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Broadcasts live every Wednesday at 7:00p.m. uk time on Radio Soapbox: http://radiosoapbox.com
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Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of the Shelley Tasker Show on Radio Soapbox. Today, we had the pleasure of speaking with Peter Lawrence, an independent MP candidate for Truro and Falmouth, Cornwall. Peter, also known as Farmer Pete, is the founder of the Farmers Movement Cornwall and has a significant following. We discussed his manifesto, which focuses on critical issues such as the cost of living crisis, housing crisis, and immigration. Peter emphasised the need for a maximum approach to circular self-sufficient food security and raised concerns about the impact of solar panels on farmland. He also highlighted the importance of honest food labelling and stronger protections for farmers within farm business tenancies. Additionally, we touched upon the controversial topic of cloud seeding and geoengineering. Despite technical difficulties, Peter shared his passion for making a difference and his commitment to representing the voices of the politically dispossessed. We also had Jo Wood, a dedicated activist, join us to discuss the campaign and the importance of political change. Tune in to hear more about Peter's vision for a better future and the growing movement of independent candidates in Cornwall.
[00:00:59]
Unknown:
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome the Shelley Tasker Show here coming out of Radio Soapbox dot com. It's good to have your company. Today's date is Wednesday 26th June 2024. Have a great guest lined up. He's just getting on. People are so last minute, aren't they? Every week, no one's prepared. I'm just about winged it, sat here ready, and, no music ready for the intro outro. Anyway, I'm bumbling. I'm just waiting for our guest. Those of you who don't know him, it is Peter Lawrence from Cornwall. He is running as an independent MP for the Truro and Falmouth areas.
And, yeah, he's got quite a good following, and we've literally got 2 weeks left. I know the last couple of weeks, I've been dedicated to getting the voices out there of the independents. So fingers crossed, where is farmer Pete? Because farmer is the founder of the farmers movement in Cornwall, and now he's gone for MP, which is wonderful. He was on the show a few weeks ago. Actually, probably about 6 weeks ago or something. It's alright. The dots are going on my phone, so it's getting on now. No prob. He's he's got a prop problem with it. Can I do Zoom? No. I can't do Zoom, Pete. No. You can't beat live radio, can you? Every week.
But you know what? The good thing is I just expect this now, so it doesn't matter. I'm just gonna be tame, stress free, and, go with the flow. I have got Joe Wood on standby because Joe is doing a lot for his campaign, and, she can tell us a lot about it. But I have got Pete's manifesto and everything like that, and, hopefully, he'll crack on in a minute and figure out a way. Right. So, miss Jo Wood, if you're listening, the link should be popping with you any second. And in the meantime, I'm going to play a little tune, a very old fashioned one. It's handy. It's on my desktop. So bear with me for a couple of minutes, peeps. We'll, we will have some conversation flowing in a minute. During Smuts' raid into the Oh, no. That's the wrong one. That's for the Kono connection. See? Very professional.
Very professional. I just, I should be more prepared. I say this every week. Where's a song? Where's a song? Everything's disappeared off the desktop now, and, you know, I'm not even gonna panic. What's the point of panicking? Right. What's this recording of? Music. Right. I'm gonna play play a bit. Graham Hart. Okay? This one is a song he wrote. Good tune.
[00:04:03] Unknown:
What's your dude, who you see, where you're going, won't hear it from up above. It's the clash of hate and love. No one can stop it. It's You see the lies all over the place. It's your decision, which wrote your take. Or are you staying down on all 4s? Get off your knees and be a man instead of a fight like you know we're gonna have to. There's a storm coming. I've drawn my line in the sand. Your time is over. Your time has come. This time you're going. This time you're done. There's a stop coming. There's a stop coming.
No
[00:06:48] Unknown:
And that was my dad, Graham Hart. There's a storm coming. Love that song. Right? We're just messaging in between us, so we will get there. It seems Skype doesn't wanna let anybody in tonight. They don't want pharma p airing his views and his opinions because they wanna keep it just the reds and blues, don't they? Are you taking bets, people? It's interesting to see how many people are doing what they think in their opinion is the tactful vote. And, you know, I'm unsure what to do regarding that because I would go independent all the way.
However, we haven't got an independent candidate running in this area. So, basically, I've got, is it Roger Tarrant from reform? Okay. But it's like somebody said to me, you're not gonna like all of that policies, are you? You're not gonna agree with it at all. But when I'm guessing, like, the flyers that have come through, I haven't really been reading them because I'm like, no. They're Labour. No. They're conservative. So I've had one in the door today from Lib Dem, and we have got a Lib Dem person running in my area. And one of the first policies is going on about helping out with the climate control and stuff like that. That's put me off straight away straight away. It's, they don't even really know lots of people because Joe is working with Pete. Should be his second voice.
I wonder if Pete can keep you crying. Good evening, miss Jo Wood. Hello?
[00:08:35] Unknown:
Hello?
[00:08:36] Unknown:
Good evening, Jo Wood. Hello. How are you?
[00:08:41] Unknown:
I'm okay.
[00:08:42] Unknown:
I'm so glad you're, like, around
[00:08:45] Unknown:
because I It's, you know, it's a rarity for me. I I will admit. Yeah.
[00:08:50] Unknown:
Yeah. And, I mean, Pete is struggling to get on Skype.
[00:08:54] Unknown:
He is.
[00:08:55] Unknown:
We're we're all very last minute, aren't we? Everybody seems to be every week. I think it's just we just think we just assume that we'll go to Skype and where we used it last time, it'll work. And, you know, my other show, I've actually started doing checks in the afternoon and stuff. But I said to Pete this morning, call you at, like, 5 to 7. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Speak to you then. And, anyway, I can't get online, so you're gonna have to be his voice, Jo.
[00:09:18] Unknown:
You're stuck with me, I'm afraid.
[00:09:21] Unknown:
Could be a lot worse. Could be a lot worse. So, Jo, you are Pete's alongside Dave, and there's a bit of a team of you going for it, isn't there, at the moment?
[00:09:31] Unknown:
Yeah. There's 3 of us. We work pretty well together. We've all got our own little niche, and we're going pretty strong.
[00:09:41] Unknown:
What do you think the I mean, what do you think the chances are of independence getting in? Are are people seeing you? You're obviously going out. You're speaking to
[00:09:52] Unknown:
people. Yeah. It's a bit of a mixed bag, really. I think I think because the majority of people like things that they are familiar with within the system. So now that reform has come along, I think, you know, a fair few people's heads are being turned by them, which isn't a bad thing. You know, we we need people in the system to start breaking it, and whether that's reform or independence, both are good.
[00:10:33] Unknown:
Yeah. And I hadn't looked at it from that point of view until you mentioned it earlier when we were chatting, actually. Any change I mean, every party seems to have their, like, policies that you don't agree with, but surely anything has got to be better than where we're at now.
[00:10:47] Unknown:
Yeah. Absolutely. You know, you're you're correct in saying you're not gonna agree with everybody, and that's a given, and that's okay. But I think what we have to bear in mind is, as we all know within politics, it's a number game, and, you know, to get the numbers up, we need to be out on the streets canvassing, whether that is for reform or independence, just so we can get in and we can start building that foundation for, pardon the pun, a brighter future because, you know, look what's happened in the last 10, 20 years. We've just gone down the, and it needs to change.
[00:11:28] Unknown:
You you were reading off some statistics to me this morning when we had a chat. You were saying that the you think Labour are likely to get in because there's something like 20% ahead of conservative?
[00:11:39] Unknown:
Yeah. I I think I think the stats were 30% with Labour. Don't quote me on that, but, you know, I've had a glass or 2, so I could be wrong. But, yeah, they, unfortunately, are ahead at the moment. However, reform are closely behind and conservatives are in 3rd position, so, you know, that that's a good statistic to be reeling off. So whether it's reform or independence knocking Labour off, you know, we're in 2nd place.
[00:12:16] Unknown:
Yeah. And I'm surprised when I speak to so many people, actually. They know what's going on, but they're still adamant, like, they'll vote Labour. But I suppose in their constituency, if that's the best option, it's event for them or do you just, destroy, make a mistake on your ballot paper, spoil your ballot paper, so to speak?
[00:12:34] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, that's the thought I've had myself. And again, it just sort of goes back to what I was saying, you know, we are all creatures of habit, and when the system is put in front of us in a manner that appears to be well laid out or used to be, people are going to go for something that is familiar, and that's a problem, and that's used against us, and that needs to change. So just picking up on your point about spoiling the ballot paper, that's the thought I've had myself, but, I did read some somewhere recently that, you know, that's probably not the best thing to do, because, you know, the powers that be aren't gonna take any notice of it. They're just gonna look at it and go, it's a spoiled ballot. Put it in the bin.
[00:13:29] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. I see what you're saying. Yeah. It's you know, I mean, in our lifetime, I think, well, I'm 47. I've probably voted well, it's every 4 years, isn't it? And I've always felt a sense of excitement when you go in and put that vote. Like, I'm doing something really important. But the uptake as well is something like 30% of people that don't even vote, do they?
[00:13:50] Unknown:
Yeah. It's a really high percentage, and I'm shocked at that, which is more reason for for us to all champion the cause of, you know, the UK needs a change. It really does. We cannot continue in the manner that we have just going from red to blue and vice versa. It hasn't served us in the past. Let's not, you know, make the same mistake again in history. Let's try and change it.
[00:14:22] Unknown:
Absolutely. You might be glad to know that I think Pete is trying, that's good that you're here as well because you're like his, secretary. I should have Dave on as well. He's he's gone to get Molly's phone, he said, pants. So, fingers crossed. He was gonna be in the conversation with him. That's a that that's a good start. God bless him. He's had he's he's had a busy day. So, yeah, you'll have to forgive him. He's I will forgive him. I understand. I mean, he's got family, and I couldn't do what he's doing. No way.
[00:14:52] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I couldn't. You know. I'm I'm quite happy to get behind people and sort of be that silent voice in the background pushing them forward. As people that know me, I can be quite bossy in doing so, but I what? Ma? I I couldn't, you know, be at the forefront of everything. That's just not my bag.
[00:15:15] Unknown:
No. You are very good. And I I think you could could do it. We have said this before anyway. But, Joe, for those of you that don't know Joe in the truth movement, Joe has been an asset and activist for the last 4 years with the whole COVID thing, and she is the voice that never stops on Facebook. And there were enough of that because you haven't stopped. You're like, 4 years, and you just bang it on. You you spread your stuff out there every day, and that's what we do need to be doing as disheartening as it feels sometimes. We need to be planting seeds.
