Who Owns Britain? EU welfare for Zac & other land hoarders continued...

Mon Mar 28 11:45:49 BST 2011

Okay this is not QUITE as perverse as the city 
fraud & extortion culture - see 
http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/whats-wrong-fractional-reserve-banking/
but I've just been folowing some of those MoS links

Why does the *expletive deleted* Grauniad not cover this?
I feel a spring weekend occupation is in order... 
what do Brendan, Simon and 'new tlio' think?

Turns out a lot of this damning info info has 
been dug out by heroic stalwarts www.farmsubsidy.org and www.EUtransparency.org

For general reference on big old landowners see 
the brilliant http://www.who-owns-britain.com/ 
and get a copy of Kevin's essential reference 
book. I bet you're kicking yourself if you didn't 
get it at £15 as it's now a collectors item at £80 second hand!
Much more reasonable is Kevin's latest title Who 
Owns The World, The The Hidden Facts Behind Landownership for a mere £20.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Who-Owns-World-Hidden-Landownership/dp/1845961587/
Get the best internet prices on all these through  www.bookfinder.com

Tony

Wealthy minister earns £2m in EU farm subsidies 
which his department tried to cover up

By 
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Robert+Verkaik>Robert 
Verkaik - Mail On Sunday - 27th February 2011
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1360998/Wealthy-minister-earns-2m-EU-farm-subsidies-department-tried-cover-up.html

The family of a Government Minister whose 
department has covered up details of who receives 
EU farm subsidies has earned £2 million from the same payouts.
Richard Benyon is one of the richest MPs in 
Parliament. The great-great-grandson of 
three-times Tory Prime Minister Lord Salisbury, 
he can trace his ancestry back to William Cecil, 
the chief political adviser to Elizabeth I.
Tory MP Mr Benyon, the Environment and Fisheries 
Minister, has received income from a family trust 
which owns a 20,000-acre estate worth £125 million.
Rich heritage: MP Richard Benyon, with wife Zoe and son Louis,

Rich heritage: MP Richard Benyon, with wife Zoe 
and son Louis, has earned £2m in EU farm subsidies

The Englefield Trust, which owns the land on the 
Berkshire-Hampshire border, was paid more than £2 
million through the controversial Common 
Agricultural Policy farming grants from 1999 to 2009.
In 2009 alone the family farms were paid nearly 
£200,000, placing them in the top one per cent of 
beneficiaries of the EU scheme.
Farming Minister Jim Paice has also received 
several thousands of pounds in EU subsidies for 
his farm in Cambridgeshire over the same ten-year period.
Mr Benyon was appointed a Minister at the 
Department for the Environment, Food and Rural 
Affairs (Defra) last May. Some time after 
November the department decided to block all 
information about how much farmers had earned 
from subsidies. More than 100,000 British farmers 
were paid the majority of the £3 billion 
available in EU farming subsidies for last year.
Ministers argue that they are following advice 
from Brussels, but freedom of information 
campaigners claim they have deliberately taken 
draconian steps to protect rich farmers from public scrutiny.
Labour MP Paul Flynn said that Mr Benyons 
position was unjustifiable. This is wrong in so 
many ways. How can Ministers benefit from EU 
payments while at the same time introduce an information-denial policy?
Private land: Englefield House is part of a 20,000-acre estate

Private land: Englefield House is part of a 20,000-acre estate worth £125m

Mr Benyon, 50, a former officer with the Royal 
Green Jackets, is the son of Sir William Benyon, 
himself a former Tory MP. Mr Benyon shares the 
family seat, Englefield House, with his father 
and his own wife, Zoe, 40, their two sons and 
three more sons from a previous marriage.
Englefield House is in a private walled estate of 
20,000 acres that includes thriving farmland, 
woodland and a model village. It was built during 
the reign of Elizabeth I, who granted the manor of Englefield
to her spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham. The 
house came into the Benyon familys possession in 
the early 19th Century. The gardens are open all 
year but the house is open only to pre-booked group tours.
The Benyons also have land and property interests 
in London and Scotland. Mr Benyon, MP for Newbury 
since 2005, owns a £1.5 million house near Westminster.
According to www.farmsubsidy.org, a freedom of 
information campaign group which continues to 
publish the list of EU subsidy recipients in the 
face of the Government blackout, the Benyon 
estates received more than £2 million in aid between 1999 and 2009.
Mr Benyon has declared his family business in the 
Commons register of interests. But under the 
information blackout, it is not possible to know 
how much his family estates received last year from the EU.
Mr Benyon resigned his chairmanship of the family 
business, Englefield Estate Trust Corporation 
Limited, when he became a Minister last year. In 
the members register he says he remains the 
trustee of various family trusts in all of which 
either I or members of my wider family have beneficial interests.
After the department for which he is a Minister 
decided to grant anonymity to all farmers who 
receive EU farming subsidies, a Defra spokesman 
said that it was not possible to reveal details 
of any individual farmers because this would 
breach their privacy. All details identifying 
large industrial farming concerns and individual 
farmers have been removed from Government 
websites. Ministers say this follows a directive 
from Brussels which requires all EU member states 
to comply with a judgment from the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
Plans for the publication of a list of the 
individuals who have benefited from the EU 
subsidy last year, which was due to be released 
at the end of April, have now been halted.
William Cecil

