It has been verified in strict anonymity by someone who was at the meeting concerned. In 1998, an EU meeting of Agriculture Ministers was told of the European Commission's long-term plans to abolish livestock farming in the UK, and convert it to an area of arable farming only. It can survive for at least two weeks outside a host animal. More than half the UK's abattoirs have been closed in recent years because the EU's directives and regulations have increased costs until they cannot make a living As a result, livestock are shipped hundreds of miles to slaughter, and farms from all over the country have traffic in and out of the same few slaughterhouses Burying infected livestock is banned under EU waste disposal directives. Britain has the best grassland for livestock rearing in Western Europe.
Continental farmers eye it with envy.
No newspaper has ever run this story. I remain etc. No indeed they have not, but they should. After all, so many of them read our column.