Make Scotland great again!

'The truth is, the IT system is still an absolute shambles and isn’t fit to pay 100% of what we are entitled to be paid in October. If it worked, we would be getting paid everything – like the Irish – by then'

It’s funny how things change in politics. When Donald Trump was elected US President, I didn’t know anyone in this country who wasn’t shocked.

Astonishingly, his popularity in the US continues to grow and grow. It would appear that his totally non-politically-correct approach to politics with the 'make America great again' strapline has found tremendous support from the majority of US voters and his chances of being elected for a second term seem to improve as one inappropriate tweet after another beams its way across the world. Always assuming he isn’t impeached first!

It seems US voters are totally sick of career politicians and their selfish disregard for what is best for the country and those who elect them. Donald Trump has struck a chord.

The way things are going in Westminster right now and the total debacle that Brexit has become, British voters won’t be too far behind our US cousins. Jeremy Corbyn harnessed some of this sentiment at the last election, but his bubble appears to be burst.

The politics of the student debating society may be popular with some, but it surely can’t run a country.

Mind you, the Tory government in Westminster is doing its best to encourage Corbyn and his playmates with their constant in-fighting and back stabbing.

The reason for this, on the face of it, appears to be the Brexit debate but actually this is about career politicians playing power games. The Tory Buffoon in Chief, Boris Johnson, couldn’t care less about the country, or Brexit. His motivation is about one thing and one thing only – power for himself and his acolytes led by a 19th century throw back in the shape of Jacob Rees-Mogg.

The most dangerous of them all though is the scary Michael Gove, the modern day equivalent of a cross between Judas and Brutus. This does not bode well for

agriculture during this turbulent time because, quite simply, you can’t trust a word he says.

Back in Scotland, the Trump phenomenon of 'fake news' also seems to have taken off in a big way, despite the SNP administration’s new-found loathing of him. That was evidenced last week with an announcement from Fergus Ewing about the 2018 BPS Loan Scheme.

The national news was full of this 'great gesture' in recognition of weather related costs being experienced by Scottish farmers. Apparently, we are to receive some of our BPS payment in October this year through the same kind of loan scheme we have got used to over the last few years as a result of the failure of the now infamous IT system.

Some will be lucky enough to be offered 90% of what they are due. Some will have that figure capped because they happen to be big enough to have the audacity to employ people and claim more than €150,000, or some other random figure yet to be announced.

This is cynical politics at its worst. Of course, farmers will be grateful for any cash injection to their business in October, that’s a given. But this is nothing to do with weather related costs.

The truth is, the IT system is still an absolute shambles and isn’t fit to pay 100% of what we are entitled to be paid in October. If it worked, we would be getting paid everything – like the Irish – by then. By the way (and for the 100th time) how can you loan us our own money – that’s just nonsense!

Fergus Ewing has great instincts and I’m sure cares about agriculture in Scotland, so why undermine himself in this clumsy way? Just tell us straight: "There is no new money or support for Scottish farmers because of the weather." To be honest, why should there be – this is just part of farming, always was, always will be.

Not to be outdone, the First Minister at Turriff Show, recently felt obliged to make an announcement of her own, ostensibly in support of sheep farmers. This earth shattering announcement turned out to be £200,000 for QMS to market lamb.

I’m not sure if this was new money or not? I suppose no-one, least of all Nicola, will know either, but announce it she did.

Does anyone believe that £200k will make the slightest difference to lamb sales this year? Or is it like the BPS loan announcement, gesture politics?.

If Nicola really wanted to make a difference to sheep farmers, she should take a leaf out of Trump’s book and consider 'making Scotland great again'! That would mean reinstating the £12-15m which has been stripped from Scottish sheep farmers’ incomes next year with the recently announced 20% cut in LFASS. So what if the EU don’t like it – we are leaving the EU.

That’s certainly the line Donald Trump would take, putting his farmers’, or in Nicola’s case, Scottish farmers’, needs first. This wouldn’t be seen as another worthless political gesture, it would be a real sign of support for hill and upland Scotland which is long overdue.

I recently attended the memorial service for the late Alex Fergusson, a former presiding officer for the Scottish Parliament, South of Scotland MSP, and erstwhile sheep farmer. The service was a fabulous tribute to a really decent, genuine guy who happened to become a politician later in life.

It was a recurring theme that he was dismayed and disappointed that politics in Scotland had become so personalised and polarised over the last 20 years. He felt that the Scottish Parliament had not even come close to fulfilling the potential he saw in it when he joined as a list MSP in 1999.

Personal attacks, cynicism and fake news are as prevalent in Holyrood as Westminster and he hated it.

His life experiences before politics and his sense of duty in representing the ordinary folk of his constituency in the south of Scotland were traits that are all too rare in the modern day career politician. And it is clear in the mess we are all in with Brexit that it has never been more evident than right now.

Where it leaves us all I have absolutely no idea, because without an agreed negotiating position for Brexit inside the Tory government (and wider party), then no one has the faintest idea where all of this will end up. I mean no one.

So, while all this pantomime is playing out, could we please start injecting a bit of honesty here in Scotland and stop all this fake news and gesture driven politics.

That could start with Brexit planning. Scottish agriculture needs a Plan B for Brexit next year in case there is no EU deal and at the moment Plan A doesn’t even exist.

With a lack of political leadership for agriculture at UK level hurting the whole country, Scotland’s farmers are crying out for direction, with meaningful initiatives already in our political gift. The time to start demonstrating this is surely long overdue, instead of endless consultations, committees and expert groups talking about everything including, of all things, the weather and achieving absolutely nothing.

If Trump can do it, why can’t our politicians make Scotland great again? It would surely be a fitting tribute to so great a man like Alex.