Sir, – I was interested to see your editorial in TSF, July 29 edition, in which you said: “What is clear for the industry in Scotland is that its needs are very different from those in the rest of the UK”, in relation to how things might look here post-Brexit.

Scotland is not so very different to much of the rest of the UK really. Our pattern of upland and hill farming is replicated across much of northern England, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

We tend to have fewer, but bigger farmers earning less per acre, but more overall. Otherwise, the issues are more or less the same. 
In lowland areas, the problems being faced by fruit growers in Angus and eastern Perthshire about not getting enough seasonal workers will be replicated in the vegetable fields of Lincolnshire and in the orchards of Armagh.

If we really want to make a strong case for farmers post-Brexit, then we need to get as much support as possible, so we should be working with these other areas, not against them. 

We could increase lobbying power by an order of magnitude if we look for support elsewhere because all of these other countries have more farmers than we do.

When we have an overall framework that allows for continued free trade within the UK, then each constituent country can deal with their own detail, tweaking the priorities as required, as we do today. 

The worst possible scenario is that we narrow our perspective down to our own particular issues, and fail to see the wider picture and possibilities. The vision that we should have going forwards is to be the same, only different – or does that sound a bit Irish?

Victor Clements
Aberfeldy,
Perthshire