Common Agricultural Policy - nice earner for billionaires

Common Agricultural Policy - nice earner for billionaires

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Discussion

hornetrider

Original Poster:

63,161 posts

204 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
So, Prince Khalid Abdullah al Saud gets 400k a year from the CAP.

Other beneficiaries include estates owned partly or wholly by the Queen (£557,706.52); Lord Iveagh (£915,709.97); the Duke of Westminster (£427,433.96), the Duke of Northumberland (£475,030.70 ) the Mormons (£785,058.94).

Should 'the sytem' be paying multi-millionaires a few hundred k out of the public purse in order to maintain their own land? Or should they be doing it themselves...?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37493956

sugerbear

3,960 posts

157 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
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All they do is spend it on big screen televisions, fags and booze.


Pesty

42,655 posts

255 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
Is that on top of what they get for wind generation

Jockman

17,912 posts

159 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
If they are farmers they qualify.

Otispunkmeyer

12,557 posts

154 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
Pesty said:
Is that on top of what they get for wind generation
Don't forget money for not generating also (when the wind is blowing but the power isn't needed) and probably more money for running the back up gensets when the wind isn't blowing, but the power is needed.

C0ffin D0dger

3,440 posts

144 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
You'd think if we ever go ahead with Brexit then this money can be distributed a bit more fairly however the cynic in me suggests that no Tory government would allow these types to be out of pocket.

sugerbear

3,960 posts

157 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
Jockman said:
If they are farmers landowners they qualify.
EFA

Buy farm, take subsidy, let farm to someone else.

Jockman

17,912 posts

159 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
sugerbear said:
Jockman said:
If they are farmers landowners they qualify.
EFA

Buy farm, take subsidy, let farm to someone else.
Clever. So the owner of the farm gets the subsidy not the person doing the farming?

ralphrj

3,508 posts

190 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
Jockman said:
Clever. So the owner of the farm gets the subsidy not the person doing the farming?
That depends on the terms of the tenancy. If the subsidy were not included the rent paid per acre would be substantially lower.

B'stard Child

28,321 posts

245 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
hornetrider said:
Other beneficiaries include Lord Iveagh (£915,709.97)

Should 'the sytem' be paying multi-millionaires a few hundred k out of the public purse in order to maintain their own land? Or should they be doing it themselves...?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37493956
Local to me so I thought this might be relevant - Elveden Estate (owned by Lord Iveagh) does an awful lot of conservation on the Breckland heathland

http://www.elveden.com/farm-land/conservation/

and

http://www.elveden.com/our-story/the-estate/

98elise

26,372 posts

160 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
sugerbear said:
Jockman said:
If they are farmers landowners they qualify.
EFA

Buy farm, take subsidy, let farm to someone else.
My brother works for a property company and they own land, which they let to a farmer. The farmer gets a huge wad of cash not to farm it.



paulrockliffe

15,639 posts

226 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
What's the argument that larger farms should exist in a worse economic environment to smaller farms? Sounds like something Corbyn would come up with.

Of course there are going to be large payments to large businesses owned by wealthy people.

Aside from the political element of this story, CAP isn't based on subsidy anymore, it's payment for benefit (as decided by the scheme). Large payment = large benefit = large cost to the farmer. If the CAP is reduced to zero for moral reasons, the business will choose not to apply for CAP and not to do all the good things that are then no longer required to be done.

CrutyRammers

13,735 posts

197 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
paulrockliffe said:
What's the argument that larger farms should exist in a worse economic environment to smaller farms? Sounds like something Corbyn would come up with.

Of course there are going to be large payments to large businesses owned by wealthy people.
Indeed. Owning big business means larger profits, shocker.
Of course, we could do away with subsidies for farming and say hello to industrial battery farming, bks to the countryside, and hello to food grown in the uk costing several times what it does now. Those subsidies directly keep the cost of food low, which directly benefits the poor.

lockhart flawse

2,040 posts

234 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
CAP payments are the only thing keeping the dairy farmers afloat. They are out of business without them. Same for the hill farmers.

Obviously the headline CAP payment figures for large farms are very high but so are their costs.

It's all for the benefit of the French who have about 4% of their population in farming. In the UK more people work in sandwich production than agriculture.

FredClogs

14,041 posts

160 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
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Mormons?

Blimey.

Guybrush

4,330 posts

205 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
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It's no different from other benefits, but just a high end version. Surely some thought should be given to reducing the dependency; when added to farms being free from inheritance tax, it would seem farms have it cushy. (Cue violin playing / sob stories etc, but a few £billion a year of taxpayer's money on handouts just to one UK sector of the population is a lot and I think should be looked at.) How many other businesses get such handouts?

55palfers

5,892 posts

163 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
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How many acres do you need to cream £1M I wonder?

Marlin45

1,327 posts

163 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
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Google/Starbucks/Apple.................

sugerbear

3,960 posts

157 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
lockhart flawse said:
CAP payments are the only thing keeping the dairy farmers afloat. They are out of business without them. Same for the hill farmers.

Obviously the headline CAP payment figures for large farms are very high but so are their costs.

It's all for the benefit of the French who have about 4% of their population in farming. In the UK more people work in sandwich production than agriculture.
There is over production of milk and a ready supply of alternative sources of dairy and meat products. It would help farmers if a % went out of business rather than allowing them to limp along. Subsidies aren't the answer, they distort the market.


del mar

2,838 posts

198 months

Friday 30th September 2016
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Is this how Harry Metcalf funds all his cars.....