After hearing reports on Radio 4’s early morning Farming Today programme, about the difficulties farmers have been having registering poultry in accordance with new regulations. I decided that I’d better get on with it, rather than end up being fined.
I didn’t experience the frightful computer problems that I had heard reported. Nevertheless, I resent the absurdity of having to register my one surviving hen (alas, nature is red in tooth and claw).
I can understand that government might need regulate large commercial undertakings, but there is something rather Orwellian about a state that wants to keep tabs on those of us who keep a few chickens in the garden as a hobby, or for eggs at our own breakfast table.
Sir Desmond Swayne TD
