[Diggers350] 300,000 jobs we can pay for

[james armstrong]

Dan, I completely agree about the need to help dog and stick farmers. But the CAP payments have not helped the 1 million agric workers who have left the land. The Rome treaty specifically set out to help agricultural workers .  Also CAP cheques go to County Councils, RSPB, British Sugar plc £83million in 2009) the Queen, the Prince- to  many many Lords - need I go on?
We could llimit payments and means test them to the minimum wage level of £12,000 p.a.
Also UK is dominated by multiple farms owned by corporations, not by 'farmer Jones'.
We could save over £2billion- think of it- if we tailored the  cheques to the   small farmers and treted them like teh unemployed.
Not one CAP penny was considered for cuting in the Speding Review.  I state the worst case to highlight the scam.
Not least it these are secret and exclusive payments to the privileged.  James 

To: chapter7 at tlio.org.uk
CC: diggers350 at yahoogroups.com
From: dan at gaiapro.co.uk
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2010 17:14:01 +0000
Subject: Re: [Diggers350] 300,000 jobs we can pay for


















 



  


    
      
      
      James

Thanks for all your mails over the last months regarding CAP payments. It

is absolutely right that public money paid from the public CAP purse be

publicised on the web for all to peruse. HOWEVER.............I am not sure

I completely share your view that all recipients are rich bastards.

Undoubtedly many are, and a much bandied about statistic regarding the

proportion of payments paid i.e. 80% of payments go to 10% of recipients,

is also probably true and endorses your view. But this means that 80% of

farmers are only receiving 10% of the CAP budget and your scrapping of the

scheme in total, may well hurt many of the type of farmers that you may

want to actually support. As with all centralised political support, CAP

payments are a very blunt instrument that sets out to achieve some kind of

indirect market support to rural incomes. In my experience with small

family farms in the UK the CAP payment almost always equals about the farm

business profit where no other income is typically available to the

business. Termination or serious capping of the payment will effect a huge

change to these type of businesses that also tend to be in the more

marginal areas of the UK (west and uplands. This may not be the case with

large farm businesses (typically in the southern and Eastern areas) where

it represents another (taxable) income stream to the business.

You may know already that the CAP is undergoing as we write, the latest in

a number of reforms that have shifted the emphasis of the CAP from

production support to area and environmentally tied support. This has been

going on in one form or another for about 20 years or so with the EU

embarrassed by the amount the CAP has usually taken up of the EU budget as

a whole.

I whole-heartedly agree with you that farm businesses that do not need the

CAP payment due to being either very successful farms (not many I suspect)

or by having other income streams (very many) should not benefit from the

CAP.

However I do worry about the 80% above of whom many will face extinction

without some kind of support, mainly due to the fact that the raw material

they use for their business - the land -  is not as flat, inherently

fertile or simply easier to rationalise, as most of the 10% of the above.

Means tested, capped CAP payments may be a way forward if we are to avoid

as Simon says, cheap imports from abroad or significant price hikes in

food prices.

regards



Dan Powell



> If we scrap CAP subsidies  the majority of our food will be imported

> form the North America, Australia/NZ  and developing countries.

>

> The problem is not the subsidies (though tariffs would be better) —

> they are needed to make UK  farming viable in a competitive

> capitalist market.  The problem is the concentration of land in large

> farms.

>

> Simon

>

> On 27 Nov 2010, at 15:46, james armstrong wrote:

>

>>

>>

>> 300,000 jobs at the  minimum wage £12,000 p.a. can be saved if we

>> scrap CAP payments.costing £3.9billion .p.a. write your MP and ask,

>> Does your family receive CAP payments? How much?,  Then I'll

>> publish them all  on a web site and campaign to stop this madness

>> of secret

>> payments to rich bustards .

>> James

>>

>>

>>

>

>





    
     

    
    






   		 	   		  
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