Pity The Romanian Horses

Bit of a stretch for the Telegraph to imply that its the EU's fault when those responsible are

a) the owners of the horses

and

b) those in the Romanian government who decided to ban horse & carts on the road as a quick fix for their RTA stats
 
But equally difficult to blame the owners when the cost of feed/average wages equation is considered. What are they supposed to do?
 
Of course Gareth, I am in no way suggesting or condoning that. I was referring only to their abandonment.
 
But if you read the article properly Gareth you will find it's the Romanian authorities who have blamed the EU.

As we all know, once they make directives they have to be obeyed eventually or the 'satellite' country gets heavily fined, hence the crackdown no doubt. The banning of the horse traffic was to comply with EU directives.

Agreed that this was done with no regard to the absence of any safety net for the animals in question, but it's hard to know how such a poor country could have put such a plan in place. Unless of course the EU gave them a grant for it.
 
Hor Hor very droll

That's a very good piece Gareth and I'll certainly post a link to it up elsewhere, in the hope people will write in

Nevertheless without the EU issuing such interfering directives, which it does non-stop, national politicians wouldn't feel called upon to make so many idiotic and draconian decisions. Domestic policy should imo be entirely a matter for National Parliaments.

PS the next page of the blog you mentioned was also pretty interesting:


http://transylvanianhorseman.typepad.com/transylvanian_horseman/2008/01/lies-damned-lie.html
 
Romania is still in a bad way from the Ceaucescu years - it's got some way to go before you can even begin to compare it with the rest of the EU and that's just on the basis of how it treats it's own people.
 
if only EU directives were so worded :rolleyes:

By the way I've spent a good few hours reading my way aorund the transylvanianhorseman bolg, fascinating stuff. [Anyone been there?]

This is what he writes in reply to an email asking about stress levels in the Romanian countryside compared to his previous life in London:

<< The way in which EU regulations are, slowly but surely, destroying rural life and sustainable farming across Eastern Europe is a still-unfolding tragedy. My near-namesake Sir Julian Rose of the International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside wrote: "How they hate small, independent farmers! I know first hand having spoken with the committee responsible for negotiating Poland's entry into the EU (2004). Quite simply, I was informed, the objective is to remove approx. 1 million small, ecologically friendly, family farmers from the land and replace them with modern monocultural agribusinesses designed to supply the super markets of Europe with bland, tastless and cheap food. In the jargon is is called "restructurisation"."

That, more or less, is what Communism set out to do within the Soviet Bloc. Replace ownership and incentive with obligation and propaganda. Don't think that everyone was equal back then. The leaders and aparatchiks lived well, surrounded by luxury, just as the bosses and aparatchiks of agribusiness do today. Every road seems to lead to some tyranny or other. I was going to write that, perhaps, this is the biggest cause of stress, seeing a way of life destroyed and millions of proud farmers made into wage slaves so that Tesco and Walmart can make more money through selling rubbish to the ignorant. However, this gaping open wound is more of a tragedy, a deep and continual pain that accompanies one throughout every day. Witnessing it is like slowly dying. >>
 
No. Nor do I stay up in the night thinking of Transylvania. Off to the basement now before the sun comes up.
 
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