Samuel Merchant

Free Range Broiler farmer, Pedigree Hereford cattle hobbyist. Exeter Chiefs fan

[Tom Slater @Tom_Slater_]

Just so we’re clear…

Racist:
—Warm ale
—Bare nails
—Academic standards

Not racist:
—No-whites hiring policies
—Calling Suella a coconut
—Thinking the Jews run everything

I must admit, I’m struggling to keep up

[Christopher Talbot @Lord_Talbot64]

Jenny Riddell-Carpenter appears to be denying the existence of her own life.
https://t.co/gybakrih8v

[Rachel ❤️ @RachelMcXe]

The new local government of modern London

The replacement is almost complete

[Ryanair @Ryanair]

fork found in kitchen

[Cristo @cristo_radio]

Work? Taxed to oblivion
Sell? Taxed to oblivion
Buy? Taxed to oblivion
Die? Taxed to oblivion

And now… save? Taxed to oblivion

There is no point doing the right thing any more in the UK.

[PREM Rugby @premrugby]

@ExeterChiefs ARE IN THE GALLAGHER PREM FINAL!!

[Matthardybladerunner @Matthardy_BR]

PLEASE SHARE......THIS IS WHAT DWR CYMRU ARE DOING TO OUR RIVER
Location is bottom of car park at Llanrwst library heading towards Gowers Bridge

[No Farmers, No Food @NoFarmsNoFoods]

He lied to farmers. He promised to support farmers. But instead he betrayed them.

Keir Starmer is the ultimate snake oil salesman. Don’t believe a word that he says.

[Robbie Moore MP @_RobbieMoore]

Why, oh why, will the Prime Minister not change course?

Parliamentary Committees, MPs, farming stakeholders & our hard working farming community are all calling for his disastrous Family Farm Tax to be scrapped.

But the PM remains determined to push on - despite all warnings.

[James Heale @JAHeale]

Alistair Carmichael lists all the majority-Labour select committees against the family farms tax:

"Why do you not listen to your own party colleagues?"

Starmer: "I do listen to party colleagues all the time."

Carmichael: "And then do what you're going to do anyway."

[Jim Chimirie 🇬🇧 @JChimirie66677]

Britain crosses these lines brazenly now. No debate. No shame. A government decree, a police order, and suddenly the people who feed the country – the most rooted, law-abiding citizens we have – are the ones being marched away in handcuffs. Not for rioting. Not for violence. For turning up to protest a tax raid that threatens the survival of family farms. This is what decay looks like when it turns into something darker: the state deciding who may speak and who must be silenced.

The images from Westminster should chill anyone with a sense of Britain's old freedoms. Dozens of tractors draped in Union flags. Farmers who spend their lives in mud, dawn light and hard graft, standing in the capital because Rachel Reeves has reached for the most brutal tool in the Treasury drawer – inheritance tax – and pointed it straight at the land itself. One death in the family and the farm breaks into pieces, sold off to pay the bill. That is the reality behind the Budget's polite language. These men aren't in London for show. They are there because their futures have been put on the block.

And what did the state do? The Met, which can't find the strength to stand up to eco-fanatics or pro-Hamas mobs, suddenly discovered iron in its spine the moment it faced peaceful rural protest. Section 14 orders. Sudden bans. Farmers singled out and cuffed like criminals. Officers who were helping them park an hour earlier switched roles and started clearing them out. This is not policing. This is obedience enforcement – selective, political, and aimed squarely at the demographic this government thinks it can steamroller without consequence.

The excuse was "disruption." As if tractors circling Trafalgar Square for a morning threaten the life of the nation, while city-blocking marches and flag-waving fanatics do not. It's the same double standard we've seen for years: indulgence for the activist Left; force for the ordinary citizen who dares to object. A country that treats its farmers as a nuisance is already half-lost. A country that arrests them for standing in public is well on the way to something worse.

This isn't happening by accident. It's the logical end of a government drunk on its own authority. They raid family farms for cash; then they send the police to muzzle the people affected. They ban tractors for "serious disruption" while gutting the mechanisms that once protected the public from the state. Speech tightened. Protest restricted. Juries stripped from trials. Now this. One brick at a time, the wall between the government and unchecked power is being pulled down.

Farmers don't protest unless they have been pushed to breaking point. A ruling class that still understood the country it governs would know that. This one doesn't care. It sees them as an obstacle, not a backbone. And that is why the images from Westminster matter: they reveal a state no longer restrained by shame or tradition. A state that believes it can handcuff the hands that feed it and get away with it.

The truth is simple: a government that fears peaceful farmers fears the country itself. And a government that turns the police on them is not preserving order; it is testing how far it can go. Britain isn't at the end of this road yet. But the direction of travel is plain to anyone with eyes open.

"Farmers singled out and cuffed like criminals. Officers who were helping them park an hour earlier switched roles and started clearing them out."

[Ed Conway @EdConwaySky]

Remember those new environmental schemes govt launched to replace EU farm subsidies?
Well ⁦@DefraGovUK⁩ just unexpectedly shut the main scheme to new applicants leaving many farms in the lurch.
Thought farmers couldn't get any angrier? Think again... https://t.co/Ra0ENZxIg6

[Emily Sheffield @emilysheffield]

Dear @SteveReedMP I’m listening to you on Radio 4 right now.

Please stop saying it’s only 500 farms - it’s 500 MINIMUM every year!

That’s TWO EVERY working day of the week…. That’s closer to 1700 within three years. And it doesn’t stop. Because if you gift your farm to try and take advantage of seven year tax break you cannot claim your pension from your own farm! Stop muddying the waters … Please. I know this was not your tax but please please stop giving misleading numbers! #FamilyFarmTax

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

This is absolutely outrageous from former Labour political advisor John McTernan:

“We can do to the farmers what Thatcher did to the miners. It’s an industry we could do without. We don’t need small farmers.”

[The Telegraph @Telegraph]

🔴 NEW: Rachel Reeves has dealt another blow to farmers by preventing them from sharing their £1m tax relief with spouses or civil partners

[Matt Cartoons @MattCartoonist]

'One day, son, all this will belong to HMRC'

My latest cartoon for tomorrow's @Telegraph

Buy a print of my cartoons at https://t.co/ILFJjPmckx

Original artwork from https://t.co/bVPAkgE34y

[Matt Cartoons @MattCartoonist]

My latest cartoon for tomorrow's @Telegraph

Buy a print of my cartoons at https://t.co/ILFJjPmckx

Original artwork from https://t.co/bVPAkgE34y

[NFYFC @NFYFC]

NFYFC has a support guide for YFCs to ensure all members can access the opportunities we offer.

It explains how to make adjustments to tailor activities to individual needs, and always taking a person-centred approach.

#YFCisforEveryone #NeurodiversityCelebrationWeek