It’s not simple to understand, it’s not a riveting read , but it is very important – it’s the EU Budget announcement! The overall budget goes up but CAP funding goes down. Fears, which were absolutely justified according to insiders, that the ‘good’ bits of the CAP, Pillar 2, would be hacked into, disproportionately hard,…
Author: Mark
Born Bristol, UK
Educated: Cleeve House School Bristol, Bristol Grammar School and Downing College Cambridge
Ph.D. University of Aberdeen, Winter activity of pipistrelle bats.
NERC post-doctoral Research Fellow, Edward Grey Institute, Oxford University
Former Conservation Director of the RSPB, 1989-2011
Rumour
Rumours abound as to the outcome of the EU budget discussions. I’ve heard that all is lost, and that Pillar 2 funding has been successfully defended – they can’t both be true. We’ll see! I attended the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee meeting hearing evidence on the Natural Environment White Paper yesterday. Sign up…
Thunder
I woke this morning to the sound of thunder. Whereas Aristotle may have thought that this was the sound of clouds colliding I wonder whether it is the sound of disagreements in the EU over the future funding of CAP. Or maybe Peter Kendall is still trying to tell Charles Clover how much he enjoyed…
NFU in clover?
Charles Clover can be irascible. I well remember, long ago, phoning him to try to persuade him of the newsworthiness of an RSPB story and hearing him growling ‘Boring boring, boring boring, boring boring, …‘ down the line at me. But he is worth listening to, and reading, even when wrong, and in his column…
Your taxation – who is representing your interests?
The NFU is indeed a union working for the interests of its members and we should always remember that. And we should always remember that the money for which they are negotiating is our money, but that they do not negotiate directly with us. Unlike most unions who negotiate directly with an employer, whether public…
My contribution to Big Society
This photograph makes my BBS square look about as pretty as I can given the fact that it consists of large fields of wheat. On Friday morning I completed my second BBS visit – it’s a bit late but it would have been a bit difficult to come back from the USA early to count…
Income support for farmers
The argument that Pillar 1 income support for farmers keeps food prices low for all of us is pretty far-fetched. In the bad old days, subsidies were tied to production – you got paid by the taxpayer for every tonne of wheat you produced whether the market wanted it or not and that led to…
CAP reform – CLA statement and a crying killdeer
I’m grateful to the CLA for sending me their statement on CAP reform, a matter of great importance to their membership: A CLA spokesman said: “There has been comment on a rumour that Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is proposing to cut the funds for the Rural Development (second) pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)…
‘well chuffed’
It’s always good to see good guys (and gals) getting gongs. Last night the Zoological Society of London awarded The Independent’s Mike McCarthy their Silver Medal. Mike was awarded the RSPB’s Medal a couple of years ago and has a string of journalistic awards too. The McCarthy household is thinking of getting more shelf space…
This could be really bad for Europe’s wildlife
We still don’t know what will emerge in the EU Budget proposals a week today but it is clear that cuts to Pillar 2 are certainly on the cards so I would ask you to support the RSPB’s campaign and let President Barroso know that you care about this issue. There are plenty of farmers…