Hauliers and farmers are among the most disgruntled people in
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Britain. By uniting, the Hauliers and Farmers Alliance and Farmers For Action hoped to improve their lot—but the cracks showed early on. As' reports, reports, this discord can only be damaging for both parties...
orcing any government into a Uturn on policy is about as easy as pushing a loaded 40-tonne truck up Mount Everest. It takes planning, passion, brilliantly thoughtout strategies and an iron will. But above all, it demands unity: a dedi cation to the cause that transcends minor differences and personality clashes, and gives any campaign the strength it needs to succeed_ However well supported it might be, once warring factions within a protest group turn on each other any initiative starts to lose credibility and focus.
It's a problem presently exercising the minds of activists in two organisations fighting for a better deal for their members: the Hauliers and Farmers Alliance and Farmers For Action. The HFA and FFA have been coordinating their efforts on a wide range of issues in a relationship based partly on the fact that many farmers have haulage interests as well.
But in recent weeks the organisations' leaders have been busy dealing with the fallout from a public spat between two of their most senior officials—an ill-timed row which has created a rift and threatens to overshadow plans for a major week-long demonstration next month. The split has raised serious questions about whether the haulage industry will ever be able to achieve the solidarity required to twist the government's arm.
Representing two of the most beleaguered industries in Britain, the HFA and the FFA were set up earlier this year because some hauliers and farmers were disillusioned by a perceived lack of progress by the established representative bodies.
The HFA says its aim is to pressure ministers to create a "level playing field" across Europe on taxation and subsidies. Its key objectives are a major reduction in the fuel duty and VED paid by UK operators; an end to the 2,000-per-stowaway fine; road charges payable by every foreign truck visiting the UK; and a limit on the amount of cheap foreign fuel that may be brought into the country.
"This government is forcing one of the most suc cessful logistics operations in the world to its knees because of crip pling taxation." says HFA chairman Len Johnson. In March the HFA organised a protest in which it claims 200 trucks and 200 farm tractors con , verged on the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne. The convoy stretched for seven miles and .q made two circuits of the city centre. 7_ The FFA was conceived during a meeting at a motorway service station outside -1 Birmingham last winter. Disgruntled farmers • from Wales, the Midlands, the West Country • and the North hoped that a new pressure g group would represent their views more effec • tively than the established farmers' unions. E The FFA is calling for guaranteed mini mum prices for a range of farm products, including milk, meat and cereals. It claims it has the support of ro,000 farmers, and has organised protests, including blockades of supermarket depots and dairies, in a bid to persuade the retail food giants to add 5p a pint to the price of milk, with the proceeds going directly to the producers.
But last month the HFA's Len Johnson and the FFA's North-East spokesman Andrew Spence became embroiled in a war of words which threatened to weaken both campaigns.
Spence, who left the HFA in May to join the FFA, questioned whether the HFA had sufficient support from farmers to mount its promised nationwide protest convoy next month. He suggested the FFA might boycott the demo for fear of being associated with a "disorganised event".
Johnson responded with an allegation that Spence was bitter because he "did not like the fact that he wasn't in control of the whole HFA", and remains adamant that the HFA has enough backing to pull off its ambitious protest.
Johnson claims that the problems began back in April when Spence—then North-East representative for the HFA—allegedly organised a vote among committee members on whether farmers would be prepared to quit the organisation and join the FFA. Members backed the idea by 15 votes to 13, but Johnson claims it was engineered without his knowledge. "Spence is a very shrewd man, and he's got a personal vendetta," he adds.
Spence is adamant that there is no personal animosity between him and Johnson, but he says: "I was a founder member of the HFA and there would be no HFA without farmers—yet no farmers in the North-East will support it. It's certainly not true that I wanted to run the HFA, but I was an elected representative. Len Johnson is self-appointed" He asserts that one reason for the split is that the HFA has discussed backing plans to end farmers' right to use rebated red diesel.
"They are on about their diesel going up; ours has doubled in the last year," he says. "We use a colossal amount, especially round harvest time. We are being crippled."
The official FFA line is that it is happy to consider backing the HFA's protest plans, but cannot guarantee its support at this stage. FFA chairman David Handley says he has asked the H FA to forward its proposals for the protest so they can be studied in detail by the association's committee, but has received nothing so far.
"If we think we can run with it and be of assistance, we will support it," Handley says. "Although we are fighting for British farmers, we also care about hauliers, because they bring and take most of our products.
"But we have to be careful about what we get involved in. I will talk to the HFA if it will get us out of the mess we are all in, but I must have all the factual details of how they intend to operate it [the protest]. I don't think this row does either cause any good. The in-fighting has got to stop...we've got more important things to do."
The demonstration, dubbed The Drive to Survive, is due to kick off on Monday 25 September in Scotland and Newcastle with a convoy of haulage and farm vehicles that will head south to Leeds city centre. On 26 September it is scheduled to hit Manchester and Liverpool, before heading for Birmingham and London on 27 September. The plan is to generate public and media interest in the capital before moving on to Dover "We are not going to deliberately block roads," says Johnson, "but with the volume of traffic it could become gridlocked." The truth is, it will take that sort of action, and probably a whole lot more, for the government to sit up and take notice.