It's a timely reminder - with updated figures - of the utter disaster
that is the Common Agricultural Policy. For decades this has been
obvious to all except the French for whom it is an inexhaustible
piggy bank.
This is a Blair legacy.
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EXPRESS 30.3.09
EXCLUSIVE: HOW THE EU PUTS 20% ON OUR FOOD BILLS
By Nick Fagge
BRITISH families are each paying £400-a-year to finance the European
Union's Common Agricultural Policy, a report will reveal today.
The CAP costs British taxpayers £10.3billion-a-year and researchers
claim it has made food here a fifth more expensive. It also gives our
farmers a raw deal compared to the French, Germans and Italians.
Brussels bureaucrats have bound the agricultural industry in red tape
and doled out millions of pounds in subsidies to wealthy landowners,
claims the report Food For Thought, compiled by the TaxPayers' Alliance.
The group's Matthew Elliott said: "The CAP is a disaster. While
taxpayers do everything they can to balance their household budgets
to make ends meet, the unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels are
wasting billions.
"Not only are people's taxes squandered on red tape and subsidies for
the wealthy but food prices in the shops are higher as a result.
"It is time we took back control of how our agriculture is managed
and how our taxes are spent."
UKIP leader Nigel Farage said the solution was to get out of Europe.
"Every British Prime Minister and opposition leader has promised at
every single election that they will reform the CAP but they have
not," [another promise below! -cs] he said. "We will never reform
the CAP because the French won't let it happen. We're paying a
fortune for our food to subsidise rich landowners."
In 1984 Margaret Thatcher won a £3billion-a-year CAP rebate for
Britain - but Tony Blair gave it up in 2005 to salvage his EU
Presidency.
Britain gets £3.8billion-a-year from the CAP, compared to France's
£8.4billion. Germany gets £5.4billion and Italy £4.6billion. But
Britain has as much farmland as Germany and more than Italy.
Most of the UK's payments to the scheme come through increased food
prices, with £5.3billion handed over this way as a result of the 20
per cent levy on food bought in this country.
Europe Minister Caroline Flint said last night: "The CAP does not
serve the best interests of farmers or consumers across Europe.
"We will use the opportunity of the EU budget review, starting later
in the year, to argue for the long-term reform that is needed."
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