I 
In Milnthorpe this morning to be with Tim Farron for the launch of the farming section of our Rural Manifesto.
Living in Longsleddale, and having a smallholding, I know that the life of a hill farmer is a hard one. Many farmers work well over 100 hours a week and some actually work three times the normal week of 37 hours. They never complain about this, it really is a way of life. The problem comes when they find that they are not getting a fair price for their produce and that they are expected to spend hours on unproductive paperwork. I'm just in the middle of a battle with the Rural Payments Agency who are turning what should be a simple job into a long saga. The fact is that an average single payment claim costs almost £2,000 to administer. That's money that could be in the farmers pocket - which is where it's supposed to be. Instead it's being used to employ a small army of administrators (who I've always found to be polite, helpful and efficient) to administer a hopelessly complicated system of subsidy.
The real beneficiaries of British hill farming are the supermarkets who have a supply of high quality British food at less than the true cost of production.
The Rural Manifesto seeks to simplify and streamline the Single Payment system and also to regulate the supermarkets power to control the prices paid to farmers.
