SO the greedy, grasping farmers are to get an additional £500 million pounds in subsidy payments on top of the billions they already receive and immediately start screaming that they want more.

How much longer have we to cough up so that they can enjoy their chosen way of life? I read reports of them going bankrupt but in many years of reading the LET, I have yet to see an official notice of a farmer going bust.

Why, when I drive through the countryside do I never see an abandoned farm or even a farm for sale? I advise the turnip heads to take a look round our towns, where they will see hundreds of empty shops which the owners will never be able to sell because of competition from supermarkets and will now have to live in council accommodation and try to get a job.

It is now reported that the government is even considering paying farmers £40,000 if they decide to retire, a less deserving bunch of people will be hard to find. Move over and let others get their noses in the trough!

J UTTLEY, Bolton Road, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.