September 7, 2026 • 6 mins
Our UK farming correspondent talks about the end of the drought, tough times for arable farmers, and the Conservatives looking to scrap the controversial farm inheritance tax. Plus, we ask if he’s seen Harry and Meghan in his travels.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here's our UK farming correspondent, farmer Tom Martin, big-time social
media influencer. He is sort of the rural equivalent of
Harry and Meghan. Now, have you spotted them in your travels, Tom?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Do you know, it's amazing that I'm the UK farming
correspondent because we spend a lot of time talking about
Harry and Meghan, don't we? I haven't spotted them. I
frankly haven't looked out for them. If it hadn't been
for the fact that Charles issued a statement yesterday today, Monday,
as we speak, basically saying that they're not working royals,
they're not to be addressed as your Royal Highness, and
(00:32):
their security isn't the responsibility of the royal family. If
we hadn't heard that, we wouldn't have heard anything from them.
And my advice to them, if they came to me,
would be to carry on with the evictus game, keep
your head down, and review things in a year's time.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Well, I think they have got a title, Royal Grifters.
Now last time I chatted to you, because I haven't
chatted to you for a few weeks, you were in
the midst of a stinker of a drought. Surely it's over.
Surely the autumn rains have come.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
We've had some rain. We've had about two and a
half inches here, which is probably the same as we
had for March, April, May, June, July and most of August.
So we have a little bit of rain. It's greened
up a fair bit. It broke virtually the same day
as the drought in 1976 broke, so we're that kind
of back end of August, the kind of 26th, 27th
of August. And everything has greened up amazingly. We've literally
(01:28):
only had a couple of inches of rain and some
places haven't even had that. So we're still pretty dry.
But we've got a little bit of unsettled weather, which
might just, again, just help the soil to replenish the
soil moisture. So drought, I'm not sure if they've changed
the official forecast, or the official terminology, but the drought
(01:51):
certainly feels like it's over. At a surface level, I
don't know about the water table.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Our arable farmers here on the other side of the
world are having a terrible time or a tough time
of it. You guys are really not fearing much better.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Oh, we had a shocking harvest. Yields were down a
third yesterday. And we've only been saved by the world
wheat prices just creeping up a little bit. You know,
we obviously, on a personal level, want this war in
Ukraine to be over as quick as possible. But the
fact that it doesn't look like there's going to be
(02:29):
any kind of resolution will keep the wheat prices up
through to our winter. So that will help us out
a little bit. It's always a shame having to rely
on bad news somewhere, but that's the only way that
we seem to be able to make a profit here
in the UK.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
One of the really big contentious issues in the UK
has been the inheritance tax from the Labour government. Now,
I note the Conservatives, bless them, are going to push
for the PM to scrap farm inheritance tax changes. Will
Andy Burnham be listening? No.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
I don't think you'll be listening to the Conservative Party,
but he is a prime minister who listens. He's a
prime minister who tends to have a decent grasp on
what's going on in the nation. There is a fair
bit of pressure from kind of obvious circles to use
the upcoming autumn budget to reverse those inheritance tax changes,
(03:27):
which were ridiculous, which won't generate... They'll only generate kind
of a change of behaviour rather than... a meaningful income
for the treasury. But will he take that opportunity to
make those changes? I don't know. I certainly wouldn't be confident.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Who is Ben Goldsmith and why is he upsetting British
sheep farmers?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Ben Goldsmith is in the Goldsmith family, a wealthy family,
I think related to the Rothschilds. Zach Goldsmith, his brother,
was in I think he's in the House of Lords.
He's something to do with DEFRA. Ben certainly has plenty
to say for himself. He's really big into rewilding. He's
(04:11):
part of a big company who specializes in natural capital,
so he certainly has a vested interest. And he spent
the last weekend basically picking fights with shepherds. One of
the first things he came out was not a very
sensible thing to do, but he basically came out to
say that sheep are not well looked after. they're lame,
(04:32):
they're infrequently checked, and they're kept in poor conditions. And
there was a bit of a backlash. And he was
basically saying that shepherds are.
Well, he started off by saying shepherds don't exist. There
are no shepherds anymore. And then when a lot of
people said, hang on a minute, I'm a shepherd, there
was a little bit of backtracking and changing. But he
(04:55):
certainly hasn't been currying any favour Um, but he's since
written an article in the spectator magazine, uh, slightly right leaning, leaning, uh,
magazine publication here in the UK. Uh, and, uh, he,
he just basically been, been, been, been messing around. And
I think it's very difficult to understand until you, uh,
until you realize that he's, um, uh, incredibly pro rewilding
(05:18):
as a rewilding podcast, which is probably worth a listen
to be fair. Uh, and, um, and has a company
that is big into natural capital and rewilding. Sometimes you
just wish some people would just leave it well alone.
