>The bestselling book and Hollywood film The Big Short explains the global financial crisis of 2007-08 from the viewpoint of a handful of industry insiders who foresaw the calamity years in advance.
>
>What’s striking isn’t how farsighted they were in predicting the collapse of the house of cards that was the US sub-prime mortgage market, but how inevitable that collapse was.
>
>The warning signs were clear that it was built on sand, but it was an inconvenient truth ignored by those thinking only about their own short-term gain. …
>
>([🪞](https://archive.ph/rguQB))
Our government is ignoring thigs? Who would believe it ….
Farmers in the UK are to paid not to produce food.
>Farmers and landowners in England are to be paid to rewild countryside under plans to restore 300,000 hectares of natural habitat in the next 20 years.
>Environment Secretary George Eustice announced farmers will receive cash for making space for nature by planting trees, making ponds and creating wildflower meadows on unproductive parts of their land.
>Successful bids, which will cover landscapes of between 500 and 5,000 hectares (1,200 to 12,000 acres), will be chosen by a team of experts over the summer.
5000 hectares is 50 sq km, the City of Cambridge is 40 sq km, 300,000 hectares is 3000 sq km, London is 1,500 sq km. That’s a lot of land.
Who for one second thinks that a large landowner or farmer, especially one who is struggling to turn a profit, won’t take-up the opportunity to be paid to convert farmland in to rewilded land?
>On the other is that of Tory free-marketeers such as Lord Frost and Jacob Rees-Mogg, who wish to see the harshest market forces rip through an unsubsidised countryside, with the cheapest, lowest-quality food sourced from the four corners of the globe, and who care not at all for welfare or the environment.
–
While on the subject:
>[Peter Foster](https://nitter.net/pmdfoster):
>
>Bookmark this tweet. It’s not “The Guardian” that is worried about the dangers of not having full checks on EU food imports after #Brexit, it’s the flipping Food Standards Agency…and the British Veterinary Association, the National Pig Association, the National Farmers’ Union/1
>
>>Jacob Rees-Mogg (@Jacob_Rees_Mogg) [Jun 27, 2022](https://nitter.net/Jacob_Rees_Mogg/status/1541464495511437312#m)
>>
>>The Guardian thinks the EU is dangerous.
>>
>>[*Guardian: UK faces ‘significant risks’ to quality of food imported post-Brexit, says report*](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jun/27/uk-faces-significant-risks-to-quality-of-food-imported-post-brexit-says-report)
>>
>>*Better controls on EU goods needed as impact of Covid and Russia-Ukraine war also put pressure on standards*
>
>The point here is that professional folk advising the government are worried…as I reported last month the FSA has already warned pig industry of ‘white vans’ of illegal pig meat entering from Romania, with risk of African Swine Fever:
>
>>*They sounded the alarm after industry insiders revealed the UK Food Standards Agency had recently warned pig farmers of illegal “white van” shipments of pork meat coming to Britain from Romania — an EU country currently battling a surging outbreak of African swine fever in its animals.*
>>
>>*Zoe Davies, chief executive of the National Pig Association, a British trade body, said a UK outbreak of African swine fever — potentially unleashed by pigs being fed with infected meat — would pose an existential threat to the industry, which exports to more than 40 countries and is worth £1.6bn a year.*
>>
>>*“We know that this is an accident waiting to happen, because it’s an accident that has already happened before,” she said. In 2000 an outbreak of a related disease, classical swine fever, was transmitted to Britain via infected pork products.*
>>
>>([*FT: UK farmers sound alarm on lack of border checks*](https://www.ft.com/content/35f54034-6551-49d9-bf36-ed463477cbca) – ([🪞](https://archive.ph/eiBca)))
>
>If you advertise the fact that you’re leaving the front door open, don’t be suprised if a crook walks through it. As Zoe Davies of Nat Pig Assoc [@Mrs_Pig](https://nitter.net/Mrs_Pig) says, “We know that this is an accident waiting to happen, because it’s an accident that has already happened before”
>
>What about the vets? Well, BVA [@BritishVets](https://nitter.net/BritishVets) vice president James Russell [@uttoxeterjames](https://nitter.net/uttoxeterjames) is “deeply concerned” about Rees-Mogg’s quips about fish-fingers posing no dangers…which totally misses the point:
