Quote Originally Posted by Peter McGurk View Post
Ay mate, do us a favour, if you’re going to do massive revisions, post again will you? What are you trying to hide?
uh???

Now - out of that data you tell me which is the land that’s empty.
Most of the UK is empty. I gave the figures. I never made them up.

Even accepting your figures of the value of agricultural use as 2.5% of the UK economy, I wonder how much food it generates to sustain the population.
It is a subsidized industry that if market forces were applied would mostly fold. The cities of Liverpool and Sheffield, were virtually killed by allowing imports of cheaper steel from abroad an the rundown of manufacturing. This created great misery and distress to their large populations. Yet agriculture is subsidised to the hilt having land allocated to it which clearly can be better utilised for the greater good of British society.

The justification for subsidising agriculture is that we need to eat. We also need steel and cars in our modern society, yet the auto and steel industries were allowed to fall away to cheaper competition from abroad, and especially the Far East. Should taxpayers money be propping up an economically small industry that consumes vast tracts of land that certainly could be better used? What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

The UK has imported food since the the mid 1800s. Most of our wheat come from North America. Cheap fast transportation (the steam ship and trains) had meant food, animal and human, could be transported between continents. This prevented European famines. The USA and Canada were pouring out cereals super cheap which affected European agriculture setting it back. German, French and UK agriculture was mainly outdated to North America's. Global food production was in the hands of the USA and UK using the UKs sea lanes and massive merchant fleet to transport food - animal and human consumption. Liverpool was a massive grain importing and processing port. The second largest gain process place on earth.

Food transportation between continents did not apply only to cereals. For e.g., Liverpool companies owned vast tracts of Argentina processing beef and transporting it to the UK and other European ports in refrigerated ships. The Vesty empire owned massive ranches, processing plants and the shipping fleets to transport the meat products - total vertical integration to the point they owned the shops it was sold in. Only oil companies ever achieved such total control of their products.

The UK had a backward agricultural system in parts, however controlled food importation across continents.

Again... this is what I call empty



The brownfield sites in the North End:


They are empty and should be rebuilt properly. But to imply that the UK's housing crisis can be solved by building on brownfield sites is ludicrous. Simple stats prove that. Onky 14% can be accommodated on brownfield and if brownfield is turned to parks, etc, far less.