The irony however, came in a press release from Ms Gougeon's office " Agri Sector Requires Funding Certainty" published over the weekend saying she had written to Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Barclay to ask that the Westminster Government make up the shortfall in funds now that we are no longer in receipt of from the EU's CAP pot of money.

Quite frankly Ms Gougeon shouldn't be too surprised if Steve Barclay tells her exactly where to stick her request considering she and her financially incompetent government have stolen funds that were actually destined solely for primary food production and the wider rural community. How can he be sure any increase in funding would go where intended?

Mairi Gougeon's words that the misappropriated money will be returned to the portfolio sound very hollow considering that the theft of an ever increasing sum of money has now occurred over two consecutive years indicating that the Green, SNP Government does not have a handle on their runaway budget and confidence that they ever will learn financial discipline wains by the minute.

Plenty has been said about the money spent on planting trees, taking good agricultural land out of production, and exterminating the biodiversity that existed there. But, very little has been said about the £10m annual spend over the last five years by the Scottish Government's "Scottish Land Fund" for community buyouts where, as far as I can tell, mostly land is handed over for rewilding projects and removed from food production.

The Green, SNP government has a wonderful ideological wish list and seems to pursue it before actually asking themselves whether it is affordable until the realisation that all £49 billion is gone by September and the world cannot stop revolving for the remainder of the year. So, what to do? steal money from ringfenced funds and don't feel guilty about it because they can feel good about other airy fairy good deeds that have been done.

The cabinet secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands says she is committed to a successful Scottish agricultural sector shows that the lady speaks with a forked tongue when you consider that following last week's announcement Scotland's farmers are still in receipt of the lowest production subsidies in Europe.

Apart from the playing field not being level, it is totally waterlogged at the end from where we are playing at.

Yours faithfully,

Hamish Waugh, Messrs D and E Waugh and Son, Effgill.