Unregulated meat imports.

[Widgetone]

I started a subscription some 30 years ago. At the time as a young man of no consequence (and today an old man of no consequence) I concluded the only way I could have a say in society and hope in any way to influence and keep democracy and administration of society honest was to rely on parody and satire in the form of Private Eye. And the well educated and eloquent who at the time wrote it. I had been introduced to Punch magazine at my secondary school where in the school library was a copy of Punch and every day the daily papers - which we were encouraged but not forced to read. My one regret is I never retained all those copies. I used to give them away or even put them in the bin - what a foolish thing to do - with hindsight. I was listening to a Ian Hislop interview over Xmas about the Eye. He said it is in rude health, which pleased me with around 250k copies sold. Numbers had fallen away but risen again in recent times. My daughter as taken to it and even got her office to start a subscription.

Agree.
I think the Covid era and the reports from 'MD' about the beloved NHS boosted circulation no end.
Matters Brexit also a bonus. ( note to self, I may just have stumbled across a Brexie bonus!!!! )

 

[Oldmacdonald]

Private Eye can be good, but Hislop is known as a spiteful, priggish little hypocrite - he's pushed out and sacked all and any who have potential to replace him as editor; 28 years in place, yet he criticises others who try to 'cling to power' elsewhere.

Which I'm sure would be relevant if PE was a democratically elected body voted for by the people.

 

[BrianV]

Just watched Harry's farm video, where he is now farming about 125 acres, from 300 a few years ago, all the rest being in habitat schemes. If this is replicated throughout the UK (remember here in Wales the Welsh Assembly want us to plant 10% of our land in trees, a further 10% in habitat and the whole country is now a NVZ) we will hardly produce any food! Bearing this in mind, I can see why the government is dragging it's feet over controlling substandard food imports.

Tories are out of control.

 

[neilo]

How the hell can you have unregulated meat imports ?

don’t you have Customs, or Border Controls ?

don’t you have very clear & strict import regulations with your trading partners ?

in my experience as a producer in a country that relies about 75% on export agricultural markets, I can assure you very much that it is the importing country who sets the rules

at least, it is for any country that my produce ends up

i can’t believe that the UK has lower standards or controls on imports than India, Bangladesh, China, numerous middle eastern or southeast Asian countries ?

We have import protocols, the current govt have just chosen to repeatedly delay implementing them. A ridiculous state of affairs.

 

[BrianV]

We have import protocols, the current govt have just chosen top repeatedly delay implementing them. A ridiculous state of affairs.

I'm afraid the UK is now yet again on a downward spiral to become a third world country rather than the super power it laughingly seems to think it is.

 

[Bury the Trash]

How the hell can you have unregulated meat imports ?

don’t you have Customs, or Border Controls ?

don’t you have very clear & strict import regulations with your trading partners ?

in my experience as a producer in a country that relies about 75% on export agricultural markets, I can assure you very much that it is the importing country who sets the rules

at least, it is for any country that my produce ends up

i can’t believe that the UK has lower standards or controls on imports than India, Bangladesh, China, numerous middle eastern or southeast Asian countries ?

Unbelievable but true.

 

[devonbeef]

sends shivers down my spine in relation to potential foot and mouth being brought in.Its a ticking timebomb

 

[Farmer Roy]

Biosecurity issues are a VERY real threat with unregulated imports

 

[Bury the Trash]

The NFU should be all over this .

 

[Farmer Roy]

The NFU should be all over this .

you mean your representative / lobby organisation isn’t ?

Unbelievable

 

[Bury the Trash]

you mean your representative / lobby organisation isn’t ?

Unbelievable

No they arent they are weak and esily distracted / corrupted been like that for as long as i can remmber, why would they change , when they continue to be backed by wealthy Continued membership payers who can keep forking out for no return,trouble is thya arent helping all the other real farmers who dont have few hundred pounds to spare .

genuine fear could stop some i guess , from stopping their membership , that's natural, and forgivable i suppose.

hey Ho.

 

[Widgetone]

We also have to notify Port Health and Trading standards prior to arrival. They don't all work a 5 day week!
I'm sure the smugglers forget to speak with them..

 

[neilo]

you mean your representative / lobby organisation isn’t ?

