Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

‘Belt and braces’ Brexit plans demanded by farmers’ union

NFU president Andrew McCornick.
NFU president Andrew McCornick.

A controversial dual-country “belt and braces” approach to new farm legislation has been demanded by Scotland’s farmers’ union.

Union president Andrew McCornick has called on the Scottish Government to not only produce a Scottish Agricultural Bill to deliver farm policy beyond the Common Agricultural Policy, but also to take powers via a schedule in the UK Government’s Agriculture Bill, which is already well advanced at Westminster.

At an end-of-year briefing in Edinburgh he said: “We want to see something in place right now that shows a direction of travel. Every farmer has to do long-term planning and there are people sitting considering whether to sell up or expand their businesses.

“These are major decisions yet we don’t even know what our future trading arrangements are going to be or the direction future Scottish agriculture policy is going.”

However both Mr McCornick and the union’s policy director, Jonnie Hall, were adamant that farm policy must remain devolved in order to meet the particular needs of Scottish farming.

Mr Hall said: “Defra have always made it clear they aren’t interested in running agricultural policy in Scotland. The trajectory that England have taken of phasing out direct support over a seven-year period would be an absolute disaster for Scotland but they’re not trying to impose that on us at all.

“One of the problems we’ve encountered is that Scottish Government is very clear it could do things but it hasn’t categorically said it will do things, so there’s not a clear commitment to a route map that would be driven through the Scottish Parliament.”

nnicolson@thecourier.co.uk