Mark Andrews: Falling foul of hidden cameras, school's out for autumn, and why farming is crucial to our economy

The farmers are revolting. A reported 20,000 turned out for Tuesday's demonstration, Jeremy Clarkson brought a bit of celebrity stardust to the proceedings, and the sight of scores of huge farm machines cruising around central Westminster certainly 'raised awareness', as it is fashionable to say these days.

And like all demonstrations, it will achieve the name of Clarkson's farm: Diddly Squat.

For a start, the Prime Minister was in Rio, staring at an impressive floral display with Russia's Sergei Lavrov, China's Xi Jinping, and the, ahem, colourful Argentinian leader Javier Milei. But also, I'm pretty sure the Government has already crunched the numbers, and concluded that screwing farmers is not a major vote loser.

According to YouGov, just 52 per cent think farming is 'very important' to the UK economy, and the figure falls to 30 per cent for the 18-24 age group, who presumably don't think anything's important unless it's on TikTok. But if almost half of the adult population think farming isn't vital to the economy, which are the sectors they consider more important?

In the run-up to the election, Rachel Reeves talked a lot about 'growing the economy'. But the only way you can generate real wealth is to produce something, be it digging stuff out of the ground, making things in factories, or growing things on farms. Service industries are all very well, but they only redistribute existing wealth. They don't create it. 

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Then there is the matter of food security. Surely the Ukraine war has taught us the importance of not depending on other countries for essential supplies. The UK has one of the worst records in the developed world for food self-sufficiency, with just 62 per cent being produced here. That compares to 194 per cent for New Zealand, 118 per cent for France, or 105 per cent for the US. 

If the Chancellor wants to 'grow' the economy, we need to start growing more food. And turbocharging the farm industry,. not destroying it. 

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Last month I was invited to a press briefing in Walsall, where the council outlined plans to slash budgets, including school lollipop patrols. It was suggested that instead, cameras could be used to enforce parking rules outside schools, which would instead generate revenue for the council. Modern local government in a nutshell.

This week I discovered that, on my way to that meeting, I had been caught on camera performing an illegal right turn. I has certainly taught me a lesson, although probably not the one the council thought it would give me.

The main thing I learned was to keep away from Walsall in future.

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And yes, I know what the argument will be, that there was a road sign which complied fully with Department for Transport guidelines. The same argument used to justify the prolific bus lane cameras in Wolverhampton, the Beast of Broadwaters speed camera in Kidderminster, and the infamous cameras at Trench Lock in Telford. 

But no pious words about net zero, road safety and Department for Transport guidelines can alter this: If the road layout is so confusing that thousands are being caught out, if it generates millions of pounds worth of fines, then it is the road layout that is at fault, not the drivers who get confused.

I accept I have fallen foul of the law, and paid the fine. But the law is unjust.

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You might have noticed we had a few flakes of snow this week. A bit strange, given they had just told us it was the warmest autumn on record. But there you go. 

It was also strange that most of the schools around here decided to close. Why? I live on the top of a big hill, which normally gets the first snow, and had little problem getting to work. Nor did anybody else. 

I also remember some real cold winters when I were at school, and sometimes we wore our coats when the heating failed. And then, after a couple of days, somebody would deliver a Calor Gas heater, which didn't make us much warmer, but did make a terrible smell.

It seems ironic that the snowflakes are stymied by a few, er, snowflakes.