Lord Salisbury

Ancestors: Richard Benyon is descended from 
William Cecil (left) and Lord Salisbury (right) 
[two dodgy so-and-sos if ever there were]

This would have included millions of pounds paid 
to scores of wealthy landowners including the 
Queen, Prince Charles and the Benyons.
Freedom of information cam-paigners argue that 
the Government has over-reacted to the ruling 
because the judgment bans the identification of 
private individuals but not the naming of 
industrial farming enterprises, which include 
large agricultural concerns such as the Englefield Estate.
www.EUtransparency.org said that there were 
dozens of public figures who are in receipt of 
public funds who should be identified in the public interest.
One of its directors, Jack Thurston, said: The 
Common Agricultural Policy is a system of state 
subsidies to farm businesses  . . .  there is no 
relationship between the eligibility for a farm 
subsidy and the recipients personal or private life.
Unlike some means-tested social welfare 
payments, there is no shame or social stigma 
associated with receiving a farm subsidy.
The decision represents a reversal of an 
important freedom of information victory in 2005 
when the Government was ordered to release the 
names and payouts of all those benefiting from the subsidies.
Two German farmers took their case to the 
European Court of Justice last year, arguing that 
their personal rights had been infringed by the 
publication of their names on a German government website.
But the EU Commission has confirmed that not all 
member states followed the same approach to identification as the UK.
At the end of November 2010, member states were 
asked to stop publication of data concerning 
private individuals but crucially to keep on 
publishing data related to companies.
A Defra spokesman said: Richard Benyon does not 
receive any single-farm payments. He ceased to be 
a partner in the family farming business, 
Englefield Home Farms, prior to becoming a Minister.
On his appointment, the Minister made the 
Permanent Secretary aware of all his interests 
and the Permanent Secretary is happy there is no 
conflict of interest in the present circumstances 
and that the requirements of the Ministerial Code are being met.
All Defra Ministers interests, including any 
CAP-related payments, are declared appropriately 
to the Permanent Secretary and reported in the usual way.
Jim Paice, as the Minister responsible for 
administering the Single Payment Scheme, has 
decided not to activate any of his entitlements 
under this scheme for the duration of his appointment.
He received a payment of £652 from a claim 
submitted prior to taking up his Ministerial appointment.

Read more: 
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1360998/Wealthy-minister-earns-2m-EU-farm-subsidies-department-tried-cover-up.html#ixzz1Ht8OIEKt>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1360998/Wealthy-minister-earns-2m-EU-farm-subsidies-department-tried-cover-up.html#ixzz1Ht8OIEKt

and..............

Millionaire Tory Zac Goldsmith's £60,000 in farming payouts

By 
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Mail+On+Sunday+Reporter>Mail 
On Sunday Reporter - 5th March 2011

Zac Goldsmith

Rich pickings: All payments to Zac Goldsmith and 
hundreds of other rich farmers have been removed from official figures

Zac Goldsmith, the wealthy Tory MP, was paid 
nearly £60,000 in European farming subsidies in 
just three years, according to figures seen by The Mail on Sunday.
Mr Goldsmith, 36, who is estimated to be worth 
£300 million, received the payments for his 
300-acre ecological farm in Devon, which is 
believed to be owned through offshore companies based in the Cayman Islands.
But under an information blackout ordered by the 
Government, all the payments to Mr Goldsmith and 
hundreds of other rich farmers have been removed from official figures.
Last week it emerged that the family of Richard 
Benyon, the Minister whose department covered up 
the details of the subsidies, earned £2 million from the same payouts.
In 2009 Mr Goldsmith was paid £21,500 from the 
two European agricultural funds for his Walreddon 
Farm in Tavistock. In 2008 the figure was £35,000 and in 2007 £2,600.
Ministers argue that they are following advice 
from Brussels, but freedom of information 
campaigners claim they have taken draconian steps 
to protect rich farmers from scrutiny.
Last night Mr Goldsmith said: The single farm 
payment is about £22,000 over three years. 
However, there is also the organic grant which 
amounts to about £7,300 per year. Some of that 
may be from the EU, in which case the total would be higher.

Read more: 
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1363439/Millionaire-Tory-Zac-Goldsmiths-60-000-farming-payouts.html#ixzz1HtAkCMUA>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1363439/Millionaire-Tory-Zac-Goldsmiths-60-000-farming-payouts.html#ixzz1HtAkCMUA

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