The Great British Import Scandal. The start of a new beginning?

Over the past few months, there have been revelation upon revelation in two main areas. Firstly, the sexual abuses committed by trusted members of parliament, celebrities and people within the CofE. This has mainly been uncovered by victims, triggered by the Jimmy Saville investigation. This is good for the rest of us as this as abuse of power may finally be starting to crumble. Could this be an intentional weeding out of the scum by a certain part of the government?

The other issue which has been uncovered recently is the Great Meat Scandal. We all know about the horse meat saga and then pork being found in beef products. Well today I came across this article

Legal loophole allows banned mechanical meat in UK sausages

The BBC has learned that European meat suppliers are using a loophole in the law to sell a banned low quality material to UK sausage makers. E-mails indicate that suppliers are selling a form of mechanically recovered residue under different names so that it can be legally termed meat in Britain. One of the UK's biggest sausage suppliers admitted that some of this meat is in their products but where used it is always declared. Another manufacturer told the BBC he believes the product is being widely used in Britain. In April 2012 the European Union told the British government that a type of mechanically separated meat (MSM) used across the UK could no longer count towards the meat content of a product.

Full Article

This got me thinking. There could well be a conspiracy here, not just underhand trading and fraud. The conspiracy however is from a group (I'm not sure who) that are bringing all of this into the limelight for the sake of British farmers. Is this really as widespread as it's made out to be. Either way, I believe that this could be an intentional ploy by the 'PTB' to move the British people away from cheap imported meat and make a move back towards British meat and butchers. The purpose of this is to revive the farming economy in the UK which is currently in disarray, protect the future of some independent traders and possibly even to aid in our exit from the EU. The less we rely on products from overseas, the easier it will be for us to sustain ourselves with only essential imports.

Could we be seeing a start of the recovery of the old British economy where we rely on home grown products to boost employment, reduce imports and make us more self-sufficient?

It would certainly make a change from all the 'doom and gloom' conspiracies and could at last be a 'conspiracy' in the name of the preservation of our nation. Are the government covering this up to protect themselves from wrecking their immediate relationship wit Europe? If so, we will be likely seeing more 'scandals' in different sectors over the coming months. Watch this space?

If you ever watched the wartime farm documentary series you would of seen the demands put upon farmers to increase yields year in year out during the second world war and how sudden demands drove some farmers to suicide/armed shoot outs

The real problem is that to gear up the country for more production of lets say beef livestock there has to be the feed grown or a lot of pasture land for them to graze and we don't have that much space in this country and with there being production problems in the USA for grain etc due to weird weather and the Chinese buying everything up the price of beef keeps going up

With all the current scandals it does seem to me like there's a group or force if you will, that's trying to get rid of the old establishment. Which given the light of the scandals can only be a good thing.

Strange to type this, but, during WW 2, any illegal meat found by the ministry of food inspectors was made unfit for human consumption! how mad was that? (this is from memory by the way, from a long gone TV docudramer)

The same thing occurred to me. I read that Tesco's had cancelled/not renewed a contract with British Farmers.
Next thing, Tesco were at the top of the list when the meat scandal broke. There are forces at work here.

Originally posted by KBadger
With all the current scandals it does seem to me like there's a group or force if you will, that's trying to get rid of the old establishment. Which given the light of the scandals can only be a good thing.

This is the thing. But who would be responsible for such a program?

With regards to not having enough space for efficient farming, that is highly unlikely to be the case. We have a rich history of farming and if you see our land from above, it is like a patchwork quilt of agricultural land. Living in the city, it's easy to sometimes forget how much countryside and open space this country has.

There is also the push for responsible fishing happening at the moment and we are about to pass new laws to reduce the amount of dead fish being thrown back into the sea. If we farm responsibly and the supermarkets don't have full control over what we buy and at what price, we could potentially see a massive turnaround.

Think about it, if more production is brought back into the UK and at the same time, demand for British products increases, it will create thousands of jobs, reducing unemployment increasing the GDP and allowing more cash earned in the UK to be pumped back into the economy.

There will also be a reduction in transport costs as the miles a product has to travel is less which could ultimately lead to lower costs. Although products on the shelf won't necessarily be cheaper, they won't be as volatile and we will be getting a better product for our pounds.

Relying less on the EU, we can become independent again (of course there will always be import and export of certain products) so we won't become reclusive but we will then be more resilient against troubles overseas.

It could potentially be the catalyst for change in other areas such as immigration and the whole social structure of families in the UK. It could all be fantasy but even if partly true, what is going on at the moment would make perfect sense.

reply to post by fiftyfifty


I have no opinion about a potential British & EU trade conspiracy. It's one of your statements I've quoted below that caught my attention.

If we farm responsibly and the supermarkets don't have full control over what we buy and at what price, we could potentially see a massive turnaround.

How are the prices of food goods at British supermarkets currently determined?

Farmers and trade unions will of course be using this to there advantage and will no doubt be responsible for the releasing of this "news" that no doubt, A LOT of people already knew. Already local butchers are seeing an upswing in profits as people become have become distrustful of big super markets. Bad thing is cost of food will sky rocket, people buy cheap food for a reason, it is all they can afford.

