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The E U Explained.
by joebangles @ 29/06/2007 - 12:49:46

I found this in the Daily Express, Frederick Forsyth column,

"Two days after you read this the UK will become a virtually smoke- free zone. This will hugely please the E U, from whom we derive almost all our Health 'n' Safety dictates.

So you might think the EU will stop growing tobacco, not a chance.

Inside the EU, tobacco growing is heavily subsidised and mostly by British taxpayers. It is mainly the Greeks who grow it. Last year our contribution to the EU was £4 billion. Of our money £466 million went to subsidise the Greek tobacco farmers.

Well, you might think, at least some EU smokers benefited from the rip-off of the Brits. Wrong again, the Euro tobacco is so harsh it is unsmokable.

So, the Health 'n' Safety Gestapo burn it? not a bit of it. The stuff is exported to Africa. A nice bit of covert racism. This garbage is not good enough for us but useful for giving cancer to Africans. And the Greeks pocket the proceeds.

So, why on earth is British tax money used to subsidise Greek growers of unsmokable tobacco? Well, put it this way: why do you think the Greek government is a fanatical supporter of Brussels?

Now you know.".

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jenrayjenray pro
http://www.jenniferhunter.co.uk
29/06/07 @ 17:03

From The BBC News...thought this might interest you LOL..
Vote threatens EU tobacco subsidy
Tobacco factory
Tobacco farming is an old way of life for some in Europe
A committee of the European Parliament has voted to scrap some $1bn (£560m) of subsidies to tobacco farmers.

The panel wants the European Union to use extra funding from scrapping subsidies to pay for improved anti-smoking campaigns across the EU.

Remaining funds will be used to coax farmers to switch to alternate crops.

The proposal will be now debated by the full European Parliament. Governments will have the final say, and tobacco growers are expected to protest.

The EP budget committee voted for the measure, which was first mooted in early 2004.

Changing habits

The UK backs the change, but Mediterranean states say it will force many poor farmers to abandon the land.

Around 80,000 tobacco farmers, mostly in poor regions of Greece and Italy, receive about 20 times the subsidy paid to grain farmers.

There are concerns that tobacco farms use heavy amounts of fertiliser and can adversely affect wildlife.

The EU's total tobacco production is about 300,000 tonnes per year.

In the past, the EU has always refused to remove the subsidies.

Two years ago, there were angry protests in Brussels when farmers burnt tobacco leaves outside the offices of the European Commission.

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joebanglesjoebangles [Member]
29/06/07 @ 20:12

Isn't that strange jen, maybe freddy forsyth already new that, interesting.

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jenrayjenray pro
http://www.jenniferhunter.co.uk
29/06/07 @ 21:05

He's vehemently anti the EU and would say anything to put it in a bad light...seriously bad journalism on his part...

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OzzzyOzzzy pro
29/06/07 @ 17:54

You have been tagged by Ozzzy

come on over to my smoke free blog to read the rules :)

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joebanglesjoebangles [Member]
29/06/07 @ 20:15

You wont want me over ozzy, I am a smoker, but too bad, I will pay a visit and go without for a while, just give me a min to stick on the patches.

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OzzzyOzzzy pro
29/06/07 @ 22:22

Nicotine patches ay? How cool are they?

That's OK Joe, you can stand on the back step with all my other family & friends and puff away to you hearts content (bit of a contradiction in terms there) :)

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jenrayjenray pro
http://www.jenniferhunter.co.uk
29/06/07 @ 18:48

You've been tagged by me as well, Joe, this morning...LOL

joebanglesjoebangles [Member]
29/06/07 @ 20:16

Knew that jen, saw it this morning but didn't have time to reply, going there now.

annbradleyannbradley [Member]
29/06/07 @ 20:36

I am quite glad to see the back of smoking really as I have had many train journeys, nights out and so on spoiled by being trapped in smoky places. I know that many people regard the bans as an infringement of their liberty but I find it hard to sympathise because, frankly, they gave no indication of caring about my freedom. To be fair, it has not been too bad for years now but there used to be no way to get away from it if you went out or needed to travel. A woman smoking in the crowded tube (this was when all but one carriage was a smoker) set my dress alight on one occasion: I was very frightened until it was dowsed before I was burnt but she didn't even offer to pay for it let alone help me or see if I was OK.
This apart, I am no longer a fan, and certainly not a big one, of the Euro Empire. I was hoping that those failed referenda would spell its death knell. I should have taken their craftiness into greater consideration. And, no doubt, I'd be just as keen to hang on to such a great little earner.

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jenrayjenray pro
http://www.jenniferhunter.co.uk
29/06/07 @ 21:23

I guess if you're not a smoker, the smell and the smoke can be offensive...even I, when I smoked, didn't like having somebody smoking while I was eating, but still didn't object as it was a free country and I'd rather they have the freedom to do something than remove it from them because I don't like it...
I also find it strange our objection to the EU...where are we going to go if not to Europe?..I suppose the alternative is to be the next state of the USA because there'll be few options for us left if we do break with Europe...we're not big enough to stand alone, and we have so little in common with the USA now, we really are two totally different countries that just happen to speak the same language...we actually have far more in common with Europe than we have with the USA...our ancestors mostly came from Europe so why are so many of us vehemently against rejoining our various countries into one united bloc? Bureaucracy is a damned pain in the butt everywhere, but we can get round that in time, and it's not surprising there's so much of it with such a new and huge undertaking, so perhaps we should try and see beyond the immediate probs and towards the future...hardest lesson in the world I think is acceptance of the other, and that is the demand the EU makes on all of us...and, at the mo, I think we're failing dismally...unfortunately...

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annbradleyannbradley [Member]
29/06/07 @ 21:55

It's the sort of thing where entrenched differences can arise and, a bit like party politics, it can be near impossible to change teams.
It's not that I don't like the underlying idea. Or what I thought was the idea. I also agree that our history and contacts are European more than anything else.
However I don't think we need to submerge ourselves in Europe as an empire and I do think we should be able to make the thing work as a trading bloc. The countries of Europe are attractive for their differences.
More than anything, though, I am furious about what I regard as the lies told when first we were involved. I voted to join the Common Market because I accepted the assurances that it was, and would remain, little more than a trading cooperative and I thought it a valuable development. That may have been naive of me but I was only about 22 and had not yet fully understood the political capacity for mendaciousness.
Apart from the unagreed scope widening that has occurred over the years I have also been dismayed, shocked, angered and more by the near-Byzantine corruption of the thing, the inefficiency, the vanity...oh, I have to avoid dwelling on it...it turned out to be such a disappointment. I am out of this subject!

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joebanglesjoebangles [Member]
29/06/07 @ 21:29

As I understood it we were to be a trading partner with Europe and I accepted that although we were turning our backs on our Commonwealth friends, but thought that our laws would always be supreme in this country.

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