It is maybe an indication that we Border folk don't take our politics very seriously that in my youth our MP sat for 12 years in the House of Commons and only spoke once.

That was to ask if someone could kindly open a window as it was getting rather stuffy.

Now, our political zeal knows no bounds. We came a close second in disdaining independence to Orkney, who my Orcadian cattleman says regard both Edinburgh and London as equally ignorant of Northern ways.

In the General Election, farmer's son and Tory, John Lamont, lost by a mere 328 votes after a recount. UKIP, which polled 1316 votes, hit him hard. So all is over bar the tumult and the shouting, and what has changed.

Not much on the face of it. Westminster has moved right and Holyrood left. Actually, for farming, a great deal has changed. The Tories have a working majority and a mandate to deliver the promised referendum on continued membership of the EU.

David Cameron will tell Nicola Sturgeon that she can talk of devo max , federal Britain, fiscal autonomy and ending austerity, but Lord Smith is what she signed up for and will get.

Her electoral promises of higher income tax, higher business rates and higher taxes on family homes are on hold - "Those with broader shoulders who must bear the greater burden" - and 340,000 Scottish business, 90% of them small or medium-sized, can heave a sigh of relief. Reducing the projected annual deficit of £7.8bn by increasing public spending must wait a while.

So what about farming! At present almost every sector is uncompetitive worldwide due to the strength of sterling. Our products sell at below the cost of production, which is unsustainable. Support which may be delayed because of computer glitches will be reduced.

Maybe if we opt out of the EU, it will reduce further. The Transport, Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) presently under negotiation between the EU and USA promises an increase of 8% in EU agri exports to America. However, the value of agriculture in the EU is expected to drop by 0.5% at the same time.

The US want 480,000 tonnes of their beef to have access, hormones and all, to EU markets. Farmers will need very broad shoulders and will, judging from past history, get little support from the Tories, the party most farmers vote for.

Indeed, the only party who have supported agriculture are the SNP, whose efforts to reform land law and the Agricultural Holdings Act are commendable.

It is obvious that over the past 20 years machinery exhibits at agricultural shows have substantially reduced.

Farmers today are more interested in seeing potential machinery purchases competing in working demonstrations. It will be interesting to see if livestock showing goes in the same way.

Which do farmers see as more relevant, competitive classes of show animals, judged visually or at specific events such as Scotland's Beef Event, held at Mains of Mause, last week, or Highland Sheep, next week.

The venue and superb cattle owned by the Alexander family could hardly have been better.

Even on a cold day in a dreich month, the Beef Event was a hit from start to finish. For the first time ever, we took a stand. The family argument as to whether coffee and tea or soft drinks would go better was prolonged.

Happily, coffee and tea won. Maybe on a hot day it would have been the other way round. It was quite a learning experience and it is for others to say whether or not our efforts were successful. I certainly enjoyed it, but then everyone else was doing the work.

We took a black Limousin stock bull. He is homozygous polled and homozygous black, which is where we want to be.

We also had three Limousin and three Aberdeen-Angus bulls; one sold, one kept for stock and one to sell. All were calved in March and April, 2014. The Limousins were shapier and the Angus heavier. Different breeds for different systems.

At one time when we sold suckled calves and finished steers, we were directly involved in the market.

Now, most of our cattle are sold for breeding so we are a step removed and must concentrate to keep in touch with the commercial world.

On April 17, we sold nine cull Angus bulls. They averaged 349kg dead at an average age of 380 days and made £1178 after all deductions. Add on the Scottish Beef Calf Premium and, for our worst calves, they made decent money, even at today's prices.

Beef events are all about comparing systems of production and the challenge remains as always to maximise sale price, reduce costs and enjoy the process.

Two phrases repeated to the point of tedium by Nicola Sturgeon and Ed Miliband in the interminable media build up to the General Election were 'working people' and 'austerity'. Old news reels showing the VE Day celebrations reminded me of what austerity really meant.

Last Saturday, after the funeral of retired farm worker, Jock Dalgleish, in the beautiful little church at Fogo, near Duns, I wandered down to the quiet corner of the grave yard set aside for service men killed in the Second World War.

The stones are identical to those in the huge cemeteries in Northern Europe. There are only 16 in Fogo.

Those interred were stationed at nearby Charterhall. Due to their impossibly compacted training, badly built aircraft and faulty instrumentation, so many crashed into the nearby Cheviots and Lammermuirs that the locals called the airfield Slaughter Hall.

Most of those killed were from Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Their average age was 22. They probably never even faced the enemy, but they died to make the world a better place. Maybe after 70 years it is time to ditch austerity talk and remind ourselves that Scotland is a good place to be.