IF POLLS were accurate, farmers helped deliver the decision last June to leave the EU. If that is indeed the case, they have had scant reward for doing so.

Farmers still do not have any idea of the level of support the industry will secure after 2020. More importantly, they have not been given hope that there will be any move away from the tangle of red tape that now stifles agriculture.

Politicians that made the case for 'Leave' made plenty of promises. Their vision was of less regulation and a continuation of funding, since the UK as a net contributor to the EU would not be subsidising the CAP in the EU 27 after Brexit.

Andrea Leadsom, now at Defra, was one of those making those arguments, but her actions do not reflect the promises made then.

Making matters worse, as we approach Chancellor Philip Hammond's first budget, the talk is of further cuts to public spending after 2020. This supports concerns that it will be hard to argue for support to agriculture equivalent to what the industry had under the existing CAP, or would have had if the UK had remained in the EU.

The farm commissioner, Phil Hogan, warned during the campaign that farmers voting leave would be 'gambling on the generosity of the UK Treasury', as an alternative to the certainty of the CAP. That was always a risky gamble, but farmers chose to take it because they were fed up with the bureaucracy of the CAP.

With the decision made what is needed now is some indication that farming will be properly supported as a productive, food producing industry. Also needed is reassurance that it will not be at the end of the queue when the Treasury makes decisions on public spending. When the pressure is for cuts across the board, it is not easy for the farming lobby to make the case for support, or even transitional support.

Brexit is an opportunity to create a new direction for the farming industry in the UK. But for now there is no evidence anyone in government at Westminster has much interest in delivering that vision.

Instead we are getting sound bites, and those do not stand up to scrutiny when ministers are challenged. Power and decision-making about agriculture needs to be devolved. Scotland needs a solution to fit Scotland, and local politicians have the appetite to deliver that.

However until a pot of money is put in place at Westminster, no decisions can be made in Edinburgh, or indeed in Cardiff or Belfast.

The farming industry deserves better from politicians, but the industry seems to have been eclipsed by wider Brexit issues at Westminster.

If politicians cannot deliver the money, they could at least deliver some reassurance about regulations. These were the main reason many farmers voted for Brexit. It would encourage them to believe that was the right choice if any minister at Defra gave a cast iron guarantee that the Brussels regulations that frustrate the industry will be scrapped. The problem is that many are linked to the environment, and politicians in London know that backing the environment delivers a lot more votes than backing farming.

There can be no question that regulations are getting worse. In the past couple of weeks we have seen the European Commission announce tough new rules for 'large' pig units, which will bring new permits and red tape. We have also seen a situation in the Netherlands where dairy farmers will be ordered to reduce cow numbers to comply with phosphate regulations under the nitrates directive. This has been expected for some time by the Dutch, and it would equate to a reduction of around 100,000 cows or 6.5% of their milk production.

It is regulations like these that frustrate farmers. They reflect a determination in Brussels to be seen to respond to the environmental lobby. That is also reflected in its anti-science stance towards new techniques in farming, such as GM, and an increasingly hostile stance towards agrochemicals. Its driver is to please as many European citizens, which the Commission likes to call them, as possible, rather than to create a globally competitive, productive farming industry.

This is an area where the UK could really strike out in a different direction. Lift the regulations and farmers will need less financial support. This is a classic chicken and egg situation, but for now all we are getting at Westminster is dithering over decisions.