Will David Miliband support British farmers?
Proposals have been announced today that will allow our government to divert up to 20% of EU income earmarked for farmers into rural development schemes.
This was personally proposed by Tony Blair at the end of his failed EU presidency in Decembcer 2005.
I am a big lover of the countryside and everything green and rural, but our farmers are among the most environmentally minded in Europe. Making them lose out for this reason is unnecessary.
My MEP Robert Sturdy is very naturally angry about it and has challenged David Miliband, who has been out and about visiting farmers, to support the needs of our farmers on this. This is a chance for him to prove himself.
This crazy proposal makes British farmers disadvantaged competitively as other EU countries will be diverting smaller amounts of their income, resulting in cheaper imports.
It has to be approved by the European Parliament and Conservative MEPs may challenge it in the European Court of Justice if it goes ahead.
Farmers are still reeling over their incompetently delayed single farm payment – now this. Let’s hope we don’t have a drought which will cause them further hardship, or rain everyday. Just a little bit of each.
They must love their work to put up with all these uncertainties.
If it means that farmers have to maintain the footpaths across the land then I’m in favour of it. Personally I’m against subsidised farming as it hides the real cost off meat, sugar and milk production, none of which is desirable
You might be horrified if you knew the real cost!
There should be a free market and equal competitiveness among EU states, but this proposal puts our farmers at a distinct disadvantage.