HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS SNP MACKENZIE WELCOMES FARMERS’ POLL WHICH HIGHLIGHTS MOVE TOWARDS YES

The SNP welcomed a new poll by The Scottish Farmer showing that 47% of respondents will vote Yes in the Scottish independence referendum.

The poll comes further to another Scottish Farmer poll in November which showed that 74% of respondents believed they were more likely to vote Yes in next year’s independence referendum after Defra’s convergence decision.

Highlands and Islands MSP Mike MacKenzie joins Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, in welcoming the survey result:

“This is a great poll result which shows that farmers are leading the way in the movement towards a Yes vote in the referendum on September 18, with more and more farmers moving towards voting Yes.

“Scotland’s famers and our rural communities have had a particularly bad deal from Westminster – independence offers a much better alternative.

“Westminster just doesn’t understand the needs of our rural communities, and as a result they are massively disadvantaged on a range of issues.

“If Scotland was already a Member State it would have benefited from EU rules that all Member States reach average payments of €196 per hectare by 2019.  That translates to an extra €1 billion of support coming to Scotland over the Common Agricultural Policy convergence period. Instead Westminster Ministers have negotiated Scotland to the bottom of the CAP funding league.

“The economic vitality of our rural communities is underpinned by our agricultural industries and the food and drink processing and distribution sectors that derive from them, yet Scottish farmers are hindered as they do not receive their due share of EU Common Agricultural payments.

“In September we have a choice of two futures. It’s becoming increasingly clear that a Yes vote is needed for Scotland’s rural communities. The only government capable of properly representing Scotland’s interests in the EU decision making process is a government elected by, and directly accountable to, the people of Scotland.”
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