Farm subsidies, continuing (unfortunately)

Guy Fawkes shows how easily politicians can be corrupted, even those on the left of the political spectrum; even those who once spoke out against the Common Agricultural Policy. Not much is black or white in politics and policymaking, but as P J O’Rourke put it seventeen years ago (in Parliament of Whores):

I spent two and a half years examining the American political process. All that time I was looking for a straight forward issue. But everything I investigated – election campaigns, the budget, lawmaking, the court system, bureaucracy, social policy – turned out to be more complicated than I had thought. There were always angles I hadn’t considered, aspects I hadn’t weighed, complexities I’d never dreamed of. Until I got to agriculture. Here at last is a simple problem with a simple solution. Drag the omnibus farm bill behind the barn, and kill it with an ax.