>
>>*But the British Veterinary Association, a trade body, described the move as “deeply misguided” and urged ministers to “abandon” their plans or risk causing “significant damage” to the country’s food and farming industries.*
>>
>>*James Russell, senior vice-president at BVA, said the veterinary community remained “deeply concerned” about the risks posed by delaying the checks.*
>>
>>*“No one says we should barcode individual fish fingers, but we need to know where those animal proteins are coming from and they are not going to expose UK stock to disease,” he added.*
>
And Minette Batters, [@Minette_Batters](https://nitter.net/Minette_Batters) the NFU boss called the borders decision “astounding” and “unacceptable”, adding checks were “absolutely crucial to the nation’s biosecurity, animal health and food safety”
>
>>*FT:* [*UK food standards bodies warn ministers over checks for EU imports*]( https://www.ft.com/content/fabb9bc3-52ac-4878-86ec-e64a6937ac6f) – ([🪞](https://archive.ph/YMP58))
>>
>>*Review finds post-Brexit delay in establishing border controls for high-risk produce poses safety threat*
>
>Now the Government says that it will save consumers £1bn by reducing checks, and that its building a whizzy new digital border with fewer checks for 2024/25…but that’s a lot of expertise for jolly japes Jacob to be scoffing at as he takes a calculated risk on safety
>
>Because while the FSA says there is no evidence that standards of food imports had fallen, its chair Professor Susan Jebb said risks of a safety incident were rising…to quote her in full…
>
>Jebb: “The longer the UK operates without assurance that products from the EU meet our high food and feed safety standards, the less confident we can be that we can effectively identify potential safety incidents.” I’ll just leave it there. /ENDS
>
>[Jun 28, 2022 • 8:16 AM](https://nitter.net/pmdfoster/status/1541681955405791233) – ([🪞](https://archive.ph/H0gp2))
5 comments
>The bestselling book and Hollywood film The Big Short explains the global financial crisis of 2007-08 from the viewpoint of a handful of industry insiders who foresaw the calamity years in advance.
>
>What’s striking isn’t how farsighted they were in predicting the collapse of the house of cards that was the US sub-prime mortgage market, but how inevitable that collapse was.
>
>The warning signs were clear that it was built on sand, but it was an inconvenient truth ignored by those thinking only about their own short-term gain. …
>
>([🪞](https://archive.ph/rguQB))
Our government is ignoring thigs? Who would believe it ….
Farmers in the UK are to paid not to produce food.
>Farmers and landowners in England are to be paid to rewild countryside under plans to restore 300,000 hectares of natural habitat in the next 20 years.
>Environment Secretary George Eustice announced farmers will receive cash for making space for nature by planting trees, making ponds and creating wildflower meadows on unproductive parts of their land.
>Successful bids, which will cover landscapes of between 500 and 5,000 hectares (1,200 to 12,000 acres), will be chosen by a team of experts over the summer.
5000 hectares is 50 sq km, the City of Cambridge is 40 sq km, 300,000 hectares is 3000 sq km, London is 1,500 sq km. That’s a lot of land.
Who for one second thinks that a large landowner or farmer, especially one who is struggling to turn a profit, won’t take-up the opportunity to be paid to convert farmland in to rewilded land?
https://www.itv.com/news/2022-01-06/farmers-and-landowners-to-be-paid-to-rewild-english-countryside
>On the other is that of Tory free-marketeers such as Lord Frost and Jacob Rees-Mogg, who wish to see the harshest market forces rip through an unsubsidised countryside, with the cheapest, lowest-quality food sourced from the four corners of the globe, and who care not at all for welfare or the environment.
–
While on the subject:
>[Peter Foster](https://nitter.net/pmdfoster):
>
>Bookmark this tweet. It’s not “The Guardian” that is worried about the dangers of not having full checks on EU food imports after #Brexit, it’s the flipping Food Standards Agency…and the British Veterinary Association, the National Pig Association, the National Farmers’ Union/1
>
>>Jacob Rees-Mogg (@Jacob_Rees_Mogg) [Jun 27, 2022](https://nitter.net/Jacob_Rees_Mogg/status/1541464495511437312#m)
>>
>>The Guardian thinks the EU is dangerous.
