Messing With Farmers Is a Dangerous Game: Matthew Brooker

Disturb a delicate ecosystem at your peril, particularly if it involves tractors. The UK’s five-month-old Labour government is unlikely to emerge without damage from a clash with farmers over its plans to impose inheritance taxes on farmsteads, which drew thousands of protesters to London last month. Across Europe, demonstrations by agricultural activists have invariably led to concessions — as well as gains for right-wing populists. That’s a troubling precedent.

For now, the British campaign remains genteel. Farmers haven’t used their machines to block roads or dump manure and rotting garbage, as in France, Germany and the Netherlands. It would be unwise to ...