Why is the Tory party making it easier for land to be stolen from farmers? - Yorkshire Post Letters

I was astonished to read of the latest diktat from the so-called Conservative Government in which they have given local authorities the power to steal land from farmers to build houses on, without the need to pay the market value for such land, which a landowner would normally expect to receive when his land was to be used for house building.

Giving the local authorities the right to carry out the immoral practice of commandeering property using Compulsory Purchase Orders, from hard working farmers, is reminiscent of the practices of the Bolsheviks in the Soviet Union, but I hope they are not planning to punish naughty landowners with punitive prison sentences, like those poor farmers (Kulaks) in Russia in the 1930s, who fought against this revolting practice and many of whom paid the ultimate price.

It is unbelievable that a Tory Government should move against some of its most loyal supporters by casting them on the tender mercies of local authorities, many of whom are now run by Labour party members, not known to be particularly supportive of free enterprise and property ownership.

As a former Conservative Party election agent in my constituency for many years, I find this betrayal of property owners rights, a shocking and dangerous precedent and is yet one more nail in the coffin of the Tory Party, who recently seem to have developed a death wish.

I am horrified and saddened by the complete lack of common sense exhibited by the Conservatives. It is as though they have, without informing their members, moved from supporting capitalism to supporting socialism.