I was struck by what I saw at the farmers' protest. What the HELL is Starmer thinking? - Carole Malone

How could the idiot Starmer and his motley crew have been so stupid? How could they have so carelessly put the food security of this country in mortal danger with their stupidity and ignorance over the inheritance tax hikes?

How thick are they not to realise how important farmers are to this country? Does our PM not see they are the lifeblood of it, not to mention our heroes, who work all hours of the day and night – many for just a few measly grand profits a year – to put food on our tables?

But how could we expect this joke of a Government that is peopled by pretenders and metropolitan elitists who hyperventilate the minute they set foot outside the Islington postcode to understand what the lives of real working people are like?

The only “working” people it's interested in are the ones attached to hardline, aggressive militant unions who strike if they don’t get given a four-day week and their salary doubled in obscene overtime payments.

Perhaps if the farmers had gone on strike, caused an uproar on our streets and ensured that supermarket shelves were empty - maybe then this Government would have sat up and taken notice. But farmers aren’t made of that kind of stuff. And so they get s**t on.

But not yesterday. Yesterday, out of desperation, frustration and sadness they’ve said enough!

Did Reeves and Starmer really expect farmers to take their ill-thought-out changes to inheritance tax lying down?

Well, the march on Whitehall proves that if you poke the quiet bear long enough eventually he’ll rear up and bite you on the backside.

But if you didn’t already know the sneering disdain at the heart of this government for farmers, here’s what former Blair aide, John McTernan, says Starmer should do. He says the PM should do to farmers what Thatcher did to the miners because farming “is an industry we can do without”.

And there you have it - precisely why this Government is treating farmers like dirt and believes they should be robbed of their livelihoods to fill the Government’s coffers.

Even Rachel Reeves had the brass neck to say farmers should pay up to fund the NHS.

Seriously? This is the woman who said she was going to revitalise the NHS by pouring into it the money it needs to save it. Yet all she did in the budget was give it £22billion, ten of which is going on pay and pensions, which means only £10billion is going on patient care.

And how dare she put the fate of the NHS on farmers’ shoulders. Is feeding a county not enough for her? Do they have to save our health service as well?

But it's Starmer and Reeves' ugly lack of compassion that shows clearly where the Government’s sympathies and the loyalties lie. It’s not with the people who literally put food on our tables; it’s with aggressive rail union bosses who regularly bring this country to a standstill, hurting millions of other working people in the process.

The real workers - the quiet people who inspire respect in this country - are seen as saps to be ground down and robbed by this Government.

I’m furious farmers have been driven to do what they’re doing in London. Watching them as they marched slowly through London’s sodden streets I was struck by the fact there was no aggression, no menace. Most just looked sad and desperate – like they were literally fighting for their lives.

And the fact is – they are. They are fighting for their lives against a Government that doesn’t care about them, their farms, their families or the communities all over Britain that will be hellishly affected if this Inheritance tax hike happens.

The Government’s stubbornly insisting the tax changes will affect just 27 per cent of farms. The farmers say that’s tosh and its many more.

But there’s a massive dispute inside the Government as to exactly how many farms will be affected which tells you what’s coming out of Downing Street is just more lies.

Jeremy Clarkson, who was on the march, made no bones about it. He said if those changes go ahead "it could be the end for farmers". And he should know.

I believe (and I pray) this country is 100 per cent behind the farmers because, unlike Starmer and Co, we know what life will be like without them.

But how in God’s name did we end up with a so-called socialist Government that’s prepared to cripple pensioners and then to eviscerate decent hard-working farmers?

Louise Haigh, the ludicrous pink-haired Transport Secretary, insisted this week that if farmers went on strike the Government was perfectly able to take care of food security.

The hell it is. Its shambolic performance so far has shown it couldn’t take care of a you know what in a brewery let alone our food security!