From Mr Francis Fulford Sir: Michael Hanlon demonstrates that his
urban prejudices are backed up by ignorance. The question of subsidies and tax breaks is not unique to rural England but percolates right to Mr Hanlon's front door.
I imagine him getting up in the morning and opening his post. A council-tax demand? Not to worry: because he is a Londoner it is not too onerous, as the taxpayer gives London boroughs lots of extra dosh to keep the cost of council tax down. Then Mr Hanlon leaves his house (originally bought with the help of mortgage-interest tax relief) and commutes to work on subsidised public transport. Luckily, he works for the Daily Mail, which. I am sure, pays him well enough to enable him to make contributions to his taxpayer-subsidised pension scheme (the average farmer makes only £5,000 a year).
In his lunch-break he may well go round one of the many art galleries without admission charges, kept going by taxpayers, many of whom will never visit them because, being countrymen, they cannot afford to stay in London. Perhaps in the evening he will take his wife out to the National Theatre or ballet or opera, all kept going by generous taxpayer subsidies.
Afterwards they will have dinner at the Ivy with some friends and rail against the feather-bedded farmers living in luxury on subsidies. The whole evening for two has cost him £500 by the time he has got home; not bad value, perhaps, for him, but it represents 10 per cent of the average farmer's annual income.
So, Londoners, give up your subsidies first, and then we in the country just might take you seriously.
Francis Fulford
Dunsford, Devon
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