EU SUGAR REFORM: GREAT NEWS FOR AUSTRALIA

And the ball is now firmly in America's court to do the same. Despite being the world's most efficient sugar producer, lots of Australian sugar mills have closed in recent years due to protectionism in their major markets

"Britain has brokered an agreement to reform the last remaining fully protected area of European agriculture, cutting sugar prices, phasing out quotas and bringing an end to sugar mountains. The first reforms since the postwar period to the EU's much criticised sugar regime will cut prices by 36 per cent, destroy 100,000 jobs in Europe, end sugar farming in countries such as Ireland and Greece, and lead to economic devastation for Europe's former colonies in Africa and the Caribbean, which also benefited from the rigged market.... As well as European consumers and taxpayers, the reforms will also benefit efficient sugar producers such as Brazil, Thailand and Australia, who had taken successful legal action against Europe to force it to end its protectionism. It will also help some of the poorest African countries, who will get far better access to the EU market from 2009.

Under the reforms, prices will be cut by 36 per cent over the next four years, but the world's producers will not get free access until 2020. European sugar farmers and processors are being given billion euros (4.8 billion pounds) in compensation to help them to adjust to the new industries. Former colonies that lose out will be given 40 million euros next year.

Under the reforms, Ireland will be forced by quota cuts to shut down all its sugar beet production, while Italy will give up half its production quotas. Official estimates predict that European sugar production will drop by one quarter, and that 90,000 of Europe's 325,000 sugar workers will lose their jobs. With Europe's pampered and inefficient farmers largely unable to compete in the global market, the Commission predicts that all sugar exports from Europe will stop, and the EU will turn into a major sugar importer.....

The Common Agricultural Policy kept sugar prices in Europe at more than three times the world level. It led to huge sugar surpluses, which were dumped on the developing world, often undermining local farmers. However, sugar cane farmers in former European colonies, mainly in Africa, had preferential access to the European market, enabling them to sell at well above world rates...."

More here

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ELSEWHERE

What U.S. military men in Iraq have to put up with: "A small, but vocal group among us inhabiting most mainstream media newsrooms and occupying far too many elected positions in our government see our military's struggles not as a national sacrifice to stop an enemy driven to bring about our downfall, but rather as pawns on a global chessboard whose purpose is to show just how evil and corrupt our country is"

The terrorist-loving U.S. Presbyterians are at it again: "The Simon Wiesenthal Center has denounced renewed contact between the U.S. branch of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) and Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terror organization. According to the Middle East Research Institute, Lebanese media confirmed that a PCUSA delegation headed by Robert Morley, a retired professor from McCormick Theological Seminary and Father Nihad Tomeh, the Church's Mideast liaison met with Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, Hezbollah's commander in Southern Lebanon. The Church delegation reportedly wanted to learn more about Hezbollah's charitable works and its "concern" for people".

Well-deserved: "The number of households tuning in to the BBC's TV channels each week has fallen by half a million over the last year. Figures published yesterday showed the number of viewers watching the BBC for at least 15 minutes a week was down to 87.9 per cent for the year to date, compared with 89.9 per cent over the same period in 2004".

Good God! Scottish shipyard workers have stopped destroying their own jobs! "A government minister yesterday praised the Clydeside shipyard workers who have built the Royal Navy's latest warship. Lord Drayson, Minister for Defence procurement, was visiting the BAe Systems yards at Govan and Scotstoun. He watched the new Type 45 destroyer, HMS Daring, being readied for launch in February. "I have been impressed by the professionalism of both the experienced BAE Systems employees and the apprentices whom I have been fortunate enough to meet and talk to today and who are working side by side to help deliver this important programme""

Muslim riots in France stem from anger against the West: "This anger was directed, not against unemployment or exclusion from French society (inclusion in the latter is the last thing they want if it means being forced to adopt the decadent culture of the West) but against the very policies which provide them with equal opportunites and equal status in French society. The "youths" burned down schools and sports centres because they perceived these for what they are: attempts to lure them into the culture of Western liberal society. From this point of view all the policies promoting integration and participation, equality, education and employment, especially when they are shrouded in liberal, "tolerant" rhetoric, can only be interpreted as insults to their dignity".

There is an "apology" here that refers to the behaviour of some moronic Australian Muslims. They apparently thought that attacking news cameramen was a good way of showing that their relatives were not terrorists! Brief background on the behaviour referred to can be found here.

Never Yet Melted is a straight-shooting blog with some humorous comments on the riots in "Frankistan"

I have just posted here an email from an Australian of German origin about Germany's bleak leftist future.

Chris Brand has a new lot of postings up -- mainly focusing on France.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. On Social Security see Dick McDonald and for purely Australian news see Australian Politics (mirrored here).

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Practically all policies advocated by the Left create poverty. Leftists get the government to waste vast slabs of the country's labour-force on bureaucracy and paperwork and so load the burden of providing most useful goods and services onto fewer and fewer people. So fewer useful goods and services are produced to go around. That is no accident. The Left love the poor. The Left need the poor so that they can feel good by patronizing and "helping" them. So they do their best to create as many poor people as possible.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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