Farm payment incompetence
JUST when it seemed that Margaret Beckett s handling of the Single Farm Payment crisis could not get any more duplicitous or incompetent, a new nugget of information comes to light. In response to my question in the European Parliament s agriculture commi
JUST when it seemed that Margaret Beckett's handling of the Single Farm Payment crisis could not get any more duplicitous or incompetent, a new nugget of information comes to light.
In response to my question in the European Parliament's agriculture committee, commissioner Fischer Boel admitted she had "received a formal request from the UK government on April 12 for an extension of the regulatory deadline to October 15 2006".
The government continues to mislead farmers. It is unacceptable that an EU offficial should tell us what our own government is doing.
Farmers in East Anglia now face the prospect of being penalised for failing to return forms they haven't received while getting no compensation for the government's failure to pay them money they were owed last year.
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And yet no one will accept responsibility. The sooner Mrs Beckett accepts responsibility and resigns, the better.
ROBERT STURDY
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MEP representing the Eastern Region
