Walker, a former president of NFU Scotland and former chairman of Quality Meat Scotland, told a full-house Kelso agricultural discussion society this week that he had always realised "that common agricultural policy reform would not be bureaucracy-free".

But he had not expected the changes to the CAP - when, in 2005, a range of crop and livestock subsidies were replaced by a single annual farm payment - to lose direction so badly or become so seriously entangled in red tape.

Theoretically, the single annual payment frees farmers from the old ways of "farming for the subsidy", when payments were related to crops or livestock, as long as they comply with good agricultural and environmental practice. And there should be fewer forms to fill in and fewer inspections.

Source: The Scotsman