Yeah, I take this sh*t SERIOUSLY!
Might be a stupid question but that's me.
In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
Hmmm. While I understand the sentiment behind what you're saying here, that is only because I have been around EuroTrib long enough to know how emotional and bitter disagreements about farm subsidies and the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) are around here.
But as someone who did not grow up in Europe and had very little interest in the issue of farm subsidies anyway, it has been a long and not very fun learning curve to understanding why people get so upset about it. And to be honest, I still don't quite get the issue, much less agree fully with the French/EU side.
True, Twank's comment may have been unnecessarily dramatic in magnifying the significance of this particular round of this particular intra-European debate in this particular article. And true, a little reflection and/or a little more informedness (?) might have made him remember or realize that farm subsidies are also an issue the U.S. has the luxury to deal with in a very different manner.
But with all due respect, I'm not quite sure that calling it "not a particularly smart question" was the fairest or most constructive characterization. Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
The deal back then was that farm spending was protected until 2013, not that it would be reduced after that date (that was always the UK spin, but it had no reality except in the "reality-making sense", which doesn't realy work on that topic when the opposition is organised enough.
As to the "rebate," go read what it was about - the UK was trying to keep a rebate formula that would have made Poland and other Central European countries pay it money rather than the other way around. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
