Hannan: The EU will never reform the CAP or anything else

With the possible exception of the CFP, nothing better sums up the corrupt corporatist collectivism of the EU, and our self-destructive relationship with it, than the CAP.

Daniel Hannan's latest blog puts it beautifully:

Seven years ago, Tony Blair surrendered a large chunk of Britain's EU budget rebate in return for a radical overhaul of the Common Agricultural Policy. Brussels trousered the money, but the promised CAP reform never materialised.

Now the Commission wants the rest of our rebate, but isn't even pretending that CAP reform is on the agenda. Agriculture will continue to absorb nearly 40 per cent of the entire EU budget, and spending will in fact increase slightly in absolute terms. Nor is it just Eurosceptics who are protesting: the Euro-enthusiast greenie pressure groups are every bit as angry.

We shall carry on, as we have for the past 40 years, subsidising wealthy French farmers at the expense of poor African farmers. Those self-styled Eurosceptics in Britain who talk of reforming the EU should ponder the story of the CAP and search their souls.