They catch up - eventually

We picked it up a couple of days ago but now The Times is on the case.

This paper is telling us that France has launched a political campaign to restore food protectionism at the heart of Europe’s agriculture policy as food riots erupt in poor countries and global leaders give warning of the dire consequences of soaring grain prices.

At a high-level EU agriculture meeting in Luxembourg, Michel Barnier, the French agriculture minister, called on Europe to establish a food security plan and to resist further cuts in Europe's agriculture budget.

Barnier said that the EU should not bow to pressure from the World Trade Organisation to reduce further its agricultural subsidies but instead should increase aid to farmers in developing countries.

So the agenda is being set. This is going to get really interesting, not least as Gordon Brown has set his heart on cutting back EU agricultural subsidies. Are we going to see a clash of the titans, or is the UK going to roll over, as usual?

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