Unbelievable

No, @Bury the Trash says they aren't. That's his opinion, not necessarily a fact.

No they arent they are weak and esily distracted / corrupted been like that for as long as i can remmber, why would they change , when they continue to be backed by wealthy Continued membership payers who can keep forking out for no return,trouble is thya arent helping all the other real farmers who dont have few hundred pounds to spare .

genuine fear could stop some i guess , from stopping their membership , that's natural, and forgivable i suppose.

hey Ho.

I know it goes against the grain on TFF, but any evidence for your claim that NFU haven't been lobbying govt over this, as well as lobbying for no imports coming in below UK production standards?

Have 'other' farming unions been doing anything to try to stop this at all? Anything?

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

How the hell can you have unregulated meat imports ?

don’t you have Customs, or Border Controls ?

don’t you have very clear & strict import regulations with your trading partners ?

in my experience as a producer in a country that relies about 75% on export agricultural markets, I can assure you very much that it is the importing country who sets the rules

at least, it is for any country that my produce ends up

i can’t believe that the UK has lower standards or controls on imports than India, Bangladesh, China, numerous middle eastern or southeast Asian countries ?

Unfortunately just because Australia takes biosecurity really seriously, doesn't mean everyone else does. That's why we have periodic outbreaks of things like foot and mouth. (The last one cost over £3bn).

Bushmeat is said to regularly enter the UK unhindered. I personally have heard first hand accounts of people bringing suitcases full of fillet steak from Zimbabwe. My niece brought a sheep skull back from a Greek island without any problems.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

you mean your representative / lobby organisation isn’t ?

Unbelievable

Unfortunately, our main trade association is also funded by the supermarkets and any other participants in the corporate food system they can get money off.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

I know it goes against the grain on TFF, but any evidence for your claim that NFU haven't been lobbying govt over this, as well as lobbying for no imports coming in below UK production standards?

There's certainly very little evidence that nfu "lobbying" has had any effect.

 

[Bury the Trash]

Unfortunately just because Australia takes biosecurity really seriously, doesn't mean everyone else does. That's why we have periodic outbreaks of things like foot and mouth. (The last one cost over £3bn).

Bushmeat is said to regularly enter the UK unhindered. I personally have heard first hand accounts of people bringing suitcases full of fillet steak from Zimbabwe. My niece brought a sheep skull back from a Greek island without any problems.

Exactly.


and instead of shoving that up the governments arse every 6mths the nfu started up red tractor which now wants a 'Greener farms commitment' that will look really good in another F &M outbreak and finally shut Livestock farming uk down for good.

 

[yoki]

How the hell can you have unregulated meat imports ?

Another consequence of the EU era when we had no control over anything, therefore lost the ability to look after ourselves.

Why would you have systems in place to control movement of anything across your borders when you don't have any authority to enforce them, as it was during EU membership.

Unfortunately it would appear that the relearning process is taking a lot longer than it should.

 

[Danllan]

Which I'm sure would be relevant if PE was a democratically elected body voted for by the people.

Democratically elected bodies have, by definition, an inbuilt obsolescence, in the case of the Commons that is five years. Hislop has for many years taken the self-contradictory view that the Eye is a genuine national institution, but that it isn't part of the establishment...

So if, as Hislop has claimed (and indeed has traded on when in need of funds) the Eye is a national institution which he has been heading for nearly three decades, it and he are self-evidently part of the establishment.

He has also made frequent attacks against other parts of the media for a) editorial dogma, and b) domination of a given part of the media (e.g. a particular newspaper or a TV news dep't) by certain individuals - his usual targets being editors... On many, many occasions he has also called out - often entirely correctly - hypocrisy in people in the public eye...

And, as well as politicians and their minions and acolytes, he has also had digs at people in business, charities, the Law, entertainment and sport, and religionists. In fact he has been honest / unpleasant about members of pretty much any given group you could think of. Not one bit of which I have any problem whatsoever with, when it is based on fact.

I'm not saying that he should be treated in any way as a special or exceptional case, quite the opposite. I merely state that the standards he insists must be applied to others, should be applied to him too.

 

[Tubbylew]

Tories are out of control.

"It doesn't seem to matter who I vote for, the government always get in"