Current production line of "food" is total nonsense! If you incorporate animals - as was standard some 70 years ago - you do not need synthetic or even mineral fertilizers. Smaller farms need more human power but less fossil fuels and less pesticides. Same effect if you trade locally. There is high unemployment now right? Lot of people want to work and many of them want to work at country (many of them are bit naive, I know). Nation should be self-sufficient and it starts with food. Localization of food production/consumption will lower nations fossil fuel consumption. It is in interest of many but will deprive profits to few - those few are in power now. Fencing off commons by aristocratic/clerical landlords was crime against nation. BTW it also started popularity of football - it was way how to collectively and playfully destroy just erected fencing.
Please do not refrain "The tragedy of commons", it is just propaganda BS.

One of the biggest issues, and I have been saying this for many years, is the price fixing and massive over-production that goes hand in hand with it.
I remember seeing a report several years ago about food waste and at that time, Tesco's alone were destroying about 5000 tons of meat as it passed it's sell-by date. Now think about that a minute, and then add likely similar amounts by the other big supermarket chains. Then think about what else is produced, unsold, then destroyed.

I know they use the excuse that it's to give the consumer "choice", but at what cost to the environment?

Another issue is the globalisation, buying the goods from suppliers outside of the UK as it's cheaper. Well, as we have seen, there is a damned good reason it's cheaper, but hey, never let a bit of dodgy food get in the way of profits! It all comes dowen to consumerism and money making running rampant. Profits are the name of the game whatever the long term cost to the planet and possible health of consumers.

reply to post by Maxatoria


The UK can, in theory, support around 60-70% of our current food needs on it's own (100% in wartime and rationing) and (surprisingly) only 7% of land in the UK is actually urbanised, the rest is "green"...

Surprising BBC article

The only thing that has caused any "decline" (and that depends on the farming sector) in UK farming is solely down to price and the supermarkets.

reply to post by Kovenov


They are determined by the supermarkets. Supermarkets have an almost monopoly on food sales in the UK. There is an ongoing problem in the UK with the supermarkets currently paying farmers too little at the moment for vegetables. Meat is very expensive. I believe.good quality lamb is say $25 a kilo.

reply to post by fiftyfifty


We've got over 3 food banks opening up every week here in the UK. I hear from a fairly reliable source that Police forces across the UK have been advised that people caught shoplifting food are not to be arrested, but taken to the nearest food bank.The Gov is in denial about the level of food poverty in the UK and no longer calls it such, now its a "nutritional recession". I kid you not. I think what's going on here is the old problem/reaction/solution at play. The problem is "oh dear look at all this [expensive] low quality food we have" the reaction is "oh dear, look at all this food poverty/nutritional deficiency we have, something needs to be done". The solution, GMO.

Bet ya.

Just like the Para-Olympics. I remember a few previous Para-Olympics and cannot remember there ever being such a big deal being made. The whole thing was propaganda. Show a bunch of disabled people winning gold medals thereby limiting the possibility for other disabled people to claim their disability prevents them from doing this or doing that. ATOS (A sponsor): "Hey if that down's syndrome kid can win a gold medel for his country what excuse do you have for not having a job?". Look at this in the context of current benefits reform and it paints quite a picture.

People need to take a close look at what's happening here at the moment. There's shenanigans afoot. Shady

Originally posted by threewisemonkeys
We've got over 3 food banks opening up every week here in the UK. I hear from a fairly reliable source that Police forces across the UK have been advised that people caught shoplifting food are not to be arrested, but taken to the nearest food bank.The Gov is in denial about the level of food poverty in the UK and no longer calls it such, now its a "nutritional recession". I kid you not. I think what's going on here is the old problem/reaction/solution at play. The problem is "oh dear look at all this [expensive] low quality food we have" the reaction is "oh dear, look at all this food poverty/nutritional deficiency we have, something needs to be done". The solution, GMO.

Now, I don't know about levels of food poverty etc, but I do now that a great many people seem to think fresh, decent food is more expensive than crap, fast food. It isn't. We have a problem in this country of food ignorance where many simply cannot or will not cook from scratch, citing many reasons as to why suck as they are "too busy" or "cannot afford it", which is all bogus.

Originally posted by threewisemonkeys
Just like the Para-Olympics. I remember a few previous Para-Olympics and cannot remember there ever being such a big deal being made. The whole thing was propaganda. Show a bunch of disabled people winning gold medals thereby limiting the possibility for other disabled people to claim their disability prevents them from doing this or doing that. ATOS (A sponsor): "Hey if that down's syndrome kid can win a gold medel for his country what excuse do you have for not having a job?". Look at this in the context of current benefits reform and it paints quite a picture.

That's a very cynical outlook. If you looked properly, however, you would have noticed that the Paralympic drive in 2012 was because it was the biggest paralympic games, ever.

You are taking away the achievements of those athletes by trying to propose it is some evil ploy to make it look like disabled people can get out to work. I don't think anyone with an ounce of common sense or decency would have out those two thoughts together.

Also, you are forgetting that the Olympics were planned before 2005, well before anyone saw the crunch coming and also well before Tony Blair won his third term, much less the Tories getting in after the 2010 election.

In short, stupid idea.