£4million CAP payment ignored

[james armstrong]

to: Farming Today ,  6th November 

 6th November 2013. An FT
 interviewer and a tenant farmer renting 490 acres from National
Trust discussed  rent adjustments over the years taking into account
lower  crop values and increased land costs.



CAP payments account for a substantial 
proportion of UK farm income but were not mentioned.
Does the tenant farmer or the farm owner - National Trust- receive the entitlement?  This would be a vital component of
negotiating the rent.



Listeners  (who pay  for CAP in their
taxes)were not told. In the publicly funded BBC radio Four programme.



National Trust received £4,939,887.30
as annual CAP payments in 2012. Listeners were not told.



Omitting this figure made the
discussion on rent negotiations irrational ,meaningless, 

bizarre and either careless or  even
deliberately mis-informative.



£5million per annum subsidy  to a
corporate body in Swindon is quite a news story., one untold by FT .



What does NT spend the £4.9million on
each year?



NFU's £128,993 CAP payment is listed
beside National Trust payment on the Govt web site. .
What is the breakdown of expenditure
from their payment?  FT have many opportunities to ask NFU on air but
don't do so. 

Some 175,000 CAP payments are made each
year to UK of £3.4 billion (enough for  a couple of aircraft
carriers) costing £3.9billion.



The major farming programme on Radio 4
manages to avoid  telling listgemners where the money goes, who gets
it, what it is spent on, what efect it has on land prices ( and even
on house prices) and food  prices.  How much it costs each house
hold, how much tariffs and subsidies on food exports cost....



Discussing CAP on FT is confined to 
discussing 'pilars one and pillars two, reforming it, and protecting
the environment.  




Not surprising that Eurobarometer poll 
found that only 15% of UK listeners thought they knew what CAP was . 




Thanks to FT,  only a fraction of a
fraction of people must know that their taxes fund corporations  with
only a marginal interest in farming, and sometimes the entitlements
which were received 'free' are sold off by the receivers. The variety
and identity of recipients makes good reading. 




FT are in good company since neither
Office of National Statistics, the Annual Abstract of Statistics, nor
the Chancellor's Budget speech mention CAP payments and cost and who
gets what. .



Its almost as if there is a conspiracy
to hide them.  If only some public service broadcaster concentrating
on farming employed some  journalists.
 

James Armstrong
22, Harveys Terrace, Dorchester DT 1
1LE                      tel 01305 265510 . . 		 	   		  
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