Power is coming back to the people!

WHO'D have thought that a General Election could change so much? The comprehensive victory by the Labour Party last week was not entirely unexpected, but the dramatic outcome was a surprise to many and there's not much left of the 'old guard' representing many of us in Scotland.

So it's out with the old and in with the new. But will the same old boring record still be on the political turntable?

Sir Keir Starmer, our new Prime Minister, has made much of bringing respectability back into politics and given all that's happened in recent times, that's going to be a tall order. But he also made much of making 'service' part of the deal for this new government and we can only hope that this includes looking after what is, after all, one of the biggest industries in the United Kingdom ... Agriculture.

Already, the wheels are in motion for more home-grown production of military hardware and there was much talk of food security and the use of UK farm produce for public services prior to the election, so that can only be a good thing. If it is delivered.

The other major filip for us in Scotland is that the General Election result has sent a shockwave through the corridors of power in Holyrood, with the SNP stunned by a backlash of incredible proportions. Hopefully, that will concentrate political minds into concentrating on what really matters to the Scottish people.

For one, we need to get the focus away from channelling public funds into re-wilding projects and concentrate on re-population of our more remote areas. People not raptors are what counts. Re-wilding has a lot of non-tangible effects, the most important being how much it contributes to a local economy and then there's the future threat of telling people that they can't go here or there because it will harm the local biodiversity!

Most of us do get the fact that we need more biodiversity on our hills and uplands, but many studies around the globe have shown that a properly integrated livestock industry can add so much more to that goal. Nothing much lives within a blanket of unmanaged bracken and heather and so properly rewarding farmers and crofters for maintaining and increasing biodiversity must be the way ahead. Simply throwing money at those who say re-wilding is the answer to all of our ills will not work, better to spread that money amongst those that already live, work and look after the terrific environment we already have?

Given last week's routing of the SNP from the Westminster Parliament, it will certainly polarise the thoughts of those at Holyrood for the next Scottish election, which is expected to be in May, 2026. So that gives us all plenty of time to poke our own politicians with a very sharp stick to highlight the very real concerns that agriculture has. A coherent, simple to understand replacement for our outgoing farm support schemes would be a good start!