[00:15:45] Unknown:
So Yeah. Absolutely. You know, you just can't take your foot off the gas for, you know, a nanosecond. You've got to be on it constantly, because you just never know when, you know, somebody's gonna change their minds. They may not tell you, but they may be listening, you know, and it's all about, like you said, sowing the seeds and hoping that at some point in time, that seed will flourish and they will join the cause.
[00:16:16] Unknown:
Yeah. And I was having a conversation with a lady at a coffee morning yesterday that I took my residence to, and, we we have a good chat every week, actually. And this week, week, we got onto the voting, and she was telling me where she lives. And she said, you'll see a massive sign in my garden for vote Labour. And, anyway yeah. How do you, like, throw in about all the stuff? Where do you start? And I was trying to, like, drop in little seeds about, like, the central banking system and government and things like that and the media. And she she looked at me, like, just, like, blank. I carried on, and I just thought, I hope you've taken something I've said and maybe go home and have a look. Yeah. You know? Because she was a clever woman. And I suspect perhaps sometimes silence is the best answer when somebody's telling you these things, but or otherwise, there's nothing. It is. But it's difficult.
[00:17:04] Unknown:
And if I take you back to, what, 18 months, 2 years ago, when we were in Oxford protesting against the LTNs, and we were at the railway station and, unfortunately, we're kind of cornered, weren't we, in the waiting room? And we put our heads above the parapet because there were some commuters there that had started to aggressively talk to somebody else that had a sign, that was saying no to LTMs. And I think it's human nature. As soon as somebody starts to attack you, you naturally go on the defensive yourself. But, you know, there's a real
[00:17:47] Unknown:
there's a real with their doors open, didn't you? Yeah. There's there's a I wish I filmed doors open. Yeah.
[00:18:04] Unknown:
Think, and hopefully opening up a a healthy debate that way. And like you've said, sowing some seeds.
[00:18:12] Unknown:
And that was I was cringing because we were literally listeners just to fill you in a bit, but we were in this, like, shatterweight for the train, and there was all these it was full of people sat down, and this poor one woman by herself with a sign that had just been to the protest. And, for somebody to ask her a question about it. And then Joe just piped up and she had all the information there because you're very good with that. You can just come back. I could have it all in my head, but I wouldn't be able to, like, get it out there. And you must have been talking for about 5 to 10 minutes, and everybody was just stood there listening to you. And they didn't really answer your back, did they? It was amazing, really. It was one of those moments.
[00:18:51] Unknown:
It it's one of those moments that you call upon life's experience in not giving a knee jerk reaction. And, yeah, I've had plenty of experience in not giving that knee jerk reaction. Sometimes it does come useful.
[00:19:08] Unknown:
And it's good to if you know what you're talking about. Problem is with me, I hear snippets. I don't retain information very well. But, no, it was good. It was good. And I can't believe that was, like, 18 months ago. Whereas Crazy, isn't it? Crazy. But look how far that's come.
[00:19:22] Unknown:
The, you know, Oxford is now, sort of, you know, closing them down. We've had Exeter that has, an LPN probably up and running for about 6, maybe 8 months, and that's folded probably in the last 3, 4 weeks. That's folded, they're they've disbanded, so it really is a case of people power,
[00:19:48] Unknown:
and that's that's growing. I didn't know that. So you're saying what all the, like, not all the 20 mile an hour zones, but just the LTNs, they've, like, bye bye. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I never knew that. Yep. Definitely in Exeter,
[00:20:03] Unknown:
and they're slowly chipping away at them in Oxford. So it is it is worth putting your head, people, above the parapet, trying to remain calm in the face of somebody thinking that they know it all, and, you know, it's great that the government are doing these things. Just remain calm and say your peace and walk away.
[00:20:27] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. And we can see the end results. But, oh, that is great news. Yeah. So, hopefully, now they'll, do some stuff with the, well, the 20 minute no. Yeah. Is it the see, this is what I mean. I'll be a useful poll useless politician. Not the LTNs, but if they have to drive, out of their zone, that's still going on, and people are just knocking up fines, aren't they? The congestion charges and things like that. So that's the,
[00:20:56] Unknown:
the ultra low emission zone in London. That's still going ahead, primarily because they've got Sadiq Khan, who is a member of the Conservative Party. So he's carrying a lot of clout because he's backed by them, because he's bringing in the coffers, so that's kind of a different kettle of fish, but on the plus side, there's still the resistance with the blade runners, and I'm sure you've seen them all over social media going out with their angle grinders in the dead of night. Oh, I love it. Yeah. I love it. That's what we need. Did you see that one when a couple went out dressed as Batman and Robin? Yes.
[00:21:43] Unknown:
Oh, and I just love people like that. Every time they've gone up and I know a couple of them have gone up down our way, and people have taken them down, haven't they? But Yeah. They've done this sneaky way. Yeah. They've been outside the Norway. So come to sneaky way, didn't they? They have putting,
[00:22:00] Unknown:
bird boxes on them or bat boxes or something because Yes. Yes. I was just about to say that. Yeah. I I do drive past there most days, and I think, not okay. How can we kind of get around that? Just for the record, I am not a blade runner, but I will back to them.
[00:22:17] Unknown:
I know you've said that before. You're right in there. You are.
[00:22:21] Unknown:
Yeah. I would given the opportunity.
[00:22:23] Unknown:
That's true. Yeah. Anywhere for danger. No. It's great that you're so passionate. Pete seems to think he's on Skype. So Oh, hi. We we we're getting somewhere. We're making progress. Only We are. A third of the way through the show. We are. Bless you. Well, Pete Pete's got a lot to say, so I'm
[00:22:42] Unknown:
sure he'll say it very, very quickly.
[00:22:45] Unknown:
Good. We can just, sit back and relax. Right. Bear with me. I've got everything popping up on the screen, and sometimes I think I don't even know how to use Skype. Right. I found Peter, so I hope this is the one. There's a picture of a girl on a pony. I'm gonna add him to the call and hope it's the right one. It must be. Oh my gosh. What are you connecting to, Shelley? I know. It could be the most random It must
[00:23:19] Unknown:
be.
[00:23:32] Unknown:
I'm gonna have a a really strange person trying to call me back in a minute with the same name. Right. He's just sent me a message, giving me a Skype invite. We will get there, people. We will get there. Sorry you have to well, not listen to Jo because she's always good and entertaining. And I've got to tell you a story about Jo actually and her passion. This has got to be one of the funniest stories ever. When we were in COVID times that, you know, there were little groups of us meeting and doing Zoom meetings and because it was such a you forget. I was in 4 years ago, but, you know, going out to these meetings when we're supposed to be in lockdown and stuff like that. And, you know, we were saying, actually, what we wanted to do was get onto the BBC and take down the airwaves and fill it with some, you know, different news just for, like, 5 minutes. And when I said this, Joe's automatic reprieve was something like, do do we need guns and stuff like that? She literally thought we were gonna go in and take them in take them down. It was entertaining, and she would have done it as well.
Passionate. Are you still there, Joe? Right. Joe's gone. Joe's gone. Hey. Pete is calling. Good evening, Pete. I can't hear you. I can see you. Can you hear me now? I can hear you now. I'm really sorry about that. Don't worry, Pete. I know how busy you are. I think Jo's disappeared. I will add her so she can put things in if needed to be because I feel like I've I've just, I don't know how she got cut off. Anyway, just get Jo onto the call, and then, we'll start. We've given you, a good introduction roughly. Okay. Right. I don't think I don't know if she's got signal problems or what have you. No. I'm still here. Here. Right. Wonderful. Right. Pete, good morning. I'm gonna say now good evening.
Right. Good evening, Shelley. Good evening, mister Lawrence. So how are you feeling? Are you excited? How's your mission going?
[00:25:47] Unknown:
I'm very excited. Yes. It's been going really well. I've had some lovely responses on my campaign email address and some lovely conversations. People asking for more flesh on the bones, should I say, on some of my policy. So that's been great to be, batting things backwards and forwards to people in the constituency. I'm due to being busy with other things, I'm yet to be out on the street, but what I'm planning to be out in Truro on Saturday afternoon for a meet and greet session. So, we're hoping to meet at 1 o'clock outside Truro Cathedral for a few hours. So if anybody wants to come and meet me and find out a bit more about the policies that I'm representing, then please do come along to tour on Saturday.
[00:26:36] Unknown:
Yeah. That sounds good. I I have to see what I'm doing, but I know Joe mentioned that briefly. Thank god for your, like, little team there, Pete.
[00:26:46] Unknown:
Yes. I know. Well, I couldn't have done it on my own, as you probably guessed by the Skype issue. I'm not very technical with things like that. So, a bit of help is always required.
[00:26:59] Unknown:
Yeah. No. It's fine. It's fine. You got a bit of a rattle going on now. I don't know if your is your microphone plugged in? You haven't got a microphone? I can see you.
[00:27:07] Unknown:
I'm on the Bluetooth headset.
[00:27:09] Unknown:
Oh, okay. Okay. That's alright. So where should we start your manifesto? I mean, you you're the founder of the Farmers Movement Cornwall, and that was quite a big deal for you. And then all of a sudden, I hear farmer Pete, he's going independent. What has given you this urge? Was you did you feel pushed into it, or is it like, god, it's now or never?
[00:27:31] Unknown:
Well, it's it's now or never was the thought behind it. I just felt so stifled politically by the situation, and I think a lot of people resonate with that that, our voice isn't being heard. There's just this control of the centrist part of policy, just a very narrow conversation going on between the Tory Conservative, Uni Party, and there's not enough competition in the marketplace. There's not enough new voices coming through. And when they do, they are so well received that it's hard to ignore that a different approach is needed. You know, if if we look at the work of Andrew Bridgen and how popular he's been as an independent and how well he's able to speak out.
And, and and also on the other side, George Galloway, even with his approach, taking the more core elements of the Labour, the socialist element of the Labour Party away to a new party, It's all widening out the political landscape, and it's very much needed. So it was really a decision just to seize the moment. It was all last minute as as I'm sure you're aware, but, it was just an opportunity to get in the race and to put my messages forward and, again, to extend the political landscape and start having conversations around things which aren't being talked about, which need to be talked about.
