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DR - If that's the benefit we get from the CAP then I'm laughing out loud. I really am. That would simply be a ridiculous stretch of the truth to say we're benefiting in that way. Plus there's not a peck of OSR in Strathspey till you get to the absolute lower reaches. I'm sure it's the same for a lot of Highland beekeepers.
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Maybe it helps to fund the bee inspectors and SASA or SAC? All of great benefit to hobby beekeepers.
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And even more of a benefit to commercial beekeepers if the presentation on the foulbrood outbreaks by our bee inspector is anything to go by. By the sounds of it most of at least one summer spent by a team of inspectors looking at many hundreds of commercial beekeepers' hives in Aberdeenshire, Angus and the Highlands - the costs met by the taxpayer must have run into 10s of thousands.
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I agree with you Drumgerry therefor I can only conclude that our glorious leader has slipped his leash (only Kidding Phil)
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I don't mean it to seem like I'm trying to make Phil a scapegoat for this £200k subsidy. I'm really not. It just beggars belief that the politicians could have got this so wrong and no-one from the SBA is saying anything (at least till I can make contact with Richard Lochhead!). And all off the back of some effective lobbying.
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Just because things don't necessarily go the way we might want doesn't mean folk aren't negotiating, lobbying and the rest in the background, surely?
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That's an optimistic take on things Trog and I hope you're right. But the silence on this issue has been deafening. And that comment about hobby beekeepers and the CAP is not very helpful - sorry Phil. Maybe it needs a statement from the SBA on just what, if anything, is being done on our behalf. Communication with the membership is not a strong point it must be said.
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The bee farmers Ass is pretty powerful it seems
Drumgerry is right though there is an assumption that any spending on beekeeping should be welcomed
Unfortunately that's not true in the case of spending Gov cash on businesses who could insure themselves
When the lay person reads £200K is going to bee Farmers they rightly think "what the Heck's that all about"
Employment -- no
Exports no -- imports yes
Pollination benefits - no
Community -no
Fact is there are no benefits to the Scottish economy whatsoever just a few individuals so it should be opposed
If the cash is to be spent it should go to something useful and beneficial to Scotland and Bees
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Why isn't the SBA as powerful I wonder?
Pretty much in agreement with you there DR. Bee farming does provide a few jobs though - maybe 50 or so Scotland-wide? Most seasonal. Not £200k subsidy's worth. Maybe a bit of pollination benefit as well. And doesn't Murray sell his honey to packers so not a distinctive Scottish product being produced there.
And I think you've hit the nail on the head with "there is an assumption that any spending on beekeeping should be welcomed". To the politicians they've done their bit. They've helped the bees. They get to say so to the bee-hungry media. Never mind they've probably done the equivalent of using twenty pound notes to light your smoker.
£200k could have achieved so much with a bit of vision behind it. Sad.:(
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Whoops...think I might be turning into Doris with all the bold bits in the last post! :rolleyes: