Scottish farmers picketing the port of Stranraer agreed last night to suspend their protest from this morning to give the British government time to announce a package of measures to help them. There were reports that protest action at Holyhead, Fishguard and Dover might also be suspended.
President of the National Farmers' Union in Scotland Mr Sandy Mole, addressing a group of up to 200 farmers at the port, urged them to lift the picket, saying they needed to pull back and wait and see what the government would do. Angry farmers at first heckled Mr Mole and accused him of doing nothing to help solve the beef crisis over the past 18 months.
Mr Jim Walker, a member of the executive of the Scottish NFU, rallied the support of the protesters by saying the British government could not be seen to be giving into mob rule.
"We must give them a chance to get off the hook politically. If we try to nail them to the floor, we will get nothing," he said. Mr Walker said it had been a "fantastic week" but that they would lose public support and media interest if they continued the port blockade.
Welsh farmers were also prepared to temporarily suspend their picket, he said. The Scottish farm leader also told the rally that ICMSA president Mr Frank Allen had assured him Irish farmers sympathised with their plight and would put pressure on the Minister for Agriculture to take up the issue with his British counterpart.