[00:29:05] Unknown:
Yeah. And what is your priority? What would be the number one thing that you would like to make a difference with?
[00:29:12] Unknown:
Well, within Cornwall, obviously, we're all facing the cost of living crisis, but we're also facing a housing crisis. And there's a lack of political representation for people who feel politically dispossessed. So they're not getting any joy in the political, you know, in the established system. So, voices need to be heard. So that's why I decided to stand as an independent. And the cost of living crisis and the housing crisis are, of course, inextricably linked with immigration, large amounts of immigration that have come into the country over the last 10 years or so, 7,000,000 over the last 10 years. So what we're seeing is very unprecedented, especially in the last 2 to 3 years where we've seen 1,200,000 net inward migration come in in the last 2 years. So if you look at it on a chart, it's a hockey stick and it it is a true hockey stick rather than the net zero Michael Mann, supposed hockey stick.
Immigration doubled well, it took 30 years to double, in fact, before the last 5 year period. So things pre 5th pre 19 fifties were fairly stable at around 70,000 per year coming in. And then bet between the nineties and, the 20 tens, that 30 year period, sorry. 2020 is that 30 year period, we saw another doubling. But then it's doubled again in the last 5 years alone. So, it really has, changed, and it's and we're feeling the pressure of it. And how's the housing crisis is directly linked to that in Cornwall, of course. It's a major driving factor. In fact, the Office for National Statistics Themselves state that 80% of the upward price pressure in the housing market is directly related to immigration. So it's not rocket science. If you don't build enough houses and you keep a lot of people coming in, there's gonna be a supply and a demand issue. And if there's not enough supply, price goes up, and that's what we're finding. So and, of course, why, you know, widening out to the wider economy.
Net 0 is a huge culprit for excessive spending, funding of foreign wars, 5,000,000,000 a year to the Ukraine, 4,000,000,000 a year, housing, people waiting for asylum applications in hotels in the UK, paying interest on quantitative easing bank, reserves, that's money allocated that for quantitative easing that hasn't actually even been spent. We're still paying the interest on those loans. That's about 35,000,000,000 a year. So you you haven't gotta go far to scratch the surface and just find unbelievably wasteful public spending. So these are all contributing to our cost of living crisis.
Green energy, higher higher fuel prices, higher energy costs. A lot needs to be done. It's almost a case of where do you start, but, you know, net zero and immigration is certainly a good place.
[00:32:40] Unknown:
Yes. And I'm looking at your proposals now and your your first proposal was to adopt a maximum approach to circular self sufficient food security. And I heard, you talking on your interview with Richard Vobbs the other night, very good, by the way, and, you were saying that we are facing food shortages. Do you think this really is the case then?
[00:33:02] Unknown:
Well, I I I believe it will be. Yes. If you look at wheat yields, the wheat in the ground at the moment is estimated to be about 30 percent below what it should be. And that's just the last thing that's happened. There there there's, ongoing pressure to our agricultural supply. The land is under pressure from constant development. It's under pressure from solar panels, and these are all feeding in to the situation where we will be seeing at the very least, an increase in food prices and, you know,
[00:33:38] Unknown:
if not difficulty in getting supply in. Can you can you go deeper into this, solar panel panel thing? Because I I don't really understand what's going on with that.
[00:33:50] Unknown:
Well, I'm glad you've asked that because I have just done a freedom of information request to Cornwall Council to find out exactly how many acres of farmland are under solar at the moment and what's in the planning pipeline. And it's just come back at just over 5,000 acres within the county that are in that category, either built or waiting to be built following, planning approval. So that's quite a considerable amount of land. Of course, when you look at it in a percentage terms, it's still quite small. It's barely well, it's just approaching 1% of the total land farmed within Cornwall.
But to put it into perhaps a better perspective, it's half the size of the Cornwall County Farms Estate. So, it is a considerable amount of land, and I did a calculation on the amount of loaves of bread that that would actually be able to produce, and it works out at around one loaf of bread a week for every resident within Cornwall for a year. So it's a sizable amount of food that's now not being produced. So that's just one example. And we've got to put some pressure on Cornwall Council, and we, you know, our national government to stop this policy because, you know, whether you believe in green energy and solar panels or not, and I haven't got a problem with solar panels deployed on a small scale on your roof, in terms of building your own independent energy sufficient self sufficiency, but they shouldn't be part of a, such a huge part of background, should I say, energy generation capacity on the national grid.
I personally wouldn't allocate any more than 10% of national generating capacity to solar, and that could easily be, done by rooftop solar either commercially or residentially. So there really is no case for greenfield or farmland solar. And when you hear prosolar advocates saying, well, that we use grade 3 b or 4 or marginal farmland, they like to call it, that's not a valid argument because grade b 3 grade 3 b land or 4 or an actual even grade 5 land can all raise food of some sort. 45 are actually perfect grades for dairy and, sheep and beef raising.
So, you you know, some form of food can be raised on even the lowest, grades of land. And in fact, 3 b and 3 a, which most of the solar farms are going on within Cornwall, is good arable ground. And, you know, even 3 b is capable of average cereal yields of, you know, 8 tons per hectare where my calculation for the, loads of bread per person per year comes from. So it's a real problem, Shelley, and it needs to be, pushed back.
[00:37:09] Unknown:
So in short form then, they're using land that could be used for farming, crops, agriculture, that sort of stuff. In their place, they're putting the solar panels and all in the name of the net zero
[00:37:23] Unknown:
problem. Yeah. All all in the name of chasing the net zero target of decarbonizing the economy. And, the whole thing, of course, is underpinned by our money because it's taxpayers' money that is subsidizing the green industry. Because the cost of the electricity is so much higher, there has to be subsidy in place for it to make sense and for it to stand on its own 2 feet financially. So, the whole green energy sector is funded to the tune of 10,000,000,000 per year by taxpayer subsidy. Now I don't know exactly the breakdown of that that's allocated to solar rather than the wind. I haven't dug into it that far, but of the 2 technologies, I do prefer solar rather than the wind because solar at least is a known generating capacity, and you know when it's going to come on.
And you can see from previous years how much you'll be getting per day. And so the gas powered backup that has to always be ticking over in the background is more efficiently metered. Whereas with wind, you don't really know exactly how much you're going to be getting on any particular day, and it can vary according to the forecast. So the gas power that's spinning away in the background always has to which always has to be paid for is, more costly with wind rather than solar. And in fact, there was a report recently about the cost of this extra background gas supply that has to continually be ticking over in the background relating to wind, and it was a figure of 18,000,000,000 extra cost over a 5 year period. And that was reported in both The Guardian and The Telegraph recently. So, you know, wind is costly and it costs more to have the gas ticking over in the background than solar. So of the 2, I would prefer to have solar in our energy portfolio mix to 10% deployed on roof on roofs. And, you know, and then you can look at it as well.
It is adding energy security to us. If all else failed, we would perhaps have 10% of some form of backup, although, of course, battery storage is a big issue. Hopefully, that will come in the future, but it's not there now. So, you know, hope you know, we will have, you know, look at it as a beneficial 10%, derisking to a worst case scenario with solar, and it's ticking a few green boxes. And the cost of it wouldn't be too bad at a 10% supply. But having approached the 40% of our national generating capacity in these renewables is costing a lot of money. It's costing a lot in subsidy, and it's costing a lot in the energy bills, the extra energy bills, and that's feeding into everything. It's a major contributing factor to the cost of living crisis because everything requires energy as you know, transportation of the finished products, to everything. To end of point retail sale, we all use energy. So it's really a low ball to any economy when you have such high energy costs and they are high.
The 3 times 3 times the price of an of America, 8 times the price of Russia, 5 times the price of China. So we're not getting much help when we're being asked to compete on a globalist world's market with our products, including our farm products, and we're facing these
[00:41:00] Unknown:
much higher energy costs. So So you're hoping as well your pro one of your proposals is to the raising of the annual agricultural budget by 58% from 3 point 6 1,000,000,000 to 5,700,000,000. So that's what just an extra £2,000,000,000 a year, but £2,000,000,000 is actually a hell of a lot of money, isn't it?
[00:41:21] Unknown:
It is, but it's not when you compare it to the aforementioned extra expenses that I've talked about. You know, 35,000,000,000 being paid on this quantitative quantitative easing reserve. You know, you even when you look at foreign aid, that's nearly 13,000,000,000. I mean, there is a case for reducing our foreign aid payments, redirecting a bit of that back to the nation to try and help us out. I know there's diplomatic value and other value built into our foreign aid, and that's important as well. But, you know, there's been controversy around foreign aid to certain countries for many years.
India and China, primarily, they're both running successful space programs and landing really cool bits of tech on the moon. So, you know, is it right for us to still be funding those with foreign aid and, you know, and and is the nature of the foreign aid that we give even the best way of doing it. Should we be just handing money over or should we actually be putting, you know, fresh water systems and that kind of thing in place with actual people on the ground doing it. So anyway, you know, there's certainly a case for sending some money away from the foreign aid budget And, you know, you could easily take a third of that, which would be 4,000,000,000. So you've got them twice the money right there for that. And the the point behind that is that we were actually getting more money in 2019 under the European Union Common Agricultural Policy.
Under both pillars, both funding branches of that scheme, we had 4,700,000,000. So what the Agricultural Transition Plan did post Brexit is it bundled both pillars together and said, you've got your basic payment and your environmental schemes all bundled into 1 now, and we're calling that the 3,100,000,000 that we've got now. So we were defunded, and it hasn't even been adjusted for inflation moving forward either. So the calculation that I came to of the 50% increase is the 4,700,000,000 that we received in 2019 adjusted for inflation moving forward to now.
And, and that's how you come to the figure. So, yeah, we've been defunded along with having the payment system, it be, being used to encourage non core food production under, of course, net zero guidance to encourage more wilding and wildlife schemes, which is not necessary and it's the wrong way to do it. We need to concentrate as we did before on core food production and, you know, may make sure that farmers are taking care of biodiversity loss and environmental issues along the side and that we were always doing that post recovery from the sort of seventies agricultural intensive boom. We have been doing that, and the systems were already in place.
If there was a specific farmland bird species that was in decline and they, you know, then a a slightly higher subsidy could have been put into one of the existing environmental land management schemes to widen the hedgerows or or make the hedgerows more taller or leave more mature trees per 100 meters, and that would have been a really simple thing to do and quite cheap to do by just adding a few quid to those schemes that, had those, you know, hedge row elements in them for their payments. So the whole thing's being skewed politically. It's politically influenced, and it's being defunded. And that along with the other lack of protections to the farming industry, lack of decent import tariffs to protect us from cheaper imports, lack of decent food labeling so that customers need to make a fully imported choice, etcetera. They it goes on and on. Because that's one of your proposals, honesty and all food food labeling.
Yes. It yeah.
[00:45:25] Unknown:
Yeah. Sorry. I've just been flicking through, and I was reading them earlier. But, yeah, I don't know a lot about it. We we all kind of like unless you look, and that writing's always so bloody tiny on these things. But we get to know.
[00:45:39] Unknown:
Well, I had an a I could only afford an a 5 flyer. So in order to get enough information to give a, broad general brush of where I'm coming from politically and, I yeah. The text had to be small. So, I've got the magnifying glasses if any of my elderly
[00:45:57] Unknown:
followers are needing a a bat to read the leaflet. Tins of food that you get. The labels are so small, aren't they? That's what I meant. Sorry. Yeah. When I go shopping, I'm I'm now at that age. I have to put my glasses on to read those labels to see what's in them.
[00:46:11] Unknown:
Oh, I'm in the same club, so, feel no shame. So but, yes, food labeling is vitally important because, if consumers aren't fully informed as to the animal welfare or the environmental, standards of the products that are coming in from elsewhere, then it's not fair on us, the British farmer. It's not fair on the consumer either because they need to know what they're buying. And if we take beef raising, for example, we we you know, Brazil now is leading the market in very large beef lot style production. These are, I mean, these are non grass. They they're just on the ground. They're not grass fed. They're in open beef lots, which is fenced off areas on open farmland, prairie land, if you like. Well, in actual fact, some of them have been cleared originally from rainforest land.
So they're in these fenced paddocks on on just bare soil, and they are fed GMO ingredients, because it's cheap. They're routinely treated because of the herd density and the propensity for disease in that intensive type of production. They are routinely administered with, antibiotics and growth hormone is regularly used as well to get them finished and growing quicker. So you're taking a product like that, which is coming in cheaper, and the cheapness comes from the economy of scale that that type of agriculture can leverage.
And that always beats the extra cost of transportation, by the way. So, it's it's a done deal in farming. Economy of scale and the force multiplier that that gives you easily defeats in the game of rock, paper, scissors, transportation costs even from halfway around the world. So things can come in cheaper, and that's attractive to our consumers, especially in these economic conditions. And so they can buy that thing. Oh, I need to save a few quid on my shopping this week. I'll just buy that supermarket branded beef. It says country of origin Brazil. Oh, you know, well, whatever.
But they're not being fully informed. There's GMO feed stuffs being used there, etcetera, as I've previously mentioned. So it's really not fair on on everybody, consumer or UK farmer, for there not to be really proper labeling regulations for fully informed consumer choice.
[00:48:49] Unknown:
Oh, you've really got me thinking now. I try to buy most of my meat at the farm shop now with the butchers.
[00:48:55] Unknown:
But, Well, best way.
[00:48:57] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. And what about your, one of your proposals as well is, you're you're sort of saying about the strengthening of protections for farmers within farm business tenancies. Yeah. Because 30% of agricultural land in England and Wales, is in some form of a farm business tenancy, and tenancies would not be underestimated. So explain on that. Sorry. I I know nothing about farming.
[00:49:26] Unknown:
Firstly, farm business tenancies, as you said, account for about 30% of agricultural holdings. So they serve a very important, role in in farming because they're a matchmaking service, essentially, which matches people who want to start farming but don't perhaps have the capital there to to to make though that initial purchase into land. And it also matches people who've got land asset who are no longer in a position to farm. So it's a vital, on ramps for new entrants into the industry, and and so there should be higher protections for farm tenancies. And at present, there's, I believe the the minimum term is 3 years for a farm tenancy.
And that's nowhere near enough because farming is a long term game, you know. You know, in your first 3 years of setting a farm up, you you may be only just getting through to profitability from having made all the investments in infrastructure and everything else going along with it and building herb size up or getting your genetics sorted out or whatever it is. So I'm recommending at least a 7 year minimum tenancy for, farm business tendencies and also full control of the subsidy schemes to the tenant farmers. So the the landowner can't have control over any subsidy schemes or say yes or no If the farmer wants to go into a certain scheme, they're in fully entitled to do that because they're the tenant. So it's it's giving more power to the tenant and it's ensuring, longevity within the sector. There's other bits and bobs around it, but they're they're the main 2.
[00:51:16] Unknown:
Right. And we'll go to one last one because we've got 10 minutes till the end. And I like this one. I like how you put this one. Cloud seeding, another geoengineering weather modification programs in UK airspace. There's a lot of people, when you when oh, what's cloud seeding? Well, look up in the sky and see the lines and stuff. And as you mentioned in your manifesto about, you know, it was put on Good Morning Britain, a couple of months ago, that it was responsible for the rain events in Dubai and stuff. You know, it's all been part of conspiracy theory for years, and people think we're nuts.
But, you know, realistically, what can we do about that?
[00:51:58] Unknown:
Well, all we can do for now is to keep learning as much about it as possible and to keep raising public awareness about it. It's starting to leak out as you quite rightly say or should I should I say the cloud seeding element of it is more, is starting to leak out and be talked about in mainstream bits and bobs, which is quite an interesting development. Regarding the solar radiation management aspect, I mean, we have seen mention of that online and in and in you know, even on the BBC website, we've we've seen mention of that in relation to global cooling in relation to, of course, the, the the supposed climate crisis.
So things are changing. More people are becoming aware of it, and we are having to reverse engineer it. We know we're not being told what's going on exactly. So exactly how it's being done, exactly what we're looking at when we're when we're looking up, you know, we don't exactly know, but there is obviously some form of persistent cloud creation going on, and it's hard to, explain why some airplanes aren't leaving these long persistent trails that spread out to form a milky hazy cloud, where others aren't. And then then, you know, I've had several occasions where there's planes that look to be at exactly the same height flying similar trajectories and and ones leaving the normal condensation trail that I always remember from the pre sort of eighties, to the ones that we see now. So,
[00:53:39] Unknown:
When we had better weather?
[00:53:42] Unknown:
Well, yes. I mean, that's that that's subjective, but I would say better weather in terms of it had a settled pattern and even a settled variation within that that kind of felt natural is all is the best I can say. My awakening to this whole thing was about the year 2010 when I was farming and growing market gardening, and and I just I just sort of felt that the randomization was different in the weather. The the summer rain became different. It was heavier. There was just a you know, the the downpours were were heavier than I ever experienced before. The randomization of things in the winter.
It just before being consciously aware of it, these these were my sort of innate natural feelings that there's some there was something different about the natural variation in it. And, of course, once I became aware of the technology, then everything fell into place. But, yes, it's it's it's hard to deny that something is going on. I believe something is going on, and I'm not the only one who believes that. As to exactly what's going on and exactly how it's being done, you know, we're still reverse engineering it. So we just have to keep going, but it's not gonna be a surprise to me if at some point there's an official declaration or, you know, some you know, a disclosure, should we say, that solar radiation management has been practiced in some trial form in order to globally cool the planet because of, runaway climate alarmism and that some form of particulate has been put up there in the upper atmosphere to reflect heat away. And, you know, you can see on a day like today, for example, I'm I'm found with direction, and it's been a a pretty nice day. And there's been very little of it going on, but you can still see a milky blueness even to, you know, a non chemtrailed sky, should I say. It doesn't doesn't seem as deep blue to me as it ever did before. It's looking like a lighter blue. And when I look across the valley towards the Ennis Estate, there is this silvery kind of mist in the air.
I mean, I never I never was conscious of that before, you know, in the eighties. I remember I just remember fluffy clouds, fluffy white, you know, in the summertime, high pressure as we've got today. You know, lovely white fluffy cumulus clouds with a deep blue background behind and none of these long trails and none of this, silvery gray mist in the atmosphere when you look across long distances. I mean, how can how can traffic and farm traffic be kicking up that amount of dust on this narrow peninsula of land that's surrounded by ocean, you know, to create that amount of atmospheric smog, it just doesn't seem to make sense. It the case for some form of particular falling out from the atmosphere, accounting for a large amount of what we're seeing, can't be denied. It can't be taken off the table. So, I think it's time to have these conversations out and for people to be talking about them in the course of their daily lives and in the course of political discourse because it's only by doing that that the conversation will be raised, and and, we need to do that. So, yeah, that's that's why I've put that one in there as well, and it's very well received. We know Yeah. As you probably know being a member of Farmers Movement Cornwall on the Facebook page there, it's one of the most active policy sort of areas out there.
[00:57:29] Unknown:
People want to know what's going on. Good. Yeah. And they do need to know more and more people. I think all over Facebook and stuff, you see them uploading their pictures of the skies and stuff in disgust. You know? So I think the the message is slowly getting out there. People are thinking a little bit more about it even though they like they like to argue the whole contrail debate. Anyway, we're we're more or less out of time, Pete. I wish you luck. I I'm really quite excited because a few people I know in this movement are running for independent, and you've got balls. And I'm I'm really chuffed for you. I I was thrilled when I heard that you were running. And let's give the page a tweet for it's Farmers Movement Cornwall, isn't it, on Facebook?
Correct. Is there a website for that as well?
[00:58:16] Unknown:
Or is it just another There's farmers movement Cornwall dotco.uk.
[00:58:21] Unknown:
Right. Okay. And do you have any final words, Pete?
[00:58:27] Unknown:
Well, I've got a campaign page set up for for my, a campaign as well on Facebook. And if you search for Peter Lawrence independent for Truro Falmouth, you'll come across that. I would say that I'm really pleased to be standing as an independent. It's been a lot of work, and it's have all have to happen in a very short time frame. There's David Lately in St Ives as well. There's Angie Rayner for Nuki in St Austell. So we've got half of the constituencies in Cornwall covered by an independent. And in 2019, we had 224, I believe, independent standing, and they managed to gain naught 0.6 percent of the vote. That's This time around, we have got 450 2 independent standing. So we've over doubled the amount of independence, and we're standing in over,
[00:59:24] Unknown:
over 300 constituencies. Brilliant. I'm gonna I'm gonna have to cut you off there, Pete, because we are literally now gonna end. But brilliant stuff. Thank you so much. And thank you, Jo Wood, for coming on and helping out with the chat as well until Pete made it. I wish you all the luck in the world, Pete, and I'll keep, following your page. And, yeah, fingers crossed. Let's get these independents in. And thanks. All the best, Shelley. Thank you. Thank you very much, Pete. Take care. And, Jo, come on. You too. Bye. Bye bye. Thank you. Bye. Bye bye. And see you next week, guys.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome the Shelley Tasker Show here coming out of Radio Soapbox dot com. It's good to have your company. Today's date is Wednesday 26th June 2024. Have a great guest lined up. He's just getting on. People are so last minute, aren't they? Every week, no one's prepared. I'm just about winged it, sat here ready, and, no music ready for the intro outro. Anyway, I'm bumbling. I'm just waiting for our guest. Those of you who don't know him, it is Peter Lawrence from Cornwall. He is running as an independent MP for the Truro and Falmouth areas.
And, yeah, he's got quite a good following, and we've literally got 2 weeks left. I know the last couple of weeks, I've been dedicated to getting the voices out there of the independents. So fingers crossed, where is farmer Pete? Because farmer is the founder of the farmers movement in Cornwall, and now he's gone for MP, which is wonderful. He was on the show a few weeks ago. Actually, probably about 6 weeks ago or something. It's alright. The dots are going on my phone, so it's getting on now. No prob. He's he's got a prop problem with it. Can I do Zoom? No. I can't do Zoom, Pete. No. You can't beat live radio, can you? Every week.
But you know what? The good thing is I just expect this now, so it doesn't matter. I'm just gonna be tame, stress free, and, go with the flow. I have got Joe Wood on standby because Joe is doing a lot for his campaign, and, she can tell us a lot about it. But I have got Pete's manifesto and everything like that, and, hopefully, he'll crack on in a minute and figure out a way. Right. So, miss Jo Wood, if you're listening, the link should be popping with you any second. And in the meantime, I'm going to play a little tune, a very old fashioned one. It's handy. It's on my desktop. So bear with me for a couple of minutes, peeps. We'll, we will have some conversation flowing in a minute. During Smuts' raid into the Oh, no. That's the wrong one. That's for the Kono connection. See? Very professional.
Very professional. I just, I should be more prepared. I say this every week. Where's a song? Where's a song? Everything's disappeared off the desktop now, and, you know, I'm not even gonna panic. What's the point of panicking? Right. What's this recording of? Music. Right. I'm gonna play play a bit. Graham Hart. Okay? This one is a song he wrote. Good tune.
[00:04:03] Unknown:
What's your dude, who you see, where you're going, won't hear it from up above. It's the clash of hate and love. No one can stop it. It's You see the lies all over the place. It's your decision, which wrote your take. Or are you staying down on all 4s? Get off your knees and be a man instead of a fight like you know we're gonna have to. There's a storm coming. I've drawn my line in the sand. Your time is over. Your time has come. This time you're going. This time you're done. There's a stop coming. There's a stop coming.
No
[00:06:48] Unknown:
And that was my dad, Graham Hart. There's a storm coming. Love that song. Right? We're just messaging in between us, so we will get there. It seems Skype doesn't wanna let anybody in tonight. They don't want pharma p airing his views and his opinions because they wanna keep it just the reds and blues, don't they? Are you taking bets, people? It's interesting to see how many people are doing what they think in their opinion is the tactful vote. And, you know, I'm unsure what to do regarding that because I would go independent all the way.
However, we haven't got an independent candidate running in this area. So, basically, I've got, is it Roger Tarrant from reform? Okay. But it's like somebody said to me, you're not gonna like all of that policies, are you? You're not gonna agree with it at all. But when I'm guessing, like, the flyers that have come through, I haven't really been reading them because I'm like, no. They're Labour. No. They're conservative. So I've had one in the door today from Lib Dem, and we have got a Lib Dem person running in my area. And one of the first policies is going on about helping out with the climate control and stuff like that. That's put me off straight away straight away. It's, they don't even really know lots of people because Joe is working with Pete. Should be his second voice.
I wonder if Pete can keep you crying. Good evening, miss Jo Wood. Hello?
[00:08:35] Unknown:
Hello?
[00:08:36] Unknown:
Good evening, Jo Wood. Hello. How are you?
[00:08:41] Unknown:
I'm okay.
[00:08:42] Unknown:
I'm so glad you're, like, around
[00:08:45] Unknown:
because I It's, you know, it's a rarity for me. I I will admit. Yeah.
[00:08:50] Unknown:
Yeah. And, I mean, Pete is struggling to get on Skype.
[00:08:54] Unknown:
He is.
[00:08:55] Unknown:
We're we're all very last minute, aren't we? Everybody seems to be every week. I think it's just we just think we just assume that we'll go to Skype and where we used it last time, it'll work. And, you know, my other show, I've actually started doing checks in the afternoon and stuff. But I said to Pete this morning, call you at, like, 5 to 7. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Speak to you then. And, anyway, I can't get online, so you're gonna have to be his voice, Jo.
[00:09:18] Unknown:
You're stuck with me, I'm afraid.
[00:09:21] Unknown:
Could be a lot worse. Could be a lot worse. So, Jo, you are Pete's alongside Dave, and there's a bit of a team of you going for it, isn't there, at the moment?
[00:09:31] Unknown:
Yeah. There's 3 of us. We work pretty well together. We've all got our own little niche, and we're going pretty strong.
[00:09:41] Unknown:
What do you think the I mean, what do you think the chances are of independence getting in? Are are people seeing you? You're obviously going out. You're speaking to
[00:09:52] Unknown:
people. Yeah. It's a bit of a mixed bag, really. I think I think because the majority of people like things that they are familiar with within the system. So now that reform has come along, I think, you know, a fair few people's heads are being turned by them, which isn't a bad thing. You know, we we need people in the system to start breaking it, and whether that's reform or independence, both are good.
[00:10:33] Unknown:
Yeah. And I hadn't looked at it from that point of view until you mentioned it earlier when we were chatting, actually. Any change I mean, every party seems to have their, like, policies that you don't agree with, but surely anything has got to be better than where we're at now.
[00:10:47] Unknown:
Yeah. Absolutely. You know, you're you're correct in saying you're not gonna agree with everybody, and that's a given, and that's okay. But I think what we have to bear in mind is, as we all know within politics, it's a number game, and, you know, to get the numbers up, we need to be out on the streets canvassing, whether that is for reform or independence, just so we can get in and we can start building that foundation for, pardon the pun, a brighter future because, you know, look what's happened in the last 10, 20 years. We've just gone down the, and it needs to change.
[00:11:28] Unknown:
You you were reading off some statistics to me this morning when we had a chat. You were saying that the you think Labour are likely to get in because there's something like 20% ahead of conservative?
[00:11:39] Unknown:
Yeah. I I think I think the stats were 30% with Labour. Don't quote me on that, but, you know, I've had a glass or 2, so I could be wrong. But, yeah, they, unfortunately, are ahead at the moment. However, reform are closely behind and conservatives are in 3rd position, so, you know, that that's a good statistic to be reeling off. So whether it's reform or independence knocking Labour off, you know, we're in 2nd place.
[00:12:16] Unknown:
Yeah. And I'm surprised when I speak to so many people, actually. They know what's going on, but they're still adamant, like, they'll vote Labour. But I suppose in their constituency, if that's the best option, it's event for them or do you just, destroy, make a mistake on your ballot paper, spoil your ballot paper, so to speak?
[00:12:34] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, that's the thought I've had myself. And again, it just sort of goes back to what I was saying, you know, we are all creatures of habit, and when the system is put in front of us in a manner that appears to be well laid out or used to be, people are going to go for something that is familiar, and that's a problem, and that's used against us, and that needs to change. So just picking up on your point about spoiling the ballot paper, that's the thought I've had myself, but, I did read some somewhere recently that, you know, that's probably not the best thing to do, because, you know, the powers that be aren't gonna take any notice of it. They're just gonna look at it and go, it's a spoiled ballot. Put it in the bin.
[00:13:29] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. I see what you're saying. Yeah. It's you know, I mean, in our lifetime, I think, well, I'm 47. I've probably voted well, it's every 4 years, isn't it? And I've always felt a sense of excitement when you go in and put that vote. Like, I'm doing something really important. But the uptake as well is something like 30% of people that don't even vote, do they?
[00:13:50] Unknown:
Yeah. It's a really high percentage, and I'm shocked at that, which is more reason for for us to all champion the cause of, you know, the UK needs a change. It really does. We cannot continue in the manner that we have just going from red to blue and vice versa. It hasn't served us in the past. Let's not, you know, make the same mistake again in history. Let's try and change it.
[00:14:22] Unknown:
Absolutely. You might be glad to know that I think Pete is trying, that's good that you're here as well because you're like his, secretary. I should have Dave on as well. He's he's gone to get Molly's phone, he said, pants. So, fingers crossed. He was gonna be in the conversation with him. That's a that that's a good start. God bless him. He's had he's he's had a busy day. So, yeah, you'll have to forgive him. He's I will forgive him. I understand. I mean, he's got family, and I couldn't do what he's doing. No way.
[00:14:52] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I couldn't. You know. I'm I'm quite happy to get behind people and sort of be that silent voice in the background pushing them forward. As people that know me, I can be quite bossy in doing so, but I what? Ma? I I couldn't, you know, be at the forefront of everything. That's just not my bag.
[00:15:15] Unknown:
No. You are very good. And I I think you could could do it. We have said this before anyway. But, Joe, for those of you that don't know Joe in the truth movement, Joe has been an asset and activist for the last 4 years with the whole COVID thing, and she is the voice that never stops on Facebook. And there were enough of that because you haven't stopped. You're like, 4 years, and you just bang it on. You you spread your stuff out there every day, and that's what we do need to be doing as disheartening as it feels sometimes. We need to be planting seeds.
[00:15:45] Unknown:
So Yeah. Absolutely. You know, you just can't take your foot off the gas for, you know, a nanosecond. You've got to be on it constantly, because you just never know when, you know, somebody's gonna change their minds. They may not tell you, but they may be listening, you know, and it's all about, like you said, sowing the seeds and hoping that at some point in time, that seed will flourish and they will join the cause.
