ANGERED and DISGUSTED

For the benefit of those not on Facebook. ANGERED & DISGUSTED Following Fridays rant towards NFUScotland, I’ve possibly calmed down enough to bring you all up to speed. Early last week I received a Raven Summary Report from SNH, which allowed me to better understand (Not agree with!) the SNH position on Ravens. This document, I believe was not a true reflection of what I am seeing and what is being fed back to me; by you, the farmers on the ground. This is something I am pursuing with SNH and will look to disprove their belief that their document is an accurate reflection of the situation, when we meet with sheep farmers in Caithness on Thursday 5th May. I was contacted on Friday by a concerned supporter of our campaign, She had emailed me the NFUScotland Business Guide Update 20.04.16 thinking I may not have seen the unions circular. Thank you very much Mrs XXXXX I hadn’t! The Business Guide Update issued by Andrew Bauer, Deputy Director for Policy to NFUS members is an absolute disgrace and an insult to union members who are supposedly being represented from the sheep farming community. The content within Andrew’s document is almost a carbon copy of the SNH raven summary report, quoting what I believe is inaccurate figures which are portraying the SNH as an organisation which are well managing the Raven situation and its impact on the farming community. This would tell me NFUScotland are towing the SNH line and are unwilling to fight for our more rural sheep farmers. I’ll let you form your own opinion. Anyone who would like to review a copy of both documents is more than welcome to message me on kdbisset@hotmail.co.uk and I’ll do my best to get both to you in a timely manner. It has been commented over the past couple of days that NFUScotland are falling short in their representation of anyone who isn’t a Central Belt large scale arable or commercial scale stock farmer this view has echoed from numerous people I’ve spoken with over the past couple of days, this needs to be changed! The position of NFUScotland’s; Ingliston office IS NOT one which is shared by your local union reps. These locals know exactly how geographical specific issues affect you and your neighbours and are willing to bring your issues to the fore. I know each and every one of you are busy people, but i would implore you, please pick up the phone to these union reps and make them aware of the ongoing Raven problem. I’m continuing to try and bring NFUScotland onboard and have extended an invitation for the union to attend farms in Caithness along with SNH and me to see firsthand how badly this is affecting our community. As expected the Caithness local rep Arnott Coghill has already committed to make himself available. Will those who sit in the office be joining him though? The invitations been made! The union should be fighting your corner; they’re not, and it’s only with each and every one of you bringing it to their attention we can hope to see a change and the required support this campaign needs from NFUScotland.