'The Chancellor appears unable to see all that is wrong with her budget. She cannot see it is destroying family farms that are the backbone of rural society'

Some comments stick with you long after the person who made them has left the political stage.

One is a comment back in 2016, at the time of the Brexit referendum. It came from the then farm commissioner, Phil Hogan, when he was asked how farmers should vote. He avoided that as a Commission official, but said farmers had a choice between the CAP with its flaws versus a long term gamble on the generosity of the British Treasury.

Many farmers based their vote on political rather than economic arguments. Brexit will remain a decision taken for political reasons that ignored political realities and it is the UK economy that has paid the price.

Prophetic as Hogan's words were, he did not see his own downfall. He became trade commissioner in a new Commission, but then had to resign during lockdown over attendance at a golf match in the west of Ireland. However his warning to farmers stands. They took the proverbial punt on the Treasury and the rest is history.

That proved a losing bet on as huge a scale. Farmers have ended up less well off financially than if they had remained in the CAP, and with even worse green policies. With a Labour budget that could wreck agriculture that has become immeasurably worse. This is not a view from the right wing Tory press, but from an opinion piece in the Guardian written by an English farmer.

Sad in this situation is that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, still appears unable to see all that is wrong with her budget. She cannot see it is destroying family farms that are the backbone of rural society; heaping costs onto employers is damaging to employment and economic growth. Muddle-headed is the best description of the budget, but there are no greater losers than agriculture.

Flawed as the CAP is, farmers here may envy a new EU farm commissioner saying things we would love to hear from a farm minister here, national or in a devolved administration. Christophe Hansen is promising to make generation change getting young people into the industry a priority. He is also promising to return dignity to farming as a 'vocation' so that farmers remain on their land now and in the future. We all know political words are cheap, but this is a commissioner with his heart in the right place. The green message is still there, but it is less central to EU policy than in post-Brexit Britain. We are used to governments with little interest in agriculture, but this is the first time we have had a government embarking on a policy potentially fatal for farming. It may be trying to crack down on tax avoidance via big estates, but setting the threshold so low will destroy family farms and generational change. It seems ironic that the real hammer blow came from a Labour government, just as farming had found ways to live with the discredited Brexit deal more given away than negotiated by Boris Johnson.

The big conversation opener at the moment however is three words that have noting to do with our present government or the EU as our closest neighbour and natural ally. The words are, of course, 'what about Trump' As someone whose ego is as big as his country, with a misplaced belief in his business abilities, Trump has won more than he could ever have hoped for.

His power now exceeds that of any US president for decades. He won the popular vote; they had a clear sweep of the battleground states and now his party which is how he sees the once broad church Republican party controls both the US Senate and Congress. He is uniquely placed to do what he wants and has begun by making clear he is serious about deporting illegal immigrants who have been denied a right to remain.

The green-fest of COP29 this week will be the last for a long time with which the US will engage and the American green lobby will gain little traction during Trump's time in office. Tariffs are coming too we just do not know yet where they will hit and whether Europe will be drawn in, for example over high value cars, as well as China which is Trump's real target.

For Europe and indeed the UK it is hard to see any economic upside from Trump's victory.