[00:16:16] Unknown:
Yeah. And I was having a conversation with a lady at a coffee morning yesterday that I took my residence to, and, we we have a good chat every week, actually. And this week, week, we got onto the voting, and she was telling me where she lives. And she said, you'll see a massive sign in my garden for vote Labour. And, anyway yeah. How do you, like, throw in about all the stuff? Where do you start? And I was trying to, like, drop in little seeds about, like, the central banking system and government and things like that and the media. And she she looked at me, like, just, like, blank. I carried on, and I just thought, I hope you've taken something I've said and maybe go home and have a look. Yeah. You know? Because she was a clever woman. And I suspect perhaps sometimes silence is the best answer when somebody's telling you these things, but or otherwise, there's nothing. It is. But it's difficult.
[00:17:04] Unknown:
And if I take you back to, what, 18 months, 2 years ago, when we were in Oxford protesting against the LTNs, and we were at the railway station and, unfortunately, we're kind of cornered, weren't we, in the waiting room? And we put our heads above the parapet because there were some commuters there that had started to aggressively talk to somebody else that had a sign, that was saying no to LTMs. And I think it's human nature. As soon as somebody starts to attack you, you naturally go on the defensive yourself. But, you know, there's a real
[00:17:47] Unknown:
there's a real with their doors open, didn't you? Yeah. There's there's a I wish I filmed doors open. Yeah.
[00:18:04] Unknown:
Think, and hopefully opening up a a healthy debate that way. And like you've said, sowing some seeds.
[00:18:12] Unknown:
And that was I was cringing because we were literally listeners just to fill you in a bit, but we were in this, like, shatterweight for the train, and there was all these it was full of people sat down, and this poor one woman by herself with a sign that had just been to the protest. And, for somebody to ask her a question about it. And then Joe just piped up and she had all the information there because you're very good with that. You can just come back. I could have it all in my head, but I wouldn't be able to, like, get it out there. And you must have been talking for about 5 to 10 minutes, and everybody was just stood there listening to you. And they didn't really answer your back, did they? It was amazing, really. It was one of those moments.
[00:18:51] Unknown:
It it's one of those moments that you call upon life's experience in not giving a knee jerk reaction. And, yeah, I've had plenty of experience in not giving that knee jerk reaction. Sometimes it does come useful.
[00:19:08] Unknown:
And it's good to if you know what you're talking about. Problem is with me, I hear snippets. I don't retain information very well. But, no, it was good. It was good. And I can't believe that was, like, 18 months ago. Whereas Crazy, isn't it? Crazy. But look how far that's come.
[00:19:22] Unknown:
The, you know, Oxford is now, sort of, you know, closing them down. We've had Exeter that has, an LPN probably up and running for about 6, maybe 8 months, and that's folded probably in the last 3, 4 weeks. That's folded, they're they've disbanded, so it really is a case of people power,
[00:19:48] Unknown:
and that's that's growing. I didn't know that. So you're saying what all the, like, not all the 20 mile an hour zones, but just the LTNs, they've, like, bye bye. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I never knew that. Yep. Definitely in Exeter,
[00:20:03] Unknown:
and they're slowly chipping away at them in Oxford. So it is it is worth putting your head, people, above the parapet, trying to remain calm in the face of somebody thinking that they know it all, and, you know, it's great that the government are doing these things. Just remain calm and say your peace and walk away.
[00:20:27] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. And we can see the end results. But, oh, that is great news. Yeah. So, hopefully, now they'll, do some stuff with the, well, the 20 minute no. Yeah. Is it the see, this is what I mean. I'll be a useful poll useless politician. Not the LTNs, but if they have to drive, out of their zone, that's still going on, and people are just knocking up fines, aren't they? The congestion charges and things like that. So that's the,
[00:20:56] Unknown:
the ultra low emission zone in London. That's still going ahead, primarily because they've got Sadiq Khan, who is a member of the Conservative Party. So he's carrying a lot of clout because he's backed by them, because he's bringing in the coffers, so that's kind of a different kettle of fish, but on the plus side, there's still the resistance with the blade runners, and I'm sure you've seen them all over social media going out with their angle grinders in the dead of night. Oh, I love it. Yeah. I love it. That's what we need. Did you see that one when a couple went out dressed as Batman and Robin? Yes.
[00:21:43] Unknown:
Oh, and I just love people like that. Every time they've gone up and I know a couple of them have gone up down our way, and people have taken them down, haven't they? But Yeah. They've done this sneaky way. Yeah. They've been outside the Norway. So come to sneaky way, didn't they? They have putting,
[00:22:00] Unknown:
bird boxes on them or bat boxes or something because Yes. Yes. I was just about to say that. Yeah. I I do drive past there most days, and I think, not okay. How can we kind of get around that? Just for the record, I am not a blade runner, but I will back to them.
[00:22:17] Unknown:
I know you've said that before. You're right in there. You are.
[00:22:21] Unknown:
Yeah. I would given the opportunity.
[00:22:23] Unknown:
That's true. Yeah. Anywhere for danger. No. It's great that you're so passionate. Pete seems to think he's on Skype. So Oh, hi. We we we're getting somewhere. We're making progress. Only We are. A third of the way through the show. We are. Bless you. Well, Pete Pete's got a lot to say, so I'm
[00:22:42] Unknown:
sure he'll say it very, very quickly.
[00:22:45] Unknown:
Good. We can just, sit back and relax. Right. Bear with me. I've got everything popping up on the screen, and sometimes I think I don't even know how to use Skype. Right. I found Peter, so I hope this is the one. There's a picture of a girl on a pony. I'm gonna add him to the call and hope it's the right one. It must be. Oh my gosh. What are you connecting to, Shelley? I know. It could be the most random It must
[00:23:19] Unknown:
be.
[00:23:32] Unknown:
I'm gonna have a a really strange person trying to call me back in a minute with the same name. Right. He's just sent me a message, giving me a Skype invite. We will get there, people. We will get there. Sorry you have to well, not listen to Jo because she's always good and entertaining. And I've got to tell you a story about Jo actually and her passion. This has got to be one of the funniest stories ever. When we were in COVID times that, you know, there were little groups of us meeting and doing Zoom meetings and because it was such a you forget. I was in 4 years ago, but, you know, going out to these meetings when we're supposed to be in lockdown and stuff like that. And, you know, we were saying, actually, what we wanted to do was get onto the BBC and take down the airwaves and fill it with some, you know, different news just for, like, 5 minutes. And when I said this, Joe's automatic reprieve was something like, do do we need guns and stuff like that? She literally thought we were gonna go in and take them in take them down. It was entertaining, and she would have done it as well.
Passionate. Are you still there, Joe? Right. Joe's gone. Joe's gone. Hey. Pete is calling. Good evening, Pete. I can't hear you. I can see you. Can you hear me now? I can hear you now. I'm really sorry about that. Don't worry, Pete. I know how busy you are. I think Jo's disappeared. I will add her so she can put things in if needed to be because I feel like I've I've just, I don't know how she got cut off. Anyway, just get Jo onto the call, and then, we'll start. We've given you, a good introduction roughly. Okay. Right. I don't think I don't know if she's got signal problems or what have you. No. I'm still here. Here. Right. Wonderful. Right. Pete, good morning. I'm gonna say now good evening.
Right. Good evening, Shelley. Good evening, mister Lawrence. So how are you feeling? Are you excited? How's your mission going?
[00:25:47] Unknown:
I'm very excited. Yes. It's been going really well. I've had some lovely responses on my campaign email address and some lovely conversations. People asking for more flesh on the bones, should I say, on some of my policy. So that's been great to be, batting things backwards and forwards to people in the constituency. I'm due to being busy with other things, I'm yet to be out on the street, but what I'm planning to be out in Truro on Saturday afternoon for a meet and greet session. So, we're hoping to meet at 1 o'clock outside Truro Cathedral for a few hours. So if anybody wants to come and meet me and find out a bit more about the policies that I'm representing, then please do come along to tour on Saturday.
[00:26:36] Unknown:
Yeah. That sounds good. I I have to see what I'm doing, but I know Joe mentioned that briefly. Thank god for your, like, little team there, Pete.
[00:26:46] Unknown:
Yes. I know. Well, I couldn't have done it on my own, as you probably guessed by the Skype issue. I'm not very technical with things like that. So, a bit of help is always required.
[00:26:59] Unknown:
Yeah. No. It's fine. It's fine. You got a bit of a rattle going on now. I don't know if your is your microphone plugged in? You haven't got a microphone? I can see you.
[00:27:07] Unknown:
I'm on the Bluetooth headset.
[00:27:09] Unknown:
Oh, okay. Okay. That's alright. So where should we start your manifesto? I mean, you you're the founder of the Farmers Movement Cornwall, and that was quite a big deal for you. And then all of a sudden, I hear farmer Pete, he's going independent. What has given you this urge? Was you did you feel pushed into it, or is it like, god, it's now or never?
[00:27:31] Unknown:
Well, it's it's now or never was the thought behind it. I just felt so stifled politically by the situation, and I think a lot of people resonate with that that, our voice isn't being heard. There's just this control of the centrist part of policy, just a very narrow conversation going on between the Tory Conservative, Uni Party, and there's not enough competition in the marketplace. There's not enough new voices coming through. And when they do, they are so well received that it's hard to ignore that a different approach is needed. You know, if if we look at the work of Andrew Bridgen and how popular he's been as an independent and how well he's able to speak out.
And, and and also on the other side, George Galloway, even with his approach, taking the more core elements of the Labour, the socialist element of the Labour Party away to a new party, It's all widening out the political landscape, and it's very much needed. So it was really a decision just to seize the moment. It was all last minute as as I'm sure you're aware, but, it was just an opportunity to get in the race and to put my messages forward and, again, to extend the political landscape and start having conversations around things which aren't being talked about, which need to be talked about.
[00:29:05] Unknown:
Yeah. And what is your priority? What would be the number one thing that you would like to make a difference with?
[00:29:12] Unknown:
Well, within Cornwall, obviously, we're all facing the cost of living crisis, but we're also facing a housing crisis. And there's a lack of political representation for people who feel politically dispossessed. So they're not getting any joy in the political, you know, in the established system. So, voices need to be heard. So that's why I decided to stand as an independent. And the cost of living crisis and the housing crisis are, of course, inextricably linked with immigration, large amounts of immigration that have come into the country over the last 10 years or so, 7,000,000 over the last 10 years. So what we're seeing is very unprecedented, especially in the last 2 to 3 years where we've seen 1,200,000 net inward migration come in in the last 2 years. So if you look at it on a chart, it's a hockey stick and it it is a true hockey stick rather than the net zero Michael Mann, supposed hockey stick.
Immigration doubled well, it took 30 years to double, in fact, before the last 5 year period. So things pre 5th pre 19 fifties were fairly stable at around 70,000 per year coming in. And then bet between the nineties and, the 20 tens, that 30 year period, sorry. 2020 is that 30 year period, we saw another doubling. But then it's doubled again in the last 5 years alone. So, it really has, changed, and it's and we're feeling the pressure of it. And how's the housing crisis is directly linked to that in Cornwall, of course. It's a major driving factor. In fact, the Office for National Statistics Themselves state that 80% of the upward price pressure in the housing market is directly related to immigration. So it's not rocket science. If you don't build enough houses and you keep a lot of people coming in, there's gonna be a supply and a demand issue. And if there's not enough supply, price goes up, and that's what we're finding. So and, of course, why, you know, widening out to the wider economy.
Net 0 is a huge culprit for excessive spending, funding of foreign wars, 5,000,000,000 a year to the Ukraine, 4,000,000,000 a year, housing, people waiting for asylum applications in hotels in the UK, paying interest on quantitative easing bank, reserves, that's money allocated that for quantitative easing that hasn't actually even been spent. We're still paying the interest on those loans. That's about 35,000,000,000 a year. So you you haven't gotta go far to scratch the surface and just find unbelievably wasteful public spending. So these are all contributing to our cost of living crisis.
Green energy, higher higher fuel prices, higher energy costs. A lot needs to be done. It's almost a case of where do you start, but, you know, net zero and immigration is certainly a good place.
[00:32:40] Unknown:
Yes. And I'm looking at your proposals now and your your first proposal was to adopt a maximum approach to circular self sufficient food security. And I heard, you talking on your interview with Richard Vobbs the other night, very good, by the way, and, you were saying that we are facing food shortages. Do you think this really is the case then?
[00:33:02] Unknown:
Well, I I I believe it will be. Yes. If you look at wheat yields, the wheat in the ground at the moment is estimated to be about 30 percent below what it should be. And that's just the last thing that's happened. There there there's, ongoing pressure to our agricultural supply. The land is under pressure from constant development. It's under pressure from solar panels, and these are all feeding in to the situation where we will be seeing at the very least, an increase in food prices and, you know,
[00:33:38] Unknown:
if not difficulty in getting supply in. Can you can you go deeper into this, solar panel panel thing? Because I I don't really understand what's going on with that.
[00:33:50] Unknown:
Well, I'm glad you've asked that because I have just done a freedom of information request to Cornwall Council to find out exactly how many acres of farmland are under solar at the moment and what's in the planning pipeline. And it's just come back at just over 5,000 acres within the county that are in that category, either built or waiting to be built following, planning approval. So that's quite a considerable amount of land. Of course, when you look at it in a percentage terms, it's still quite small. It's barely well, it's just approaching 1% of the total land farmed within Cornwall.
But to put it into perhaps a better perspective, it's half the size of the Cornwall County Farms Estate. So, it is a considerable amount of land, and I did a calculation on the amount of loaves of bread that that would actually be able to produce, and it works out at around one loaf of bread a week for every resident within Cornwall for a year. So it's a sizable amount of food that's now not being produced. So that's just one example. And we've got to put some pressure on Cornwall Council, and we, you know, our national government to stop this policy because, you know, whether you believe in green energy and solar panels or not, and I haven't got a problem with solar panels deployed on a small scale on your roof, in terms of building your own independent energy sufficient self sufficiency, but they shouldn't be part of a, such a huge part of background, should I say, energy generation capacity on the national grid.
I personally wouldn't allocate any more than 10% of national generating capacity to solar, and that could easily be, done by rooftop solar either commercially or residentially. So there really is no case for greenfield or farmland solar. And when you hear prosolar advocates saying, well, that we use grade 3 b or 4 or marginal farmland, they like to call it, that's not a valid argument because grade b 3 grade 3 b land or 4 or an actual even grade 5 land can all raise food of some sort. 45 are actually perfect grades for dairy and, sheep and beef raising.
So, you you know, some form of food can be raised on even the lowest, grades of land. And in fact, 3 b and 3 a, which most of the solar farms are going on within Cornwall, is good arable ground. And, you know, even 3 b is capable of average cereal yields of, you know, 8 tons per hectare where my calculation for the, loads of bread per person per year comes from. So it's a real problem, Shelley, and it needs to be, pushed back.
[00:37:09] Unknown:
So in short form then, they're using land that could be used for farming, crops, agriculture, that sort of stuff. In their place, they're putting the solar panels and all in the name of the net zero
[00:37:23] Unknown:
problem. Yeah. All all in the name of chasing the net zero target of decarbonizing the economy. And, the whole thing, of course, is underpinned by our money because it's taxpayers' money that is subsidizing the green industry. Because the cost of the electricity is so much higher, there has to be subsidy in place for it to make sense and for it to stand on its own 2 feet financially. So, the whole green energy sector is funded to the tune of 10,000,000,000 per year by taxpayer subsidy. Now I don't know exactly the breakdown of that that's allocated to solar rather than the wind. I haven't dug into it that far, but of the 2 technologies, I do prefer solar rather than the wind because solar at least is a known generating capacity, and you know when it's going to come on.
And you can see from previous years how much you'll be getting per day. And so the gas powered backup that has to always be ticking over in the background is more efficiently metered. Whereas with wind, you don't really know exactly how much you're going to be getting on any particular day, and it can vary according to the forecast. So the gas power that's spinning away in the background always has to which always has to be paid for is, more costly with wind rather than solar. And in fact, there was a report recently about the cost of this extra background gas supply that has to continually be ticking over in the background relating to wind, and it was a figure of 18,000,000,000 extra cost over a 5 year period. And that was reported in both The Guardian and The Telegraph recently. So, you know, wind is costly and it costs more to have the gas ticking over in the background than solar. So of the 2, I would prefer to have solar in our energy portfolio mix to 10% deployed on roof on roofs. And, you know, and then you can look at it as well.
It is adding energy security to us. If all else failed, we would perhaps have 10% of some form of backup, although, of course, battery storage is a big issue. Hopefully, that will come in the future, but it's not there now. So, you know, hope you know, we will have, you know, look at it as a beneficial 10%, derisking to a worst case scenario with solar, and it's ticking a few green boxes. And the cost of it wouldn't be too bad at a 10% supply. But having approached the 40% of our national generating capacity in these renewables is costing a lot of money. It's costing a lot in subsidy, and it's costing a lot in the energy bills, the extra energy bills, and that's feeding into everything. It's a major contributing factor to the cost of living crisis because everything requires energy as you know, transportation of the finished products, to everything. To end of point retail sale, we all use energy. So it's really a low ball to any economy when you have such high energy costs and they are high.
The 3 times 3 times the price of an of America, 8 times the price of Russia, 5 times the price of China. So we're not getting much help when we're being asked to compete on a globalist world's market with our products, including our farm products, and we're facing these
[00:41:00] Unknown:
much higher energy costs. So So you're hoping as well your pro one of your proposals is to the raising of the annual agricultural budget by 58% from 3 point 6 1,000,000,000 to 5,700,000,000. So that's what just an extra £2,000,000,000 a year, but £2,000,000,000 is actually a hell of a lot of money, isn't it?
[00:41:21] Unknown:
It is, but it's not when you compare it to the aforementioned extra expenses that I've talked about. You know, 35,000,000,000 being paid on this quantitative quantitative easing reserve. You know, you even when you look at foreign aid, that's nearly 13,000,000,000. I mean, there is a case for reducing our foreign aid payments, redirecting a bit of that back to the nation to try and help us out. I know there's diplomatic value and other value built into our foreign aid, and that's important as well. But, you know, there's been controversy around foreign aid to certain countries for many years.
India and China, primarily, they're both running successful space programs and landing really cool bits of tech on the moon. So, you know, is it right for us to still be funding those with foreign aid and, you know, and and is the nature of the foreign aid that we give even the best way of doing it. Should we be just handing money over or should we actually be putting, you know, fresh water systems and that kind of thing in place with actual people on the ground doing it. So anyway, you know, there's certainly a case for sending some money away from the foreign aid budget And, you know, you could easily take a third of that, which would be 4,000,000,000. So you've got them twice the money right there for that. And the the point behind that is that we were actually getting more money in 2019 under the European Union Common Agricultural Policy.
Under both pillars, both funding branches of that scheme, we had 4,700,000,000. So what the Agricultural Transition Plan did post Brexit is it bundled both pillars together and said, you've got your basic payment and your environmental schemes all bundled into 1 now, and we're calling that the 3,100,000,000 that we've got now. So we were defunded, and it hasn't even been adjusted for inflation moving forward either. So the calculation that I came to of the 50% increase is the 4,700,000,000 that we received in 2019 adjusted for inflation moving forward to now.
And, and that's how you come to the figure. So, yeah, we've been defunded along with having the payment system, it be, being used to encourage non core food production under, of course, net zero guidance to encourage more wilding and wildlife schemes, which is not necessary and it's the wrong way to do it. We need to concentrate as we did before on core food production and, you know, may make sure that farmers are taking care of biodiversity loss and environmental issues along the side and that we were always doing that post recovery from the sort of seventies agricultural intensive boom. We have been doing that, and the systems were already in place.
If there was a specific farmland bird species that was in decline and they, you know, then a a slightly higher subsidy could have been put into one of the existing environmental land management schemes to widen the hedgerows or or make the hedgerows more taller or leave more mature trees per 100 meters, and that would have been a really simple thing to do and quite cheap to do by just adding a few quid to those schemes that, had those, you know, hedge row elements in them for their payments. So the whole thing's being skewed politically. It's politically influenced, and it's being defunded. And that along with the other lack of protections to the farming industry, lack of decent import tariffs to protect us from cheaper imports, lack of decent food labeling so that customers need to make a fully imported choice, etcetera. They it goes on and on. Because that's one of your proposals, honesty and all food food labeling.
Yes. It yeah.
[00:45:25] Unknown:
Yeah. Sorry. I've just been flicking through, and I was reading them earlier. But, yeah, I don't know a lot about it. We we all kind of like unless you look, and that writing's always so bloody tiny on these things. But we get to know.
