The chamber backed tying farm support to efficiency metrics by a comfortable 34 to 15, a near two-to-one verdict that suggests little sentimental attachment here to subsidy-by-acreage. For a scheme that would reward yield and emissions performance over land held, this is a vote for productivism dressed up as reform.
The generational split is the story. Every under-35 voter who registered an age leaned yes, with the 16-24s unanimous across a small sample and the large 25-34 bloc backing it 18-6. Yet the 45-54s, admittedly just four voters, went the other way 3-1, the only age group to do so, hinting at a middle-aged constituency more wary of metrics-driven support than either their juniors or the 55-64s who split narrowly in favour.
Gender told a sharper story of consensus versus division: men backed the idea 76% to 24%, while women split dead even at 6-6. That gap echoes a familiar pattern on this platform, where efficiency and market-based arguments tend to land harder with male voters than the room as a whole, even as the numbers here are too small to generalise beyond this vote.
A landslide result, then, but one built on a coalition that thins out considerably past 45.
2 Opinions
Government needs to listen to farmer's and pay for the access
Farmers need more help. 100%.