04 January 2007

Politics without vision

Not much is unambiguous in politics, but the European Union’s corrupt, insane Common Agricultural Policy qualifies as an unambiguous disaster. It’s ruinously wasteful, it destroys the environment, it transfers money from the poor to the rich, and right now, not for the first time, it’s threatening to derail the global trading system.

We might expect therefore that the British opposition Conservative Party, not having any power to lose, would come out strongly against the CAP. Previous UK party leaders, did so, at least when they too were in opposition. Their efforts foundered against the intransigence of the France political caste, but at least they tried.

But not the current Conservative leader who takes the absurd CAP as a given. The extent of his vision is to want more subsidies for English farmers. Or it appears to be; I’d be delighted if I’m wrong.

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