Labour's Beef?

I agree the meat scandal is abhorrent and a disgrace, but while Labour seem to be preoccupied with meat pies, its time to reflect on a bigger story of what has gone on.

There is a European thing called CAP the (Common Agricultural Policy) this dictates what countries do with their farms, food and trade and is funded with a Tax on member states,

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/faq/index_en.htm#2

Because the UK is not farmed like Europe we had some of this tax back called (Maggie’s rebate) after Maggie Thatcher argued for it, this was like the UK getting a Tax rebate valued at £4bn a year becoming £7bn by 2013.

but along came dear Tony and dear Tony had a plan, Give Maggie's tax rebate away on the promise of CAP reforms and he did, so we now pay £4-5Billion a year more to Europe.

Thanks to Labour we now pay Europe £Billions more, Just when our country needs every penny,  but guess what? the reforms to CAP never happened, so some say Dear Tony gave away the rebate for absolutely NOTHING 

read this from Hansard

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmhansrd/cm121031/debtext/121031-0003.htm

What happened, in that disgraceful decision in 2005 when Labour gave away the rebate,

If there is an inflationary increase, as the Government propose, we will be looking at a net contribution going from £9.2 billion last year to £13.6 billion at the end of the process. We simply cannot afford that.

Another interesting point is that CAP gives our UK money to EU food producers and talks about food safety 

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/faq/index_en.htm#2

under the heading “Food quality and safety”

Is our food safe?

The EU has improved food safety significantly since the food scares of the 1990s, by introducing hygiene measures, rules on animal and plant health and checks on pesticide residues and additives in food, to give only a few examples.

How does the EU guarantee food quality?

Food quality is guaranteed through labelling, marketing and quality rules, such as the protection of geographical indications, obligatory nutritional information on labels, quality logos and animal welfare standards.

Apart from hygiene rules which guarantee safe products, the EU has developed:

• marketing standards that products sold in the EU must meet
• optional quality terms to indicate the quality of the product on the label
• European quality systems identifying products with a specific quality
  • 'Protected Designation of Origin’ (PDO) or ‘Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) for quality linked to geographical origin
  • Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG).
• a special EU logo for organic products meeting strict requirements
• Guidelines to optimise the performance of food quality certification systems guaranteeing compliance with certain product characteristics or processes.

Sandwell Tory said

Now while this horse in the food chain seems to be the work of Criminal activity, good old Labour ramble on about pie fillings from the EU, sadly I think Labour have totally missed the point 

Labour gave away our CAP rebate,
The EU's Food Quality systems inside CAP policies do not seem to be working well 

So we now pay even more money for the Horses in the food the EU allegedly sends us.

Do you think Labour's decision from years ago has come back to bite us?

and remember

Labour wont give you a Vote on Europe 

sub note, when the Police catch them, I feel the courts should throw away the keys to the cell,  a fine is simply not good enough