'Anger' driving farmers to protest as tractors bring traffic to a crawl at Ballygawley
The mood on the roads around Ballygawley last night was one of “anger”, says a farmer, after a second go-slow protest this week over the price of fuel.
Scores of vehicles were out at the Ballygawley roundabouts in south-east Co Tyrone at around 10.30pm last night, bringing traffic to a virtual standstill.
It followed a similar protest on Tuesday afternoon.
Mark Robinson, a councillor from the Clogher Valley for the DUP, was present; he said he was not part of the protest, but was speaking to those who were.
He told the News Letter that the protest involved about 60 vehicles, bigger than Tuesday, and was about more than just the cost of fuel.
Rather, the soaring pump prices were just “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.
“I honestly think it’s gathered momentum to be honest,” he said.
"It’s being construed as being about red diesel and farmers only.
"But I get a sense from talking to the farmers in the tractors that the red diesel and the white diesel is the straw that broke the camel’s back – this has been brewing for a while.”
He said one farmer he spoke to had just that day tried ringing his local GP, and had given up after about 50 attempts.
The man had just paid a tax bill of £30,000.
Farmers are “scrutinised to the n-th degree” about livestock welfare, the man told councillor Robinson, but if his animals had to sit on waiting lists as long as the NHS ones then he “would get done for animal cruelty”.
Other complaints he heard were about the amount being paid out on benefits to people who are not working, while farmers put in upwards of 50 hours per week.
"This country isn’t working” is the message, said councillor Robinson.
"There’s something broke. It’s all come to a head now.”
Fines were handed out last night by police to drivers – in one case for no number plate on a tractor, in another case for problems with a tyre – and that this might put people off, he said.
Asked about the prevailing emotion at the protest, he said it was “anger”.
He added that the issue is not “orange and green”, and nationalists alongside unionists are “just fed up”.
The protestors are critical of politicians, “but they’re also critical of the likes of the farmers’ union and all these lobbying groups for not speaking up and standing up… they’d be just as critical of the UFU as they would be of the politicians to be honest”.
Councillor Robinson shares that view: “I don’t believe the farmers’ union is standing up for them.
"They’re too close to government, they’re too close to those in power and working with them instead of saying what needs to happen here.”
Asked who had organised the protest, councillor Robinson said it was “not an individual,” but a “consortium of people”.