East of England MEP, Stuart Agnew (UKIP) has accused Agriculture Minister Jim Paice of ‘fiddling while Rome burns’ in a response to the Government’s proposals for screening of imported eggs after the EU’s battery cage ban comes into force on 1st January 2012.

Mr Agnew, who farms in Norfolk said:  “Mr Paice is going to have to do a lot more than tinker with this issue.  Clever sound bites are not enough.  Imported shell eggs are a relatively small part of the problem and UV scanning of them will only trap the unwary.  Unfortunately, it will do absolutely nothing to protect British producers from potentially huge amounts of imported egg powder and processed egg products made from battery cage eggs.   I would like to hear his proposals for dealing with this much more important aspect of the problem.

“The Commission is refusing to enforce its own rules because it has no clear idea of where the illegal egg producers will be after 1.1.2012.    The British Government is only belatedly getting involved and has yet to come up with any substantial proposals for a meaningful solution.  In my opinion, with less than four weeks to go until the ban comes into force, Mr Paice is fiddling while Rome burns.”

Notes:

For further information about the Government’s announcement, go to:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16047967

As EU Leaders met in Brussels to discuss the ongoing crisis in Greece, UKIP took to the streets to hammer home the message that the Euro is dead.

UKIP pallbearers, including UKIP Leader Nigel Farage, along with a priest administering the Last Rites, carried a coffin containing the Euro around the streets of the European Parliament.

UKIP has been predicting for years that Greece would be the first casualty of the Euro, and finally the political elite are now seeing this prediction come true.

Whilst Downing Street is trumpeting David Cameron's success at the summit in achieving a commitment that the UK would not be expected to contribute to a second bailout of Greece, UKIP said that in reality the UK was bailing Greece out because of its IMF involvement.

UKIP Leader Nigel Farage said: "David Cameron is being totally disingenuous when he says UK will not contribute to Greek bailout: the UK has already contributed €1.2 billion (£1 billion) in the first Greek bailout (via the IMF) and has agreed to double its contribution to the IMF by giving an extra £9.2 billion," he said.

To date the UK has committed £12.5 billion to help bailout Greece, Portugal and Ireland. UKIP's No More Bailouts campaign continues to gain support, find out more by clicking nomorebailouts.eu