CAP capital

Mon May 14 08:05:42 BST 2012

Sent this to BBC's Farming Today presenter and producer.
James  

From: james36armstrong at hotmail.com
To: anna.hill at bbc.co.uk; melvin.rickarby at bbc.co.uk
Subject: CAP capital
Date: Mon, 14 May 2012 07:00:22 +0000

Hello,
Could I ask you to respond to the following points please? 
Euston Estates,interviewed on today's FT  programme ,  are no longer  listed in the government web site on cap payments  but A Heading & Sons of Ipswich at IP24 received £124,398
in 2011 and  £111,475 in 2010.

Your programme gave an argument from an exclusive  commercial  interest group, the NFU whose members receive an estimated £1billion from taxpayers each year as CAP payments, that farmers should receive capital grants for constructing reservoirs.

The large area of the proposed new reservoir there suggests this  may be a commercial rather than agricultural development.
     .
Listeners would like to hear the case for not giving capital to £ multi milllion agribusinesses.

In the interests of good journalism, public interest , democracy and even handedness, Farming Today should now feature
the CAP payments of £3.9billion to UK farmers.  
Other  points- 

The CAP payments system should be explained, detailed and evaluated on Farming Today which will take a series of programmes and a continuing feature in FT programmes. 

NFU should be pressed to reveal their  best estimate of  members' annual CAP payments.

FT should always give the postal code  or defra reference number so farmers can be identified and their CAP payments traced .

Euston Estates'  CAP payments should  be broadcast   for the above reasons,

The cost of CAP payments is not  revealed  in the Budget speech, but this is all the more reason why BBC and particularly FT should do so.

The enclosed leaflet  which takes  4 minutes to read gives more information  on CAP payments than has been heard in 312 FT broadcasts.
in the last year. James Armstrong

James A rmstrong 

Some
Receivers of CAP £millions  -    from www.farmsubidy.org

 Duke of
Buccleuch  £549,000- the estate of Richard
Drax M.P. £417,000, Duke of Westminster £527,000, H.M. The Queen-( world’s
richest woman)  £1.2 million  for privately owning Sandringham
and Windsor Farms.  

   Nestle, banks distillers and brewers,-  each claimant gets paid an annual
cheque,  for some amounting  to  £1
million plus. Jonjo O’Neill and  other
racing stables and  pony paddock owners in
total get paid £35million (est) 

 British Sugar £82m. Tate
& Lyle  europe-wide £920m. 

Protecting their members secret payments of  £1billion 
CAP each year is the National Farmers Union. This is our estimate. They
keep it  secret. 

Who
Pays for UK’s CAP,  how much? You do, £400 each  year 

Each year the Common Agricultural Policy  costs U K taxpayers £3.9billion -  £180 each per household in taxes and a further
 £220

 in higher food prices
caused by CAP .Tariffs prevent cheap food 
imports and push up UK
prices; dumping  surpluses harms Indian
farmers;    Israeli 
food imports get preferences. 

BAD
CONSCIENCE?  WANT TO REPAY CAP? –    Make cheques out to :  

              “Exchequer Funds and
Accounts,”            

                                                             HM Treasury 1,Horse Guards
  Road,

                        London
SW1A 2HQ 

What
is CAP? 
The Common Agricultural Policy of the
EU. 

The international treaty says it is designed to regulate
member states agri- culture, to 
modernize, increase production, give a fair standard of living to  workers in agriculture and to stabilize
markets.  Europewide it costs £44bn. p.a.
In UK  some 175,000 cheques are sent out  to agricultural landowners.   

People don’t know they pay  CAP cheques. A
Eurobarometer poll found 

15% of UK
people had heard of CAP and thought they knew what it was.  UK
& EU agriculture are part of the world economy  

 After 38 years of CAP
and hand-outs in £billions to 
landowners, and larger farmers - Britain
still imports 40% of our food.  Would-be farmers
in UK
cannot get capital to buy and run farms because CAP showers capital on land
millionaires – so land prices in UK
spiral up.

Food imports grow Government
policy is to  grow more of our own, but
food imports have risen by 90%  1999 to
2008.

  JOBS Farming 
uses  75 % of UK  land yet 
employs only a tiny one  third of
1 % of the work-force when more jobs are essential for the UK
economy to  fund pensions for an ageing
population.

Housing benefits are CUT but Common Agricultural Policy

CAP Benefits to the rich increase  by 23%, 2008- 2009     Landowning benefits are obvious- Farmland is
exempt from inheritance tax so it pays to buy up  farms to avoid tax.   

Secrecy  The cost of CAP , and of  Britain’s  annual EU membership fee of £10.3billion Is  not included in the Budget speech nor in the
Statistical Abstact nor even known by O.N.S.  CAP receivers don’t  tell.  Defra’s 
web site omits  92% of  UK
individuals receiving CAP     

The National Farmers Union spread pro CAP propaganda in Westminster
 and appear weekly on BBC ‘Farming Today’
without  revealing their benefit cheques.
.

Hanging
your CAP on a Westminster peg.     

CAP is run from Strasbourg
so  UK
taxpayers have no say.

   Bringing CAP and farm policy-making  back to Westminster,
(just

   as exchange
rate setting was returned to UK),
bids to  inform and

    increase
debate and  accountability, all
shockingly absent at present. 

                             (ploughed
field illustration here)

                         They sow not neither
do they reap

OTHER REFORMS AFTER REPATRIATING CAP -

CAP is essentially about politics and rewarding  landowners 

with tax-payers’ earnings. Reforms will address these issues
-

Request HM Queen to set an example to repay taxpayers’
£millions ;

(a special bank account has been designated  by HM Treasury)

Make any payments to individuals only. Favour small and
start up farmers  and vegetable growers. Sharpen
environmental protection  

Set upper limit on annual CAP  payments. at 2 X minimum wage. 

  ( $40,000 - is the
current farm subsidy limit in US to an individual)

Make payments as low interest loans not as  outright grants;

Revert
multi £m  ‘entitlements’ to HMG when  farmers 
sell up; 

Demand land as security for CAP loans where possible,  build up

A national land bank to counter current alienation to
foreigners; 

Debar rogue states from EU preferences; Increase awareness
of CAP. 

     END 

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