Sir
Jim Brown regrets the demise of the Milk Marketing Boards (TSF May 2), though he is wrong to blame Mrs Thatcher.
She made many mistakes, but abolishing the MMBs was not one of them. The MMBs were doomed during negotiations to join the Common Market in the early 1970s because they did not comply with EEC rules on monopolies.
The Boards were responsible for fixing the price of milk on an annual basis to give a fair return to farmers, retailers and processors. Abolition was delayed until 1994 to give time for a new marketing system to be established.
Because of Brexit and the end of the Brussels bureaucrats having the final say over our laws, it should be possible to reinstate the MMBs if dairy farmers could muster sufficient support do what their ancestors did in the 1930s,
Duncan Pickard,
Straiton Farm,
Balmullo
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