Supreme Court turns away January 6 defendant who challenged ‘picketing’ law under First Amendment
Demonstrators fly Nazi flags outside 'The Diary of Anne Frank' play
Supreme Court rejects Mark Meadows’ request to move Georgia election subversion case to federal court
NATO's Rutte calls for more Western support for Ukraine, warns of Russian alliances
Archbishop of Canterbury resigns over handling of church child abuse case
: (LKLV)(DAYLIGHT) HISTORIC DROUGHT FUELING DEADLY EAST COAST WILDFIRES (9aET)
Elliott takes more than $5B stake in Honeywell, advises separating automation, aerospace units
Netflix's ad-supported tier hits 70 million users
Meta to offer less personalized ads in Europe to appease regulators
Free-falling Bears fire offensive coordinator Shane Waldron
Timothée Chalamet says he was told he didn’t ‘have the right body’ for some big roles
LONDON (AP) — Farmers drove dozens of tractors in a slow-motion convoy towards Britain’s Parliament on Monday to protest post- Brexit rules and trade deals that they say are endangering livelihoods and food security.
Supporters of the campaign groups Save British Farming and Fairness for Farmers of Kent drove from southeast England and through southern districts of the capital, bound for Parliament Square, where dozens of supporters waited to welcome them.
Britain has so far not seen large-scale farmers’ protests like those that have snarled cities in France and other European countries. Farmers from across the 27-nation European Union have protested against what they see as unnecessary bureaucratic rules, clean-air and soil targets and unfair competition from abroad that, they say, is driving them toward bankruptcy.
U.K. agriculture has been heavily affected by Britain’s exit from the EU, which took Britain out of the bloc’s free-trade zone and complex web of farming rules.
Many British farmers backed Brexit out of opposition to the EU’s much-criticized Common Agricultural Policy. But now many say post-Brexit trade deals between the U.K. and countries including Australia and New Zealand have opened the door to cheap imports that are undercutting British producers.
Organizers also criticize labeling that allows products to bear a Union flag when they have not been grown or reared in Britain.
The U.K. has also delayed checks on imports that were due to begin after the country’s final break with the EU at the end of 2020, a move farmers say threatens biosecurity.
Liz Webster, a beef and arable farmer from western England who is one of the protest organizers, said the government had “totally betrayed us all.”
“Polling shows that the public back British farming and food and want to maintain our high food standards and support local producers,” she said. “We need a radical change of policy and an urgent exit from these appalling trade deals which will decimate British food.”