[00:45:39] Unknown:
Well, I had an a I could only afford an a 5 flyer. So in order to get enough information to give a, broad general brush of where I'm coming from politically and, I yeah. The text had to be small. So, I've got the magnifying glasses if any of my elderly
[00:45:57] Unknown:
followers are needing a a bat to read the leaflet. Tins of food that you get. The labels are so small, aren't they? That's what I meant. Sorry. Yeah. When I go shopping, I'm I'm now at that age. I have to put my glasses on to read those labels to see what's in them.
[00:46:11] Unknown:
Oh, I'm in the same club, so, feel no shame. So but, yes, food labeling is vitally important because, if consumers aren't fully informed as to the animal welfare or the environmental, standards of the products that are coming in from elsewhere, then it's not fair on us, the British farmer. It's not fair on the consumer either because they need to know what they're buying. And if we take beef raising, for example, we we you know, Brazil now is leading the market in very large beef lot style production. These are, I mean, these are non grass. They they're just on the ground. They're not grass fed. They're in open beef lots, which is fenced off areas on open farmland, prairie land, if you like. Well, in actual fact, some of them have been cleared originally from rainforest land.
So they're in these fenced paddocks on on just bare soil, and they are fed GMO ingredients, because it's cheap. They're routinely treated because of the herd density and the propensity for disease in that intensive type of production. They are routinely administered with, antibiotics and growth hormone is regularly used as well to get them finished and growing quicker. So you're taking a product like that, which is coming in cheaper, and the cheapness comes from the economy of scale that that type of agriculture can leverage.
And that always beats the extra cost of transportation, by the way. So, it's it's a done deal in farming. Economy of scale and the force multiplier that that gives you easily defeats in the game of rock, paper, scissors, transportation costs even from halfway around the world. So things can come in cheaper, and that's attractive to our consumers, especially in these economic conditions. And so they can buy that thing. Oh, I need to save a few quid on my shopping this week. I'll just buy that supermarket branded beef. It says country of origin Brazil. Oh, you know, well, whatever.
But they're not being fully informed. There's GMO feed stuffs being used there, etcetera, as I've previously mentioned. So it's really not fair on on everybody, consumer or UK farmer, for there not to be really proper labeling regulations for fully informed consumer choice.
[00:48:49] Unknown:
Oh, you've really got me thinking now. I try to buy most of my meat at the farm shop now with the butchers.
[00:48:55] Unknown:
But, Well, best way.
[00:48:57] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. And what about your, one of your proposals as well is, you're you're sort of saying about the strengthening of protections for farmers within farm business tenancies. Yeah. Because 30% of agricultural land in England and Wales, is in some form of a farm business tenancy, and tenancies would not be underestimated. So explain on that. Sorry. I I know nothing about farming.
[00:49:26] Unknown:
Firstly, farm business tenancies, as you said, account for about 30% of agricultural holdings. So they serve a very important, role in in farming because they're a matchmaking service, essentially, which matches people who want to start farming but don't perhaps have the capital there to to to make though that initial purchase into land. And it also matches people who've got land asset who are no longer in a position to farm. So it's a vital, on ramps for new entrants into the industry, and and so there should be higher protections for farm tenancies. And at present, there's, I believe the the minimum term is 3 years for a farm tenancy.
And that's nowhere near enough because farming is a long term game, you know. You know, in your first 3 years of setting a farm up, you you may be only just getting through to profitability from having made all the investments in infrastructure and everything else going along with it and building herb size up or getting your genetics sorted out or whatever it is. So I'm recommending at least a 7 year minimum tenancy for, farm business tendencies and also full control of the subsidy schemes to the tenant farmers. So the the landowner can't have control over any subsidy schemes or say yes or no If the farmer wants to go into a certain scheme, they're in fully entitled to do that because they're the tenant. So it's it's giving more power to the tenant and it's ensuring, longevity within the sector. There's other bits and bobs around it, but they're they're the main 2.
[00:51:16] Unknown:
Right. And we'll go to one last one because we've got 10 minutes till the end. And I like this one. I like how you put this one. Cloud seeding, another geoengineering weather modification programs in UK airspace. There's a lot of people, when you when oh, what's cloud seeding? Well, look up in the sky and see the lines and stuff. And as you mentioned in your manifesto about, you know, it was put on Good Morning Britain, a couple of months ago, that it was responsible for the rain events in Dubai and stuff. You know, it's all been part of conspiracy theory for years, and people think we're nuts.
But, you know, realistically, what can we do about that?
[00:51:58] Unknown:
Well, all we can do for now is to keep learning as much about it as possible and to keep raising public awareness about it. It's starting to leak out as you quite rightly say or should I should I say the cloud seeding element of it is more, is starting to leak out and be talked about in mainstream bits and bobs, which is quite an interesting development. Regarding the solar radiation management aspect, I mean, we have seen mention of that online and in and in you know, even on the BBC website, we've we've seen mention of that in relation to global cooling in relation to, of course, the, the the supposed climate crisis.
So things are changing. More people are becoming aware of it, and we are having to reverse engineer it. We know we're not being told what's going on exactly. So exactly how it's being done, exactly what we're looking at when we're when we're looking up, you know, we don't exactly know, but there is obviously some form of persistent cloud creation going on, and it's hard to, explain why some airplanes aren't leaving these long persistent trails that spread out to form a milky hazy cloud, where others aren't. And then then, you know, I've had several occasions where there's planes that look to be at exactly the same height flying similar trajectories and and ones leaving the normal condensation trail that I always remember from the pre sort of eighties, to the ones that we see now. So,
[00:53:39] Unknown:
When we had better weather?
[00:53:42] Unknown:
Well, yes. I mean, that's that that's subjective, but I would say better weather in terms of it had a settled pattern and even a settled variation within that that kind of felt natural is all is the best I can say. My awakening to this whole thing was about the year 2010 when I was farming and growing market gardening, and and I just I just sort of felt that the randomization was different in the weather. The the summer rain became different. It was heavier. There was just a you know, the the downpours were were heavier than I ever experienced before. The randomization of things in the winter.
It just before being consciously aware of it, these these were my sort of innate natural feelings that there's some there was something different about the natural variation in it. And, of course, once I became aware of the technology, then everything fell into place. But, yes, it's it's it's hard to deny that something is going on. I believe something is going on, and I'm not the only one who believes that. As to exactly what's going on and exactly how it's being done, you know, we're still reverse engineering it. So we just have to keep going, but it's not gonna be a surprise to me if at some point there's an official declaration or, you know, some you know, a disclosure, should we say, that solar radiation management has been practiced in some trial form in order to globally cool the planet because of, runaway climate alarmism and that some form of particulate has been put up there in the upper atmosphere to reflect heat away. And, you know, you can see on a day like today, for example, I'm I'm found with direction, and it's been a a pretty nice day. And there's been very little of it going on, but you can still see a milky blueness even to, you know, a non chemtrailed sky, should I say. It doesn't doesn't seem as deep blue to me as it ever did before. It's looking like a lighter blue. And when I look across the valley towards the Ennis Estate, there is this silvery kind of mist in the air.
I mean, I never I never was conscious of that before, you know, in the eighties. I remember I just remember fluffy clouds, fluffy white, you know, in the summertime, high pressure as we've got today. You know, lovely white fluffy cumulus clouds with a deep blue background behind and none of these long trails and none of this, silvery gray mist in the atmosphere when you look across long distances. I mean, how can how can traffic and farm traffic be kicking up that amount of dust on this narrow peninsula of land that's surrounded by ocean, you know, to create that amount of atmospheric smog, it just doesn't seem to make sense. It the case for some form of particular falling out from the atmosphere, accounting for a large amount of what we're seeing, can't be denied. It can't be taken off the table. So, I think it's time to have these conversations out and for people to be talking about them in the course of their daily lives and in the course of political discourse because it's only by doing that that the conversation will be raised, and and, we need to do that. So, yeah, that's that's why I've put that one in there as well, and it's very well received. We know Yeah. As you probably know being a member of Farmers Movement Cornwall on the Facebook page there, it's one of the most active policy sort of areas out there.
[00:57:29] Unknown:
People want to know what's going on. Good. Yeah. And they do need to know more and more people. I think all over Facebook and stuff, you see them uploading their pictures of the skies and stuff in disgust. You know? So I think the the message is slowly getting out there. People are thinking a little bit more about it even though they like they like to argue the whole contrail debate. Anyway, we're we're more or less out of time, Pete. I wish you luck. I I'm really quite excited because a few people I know in this movement are running for independent, and you've got balls. And I'm I'm really chuffed for you. I I was thrilled when I heard that you were running. And let's give the page a tweet for it's Farmers Movement Cornwall, isn't it, on Facebook?
Correct. Is there a website for that as well?
[00:58:16] Unknown:
Or is it just another There's farmers movement Cornwall dotco.uk.
[00:58:21] Unknown:
Right. Okay. And do you have any final words, Pete?
[00:58:27] Unknown:
Well, I've got a campaign page set up for for my, a campaign as well on Facebook. And if you search for Peter Lawrence independent for Truro Falmouth, you'll come across that. I would say that I'm really pleased to be standing as an independent. It's been a lot of work, and it's have all have to happen in a very short time frame. There's David Lately in St Ives as well. There's Angie Rayner for Nuki in St Austell. So we've got half of the constituencies in Cornwall covered by an independent. And in 2019, we had 224, I believe, independent standing, and they managed to gain naught 0.6 percent of the vote. That's This time around, we have got 450 2 independent standing. So we've over doubled the amount of independence, and we're standing in over,
[00:59:24] Unknown:
over 300 constituencies. Brilliant. I'm gonna I'm gonna have to cut you off there, Pete, because we are literally now gonna end. But brilliant stuff. Thank you so much. And thank you, Jo Wood, for coming on and helping out with the chat as well until Pete made it. I wish you all the luck in the world, Pete, and I'll keep, following your page. And, yeah, fingers crossed. Let's get these independents in. And thanks. All the best, Shelley. Thank you. Thank you very much, Pete. Take care. And, Jo, come on. You too. Bye. Bye bye. Thank you. Bye. Bye bye. And see you next week, guys.
Introduction and Guest Announcement
Technical Difficulties and Guest Introduction
Music Break: 'There's a Storm Coming'
Political Discussion: Voting and Independent Candidates
Jo Wood Joins the Conversation
Peter Lawrence Joins the Show
Peter Lawrence's Campaign and Policies
Cloud Seeding and Geoengineering
Closing Remarks and Final Words
