Well I was suprised by the level of support among crit-geog
members for the idea that (factory) farmers do seem to get too
much in subsidies, esp compared to other losing groups like
redundant miners, dockers, etc. Though of course this IS crit geog
and not the Daily Telegraph, say. I guess a lot of that is that
Britain, British culture, is still stuck somewhat in the "landed
gentry" era, anti-industry and labour (the men, not the political
party which anyway hardly now merits the same name as a
manual worker, looking down on money that is earned thru' getting
ones hands dirty, rather than "earned" by sitting back and playing
shares or by sitting back and watching acres of golden corn grow
(well, now, acres of GM rapeseed, at least it's still yellow
coloured). Will Hutton, "the State We're In" is good on this. reading
it is enough to make you want to emigrate (unless your great
grandfather owned 10,000 acres in Somerset that is!)
Hillary Shaw, P/G Geography, University of Leeds
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