>>
>>[*Guardian: UK faces ‘significant risks’ to quality of food imported post-Brexit, says report*](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jun/27/uk-faces-significant-risks-to-quality-of-food-imported-post-brexit-says-report)
>>
>>*Better controls on EU goods needed as impact of Covid and Russia-Ukraine war also put pressure on standards*
>
>The point here is that professional folk advising the government are worried…as I reported last month the FSA has already warned pig industry of ‘white vans’ of illegal pig meat entering from Romania, with risk of African Swine Fever:
>
>>*They sounded the alarm after industry insiders revealed the UK Food Standards Agency had recently warned pig farmers of illegal “white van” shipments of pork meat coming to Britain from Romania — an EU country currently battling a surging outbreak of African swine fever in its animals.*
>>
>>*Zoe Davies, chief executive of the National Pig Association, a British trade body, said a UK outbreak of African swine fever — potentially unleashed by pigs being fed with infected meat — would pose an existential threat to the industry, which exports to more than 40 countries and is worth £1.6bn a year.*
>>
>>*“We know that this is an accident waiting to happen, because it’s an accident that has already happened before,” she said. In 2000 an outbreak of a related disease, classical swine fever, was transmitted to Britain via infected pork products.*
>>
>>([*FT: UK farmers sound alarm on lack of border checks*](https://www.ft.com/content/35f54034-6551-49d9-bf36-ed463477cbca) – ([🪞](https://archive.ph/eiBca)))
>
>If you advertise the fact that you’re leaving the front door open, don’t be suprised if a crook walks through it. As Zoe Davies of Nat Pig Assoc [@Mrs_Pig](https://nitter.net/Mrs_Pig) says, “We know that this is an accident waiting to happen, because it’s an accident that has already happened before”
>
>What about the vets? Well, BVA [@BritishVets](https://nitter.net/BritishVets) vice president James Russell [@uttoxeterjames](https://nitter.net/uttoxeterjames) is “deeply concerned” about Rees-Mogg’s quips about fish-fingers posing no dangers…which totally misses the point:
>
>>*But the British Veterinary Association, a trade body, described the move as “deeply misguided” and urged ministers to “abandon” their plans or risk causing “significant damage” to the country’s food and farming industries.*
>>
>>*James Russell, senior vice-president at BVA, said the veterinary community remained “deeply concerned” about the risks posed by delaying the checks.*
>>
>>*“No one says we should barcode individual fish fingers, but we need to know where those animal proteins are coming from and they are not going to expose UK stock to disease,” he added.*
>
And Minette Batters, [@Minette_Batters](https://nitter.net/Minette_Batters) the NFU boss called the borders decision “astounding” and “unacceptable”, adding checks were “absolutely crucial to the nation’s biosecurity, animal health and food safety”
>
>>*FT:* [*UK food standards bodies warn ministers over checks for EU imports*]( https://www.ft.com/content/fabb9bc3-52ac-4878-86ec-e64a6937ac6f) – ([🪞](https://archive.ph/YMP58))
>>
>>*Review finds post-Brexit delay in establishing border controls for high-risk produce poses safety threat*
>
>Now the Government says that it will save consumers £1bn by reducing checks, and that its building a whizzy new digital border with fewer checks for 2024/25…but that’s a lot of expertise for jolly japes Jacob to be scoffing at as he takes a calculated risk on safety
>
>Because while the FSA says there is no evidence that standards of food imports had fallen, its chair Professor Susan Jebb said risks of a safety incident were rising…to quote her in full…
>
>Jebb: “The longer the UK operates without assurance that products from the EU meet our high food and feed safety standards, the less confident we can be that we can effectively identify potential safety incidents.” I’ll just leave it there. /ENDS
>
>[Jun 28, 2022 • 8:16 AM](https://nitter.net/pmdfoster/status/1541681955405791233) – ([🪞](https://archive.ph/H0gp2))
Obviously.jpeg