We've spoken about Harry and Meghan so far, but Ben
Scolesmith in this instance is another one. He's taken on
(05:39):
James Rebanks, a very famous shepherd, who's frankly Tom Strips
out of him over the weekend. It's not something that's
done anybody any good. It hasn't done anybody. the sheep
farmers any good at all and sometimes it's just best
to say now that's one of the sayings from the
north of England sometimes it's just best to say now.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
So as my mum used to say if you've got
nothing good to say, say nothing There we go, hey
farmer Tom Martin thanks as always for your time in
the UK Always
Speaker 2 (06:07):
A pleasure Jamie, good to have you back
Here's our UK farming correspondent, farmer Tom Martin, big-time social
media influencer. He is sort of the rural equivalent of
Harry and Meghan. Now, have you spotted them in your travels, Tom?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Do you know, it's amazing that I'm the UK farming
correspondent because we spend a lot of time talking about
Harry and Meghan, don't we? I haven't spotted them. I
frankly haven't looked out for them. If it hadn't been
for the fact that Charles issued a statement yesterday today, Monday,
as we speak, basically saying that they're not working royals,
they're not to be addressed as your Royal Highness, and
(00:32):
their security isn't the responsibility of the royal family. If
we hadn't heard that, we wouldn't have heard anything from them.
And my advice to them, if they came to me,
would be to carry on with the evictus game, keep
your head down, and review things in a year's time.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Well, I think they have got a title, Royal Grifters.
Now last time I chatted to you, because I haven't
chatted to you for a few weeks, you were in
the midst of a stinker of a drought. Surely it's over.
Surely the autumn rains have come.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
We've had some rain. We've had about two and a
half inches here, which is probably the same as we
had for March, April, May, June, July and most of August.
So we have a little bit of rain. It's greened
up a fair bit. It broke virtually the same day
as the drought in 1976 broke, so we're that kind
of back end of August, the kind of 26th, 27th
of August. And everything has greened up amazingly. We've literally
(01:28):
only had a couple of inches of rain and some
places haven't even had that. So we're still pretty dry.
But we've got a little bit of unsettled weather, which
might just, again, just help the soil to replenish the
soil moisture. So drought, I'm not sure if they've changed
the official forecast, or the official terminology, but the drought
(01:51):
certainly feels like it's over. At a surface level, I
don't know about the water table.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Our arable farmers here on the other side of the
world are having a terrible time or a tough time
of it. You guys are really not fearing much better.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Oh, we had a shocking harvest. Yields were down a
third yesterday. And we've only been saved by the world
wheat prices just creeping up a little bit. You know,
we obviously, on a personal level, want this war in
Ukraine to be over as quick as possible. But the
fact that it doesn't look like there's going to be
(02:29):
any kind of resolution will keep the wheat prices up
through to our winter. So that will help us out
a little bit. It's always a shame having to rely
on bad news somewhere, but that's the only way that
we seem to be able to make a profit here
in the UK.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
One of the really big contentious issues in the UK
has been the inheritance tax from the Labour government. Now,
I note the Conservatives, bless them, are going to push
for the PM to scrap farm inheritance tax changes. Will
Andy Burnham be listening? No.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
I don't think you'll be listening to the Conservative Party,
but he is a prime minister who listens. He's a
prime minister who tends to have a decent grasp on
what's going on in the nation. There is a fair
bit of pressure from kind of obvious circles to use
the upcoming autumn budget to reverse those inheritance tax changes,
(03:27):
which were ridiculous, which won't generate... They'll only generate kind
of a change of behaviour rather than... a meaningful income
for the treasury. But will he take that opportunity to
make those changes? I don't know. I certainly wouldn't be confident.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Who is Ben Goldsmith and why is he upsetting British
sheep farmers?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Ben Goldsmith is in the Goldsmith family, a wealthy family,
I think related to the Rothschilds. Zach Goldsmith, his brother,
was in I think he's in the House of Lords.
He's something to do with DEFRA. Ben certainly has plenty
to say for himself. He's really big into rewilding. He's
(04:11):
part of a big company who specializes in natural capital,
so he certainly has a vested interest. And he spent
the last weekend basically picking fights with shepherds. One of
the first things he came out was not a very
sensible thing to do, but he basically came out to
say that sheep are not well looked after. they're lame,
(04:32):
they're infrequently checked, and they're kept in poor conditions. And
there was a bit of a backlash. And he was
basically saying that shepherds are.
Well, he started off by saying shepherds don't exist. There
are no shepherds anymore. And then when a lot of
people said, hang on a minute, I'm a shepherd, there
was a little bit of backtracking and changing. But he
(04:55):
certainly hasn't been currying any favour Um, but he's since
written an article in the spectator magazine, uh, slightly right leaning, leaning, uh,
magazine publication here in the UK. Uh, and, uh, he,
he just basically been, been, been, been messing around. And
I think it's very difficult to understand until you, uh,
until you realize that he's, um, uh, incredibly pro rewilding
(05:18):
as a rewilding podcast, which is probably worth a listen
to be fair. Uh, and, um, and has a company
that is big into natural capital and rewilding. Sometimes you
just wish some people would just leave it well alone.
We've spoken about Harry and Meghan so far, but Ben
Scolesmith in this instance is another one. He's taken on
(05:39):
James Rebanks, a very famous shepherd, who's frankly Tom Strips
out of him over the weekend. It's not something that's
done anybody any good. It hasn't done anybody. the sheep
farmers any good at all and sometimes it's just best
to say now that's one of the sayings from the
north of England sometimes it's just best to say now.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
So as my mum used to say if you've got
nothing good to say, say nothing There we go, hey
farmer Tom Martin thanks as always for your time in
the UK Always
Speaker 2 (06:07):
A pleasure Jamie, good to have you back
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