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.

George Lyon – constitution stushie erupts over agricultural powers

George Lyon
George Lyon

A major constitutional stushie has erupted between the Scottish and UK governments. Nothing new in that you might think, but this time it is the future of Scottish farming that is right at the heart of the row.

It started with the publication of the EU Withdrawal Bill last year.

It proposed that a range of EU powers affecting farming, fishing and the environment would be held by Westminster after Brexit until negotiations on how they would be devolved were complete.

The SNP government was outraged accusing Westminster of a power grab and threatened to block the legislation in the Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Government quite rightly claim that agriculture and environment are devolved powers.

It published a list of 111 EU powers demanding they be devolved to Scotland on Brexit day.

The UK Government claims that it will devolve the maximum number of powers to Scotland but, in some areas, there have to be UK frameworks in place to ensure the UK single market continues to work.

Months of torturous negotiations between the two sides failed to resolve the issue.

It came to a head last week when the UK Government published a list of powers to be devolved on day one of Brexit but identified 24 which they want temporarily to reside at Westminster until UK frameworks are agreed.

They include farm support, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), organics, pesticides, animal welfare, fertiliser, food safety and labelling.

The SNP government say there might be a case for frameworks but insist they must give consent to them effectively granting them a power of veto.

As a farmer fed up with the constant political shouting match over Brexit you probably shrug your shoulders and think this has nothing to do with me.

However, you would be wrong because if this political game being played goes badly it will have longlasting consequences for your business.

I suspect most farmers would back Scotland deciding its own priorities on agricultural support within a UK framework that gave the devolved governments the flexibility to shape support to suit its own needs as the Common Agricultural Policy (Cap) currently does.

However, it would border on the ridiculous to have four different sets of rules on food labelling, transport, traceability, animal welfare, pesticides and seeds across the UK.

There would be a price to pay in extra costs, more bureaucracy and the creation of artificial barriers to trade within the UK single market.

Scotland relies primarily on the English market for 80% of our agricultural and horticulture exports and there is a real danger that Scottish farmers would pay that price

Our English farming colleagues however might be quite pleased if we made it more difficult to export into their home market.

In this standoff the SNP government runs the risk of being accused of opportunism as they have made it absolutely clear they would prefer to stay in the EU and hand every one of the powers back to Brussels.

As one leading north-east farmer said to me last week: “The problem is you never know whether the SNP government is fighting in the best interests of Scottish farming or in the best interests of the SNP and its cherished goal of independence.”

  • George Lyon is a former Liberal Democrat MEP. He works as a senior consultant for Hume Brophy and sits on the board of levy body organisation AHDB