Cavalcade an exercise in futile propaganda

LET’S get one thing straight, I understand totally that farmers want to garner more public support for their opposition to the Government's proposed inheritance tax changes, writes Adam Sherlock.

- Adam Sherlock

But I seriously question whether their plan to drive a tractor cavalcade through London on Budget Day is the right way to go about it - or, indeed, whether the entire exercise doesn’t risk being dangerously counterproductive.

In detail, the operation will see tractors and other farm vehicles rolling into Westminster from 9.30am on November 26 and proceeding at a stately pace through the streets.

Given that London traffic is always on a knife edge and is only kept moving thanks to an intricate, computer-linked network of lights at road junctions and crossings, it will take but a few minutes for the entire area to become gridlocked.

Black mark number one for the farmers: dozens, perhaps hundreds of people are as a consequence going to be late for meetings, miss appointments and generally have their daily schedule disrupted. Which is hardly a way of winning public sympathy.