Sex for tuition fees anyone? Students being offered up to £15,000 a year to cover cost of studies, in exchange for having sex with strangers

Students are being offered up to £15,000 a year to cover their university studies in exchange for having sex with a stranger, an undercover investigation by The Independent has revealed.

The website SponsorAScholar.co.uk claims to have arranged for 1,400 women aged between 17 and 24 to be funded through their studies by wealthy businessmen seeking “discreet adventures”.

But in a secretly filmed encounter with an Independent reporter posing as a student, a male “assessor” from the website asked that she undertake a “practical assessment” with him at a nearby flat to prove “the level of intimacy” she was prepared to give before being permitted to find a sponsor online.

He said this was required for “quality control”. He told her that the more she was prepared to do, the more money she would get.

The website’s claims to have a roster of hundreds of students could not be verified. The reporter asked for evidence that scholarships had been awarded and was told that she would have to come back to the flat with the man.

But the requirement for potential “scholars” to submit to a “practical assessment” raises fears that young women students may have been exploited.

The elaborately constructed site gives the appearance of operating in the grey area in Britain’s sex laws which allow escort agencies to function legitimately by offering introductions between clients and sex workers.

Young women facing financial hardship brought on by the rise in the cost of studying were urged tonight not to be tempted into using the website.

Rachel Griffin, director of the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, which promotes personal safety, said: “Meeting a complete stranger in private could be highly dangerous at any time but when it is in connection with a scheme like this, the risks are sky-high.” The National Union of Students accused those behind the website of seeking to “capitalise on the poverty and financial hardship of women students”.

SponsorAScholar.co.uk offers young women “up to 100% of your Tuition Fees” in return for two-hour sessions with men in hotel rooms or private flats up to four times per term.

“Because of the considerable sums of money our sponsors are offering in scholarship, they tell us that they have expectations of a high level of sexual intimacy with their chosen student,” the website says.

During the meeting between the “assessor” and our reporter – which our reporter insisted must begin in a public place, choosing a fast food restaurant in south London – the man said: “The more you’re prepared to do, the more interest you're going to get, obviously the more sponsorship amount you’re going to get for that.”

SponsorAScholar.co.uk uses a false company and VAT number belonging to the legitimate dating site Match.com. A spokesman for the company said: “The website is not affiliated with Match.com in any way and we are in the process of contacting them to legally require that all references to Match.com are removed immediately.”

SponsorAScholar.co.uk purports to be registered at the former address of a senior academic from a leading British university, and the man claiming to be the assessor used the lecturer’s name in the encounter with the reporter – as well as in email correspondence and on his answerphone message.

The academic, approached by The Independent last Friday, said he had no idea that the website had been registered to his name and former address. He did not recognise the man in our undercover footage. Yesterday he added that he had now contacted the police to report the matter.

The meeting took place at the Powis Street branch of McDonalds in Woolwich, south London, last Thursday at 6.45pm.

As other diners tucked into burgers, the “assessor”, who said he lived near Leicester, bought the reporter coffee and sought to reassure her that the prospective “sponsors” had been vetted and were safe to meet.

Our reporter asked the “assessor” whether the “sponsors” have health checks. He answered: “We do invite them to do that, not all of them choose to do that but you can choose to have protection or not have protection on that basis.”

He described the need for her to first of all have the “practical assessment” with him as like “quality control for us”, adding: “Whatever you put on your sheet what level of intimacy you’re prepared to go into, you and I will go through that today. We’ve got a questionnaire we’ll go through, your likes and dislikes and the kind of thing you’re comfortable doing.”

He added: “We have to do that, to make sure when we put you in front of your sponsor you’re confident in doing the things you said you would do.”

The man added: “You see what you’re trying to do is attract a certain level of sponsorship, you don’t want to go up there saying you know you’re not even going to hold hands type of thing… cause you’re not going to attract any interest at all.”

After the initial 10-minute meeting – which our reporter ended by saying that she would like to reconsider his proposal rather than immediately follow him to the nearby flat for the “practical” – the man walked back to a large block of flats around the corner where he said he was staying on the fifth floor.

SponsorAScholar.co.uk claims to have been operating since 2006, but the website was registered earlier this year.

The site claims to charge “sponsors” a £100 fee and to take three per cent commission from the final “scholarship” total.

When a male reporter approached the site as a potential sponsor, however, he was told there was a “waiting list” and would be contacted in the new year. By contrast the meeting with the woman reporter posing as the female student was immediately arranged.

The “assessor” said our reporter’s decision not to go back to the flat with him was “ok”, adding: “I’ve got other candidates I need to see this evening”, before asking again if she wanted to “do the questionnaire or stop now”.

After being told stop, he suggested meeting on 13 December in Stratford, south-east London: “If we don’t do it tonight I can’t fit you in until then.”

Attempts to confirm the true identity of the “assessor” have since proved unsuccessful.

The man was today no longer returning repeated telephone calls, emails or text messages from The Independent.

Kelley Temple, NUS Women’s Officer, said: “It appears to be… exploiting the fact that women students are in dire financial situations in pursuit of an education.”

SponsorAScholar.co.uk had been changed  tonight to say simply: “Sorry website unavailable for maintenance”.

Parkinson's sufferer wins six figure payout from GlaxoSmithKline over drug that turned him into a 'gay sex and gambling addict'

A French appeals court has upheld a ruling ordering GlaxoSmithKline to pay €197,000 (£159,000) to a man who claimed a drug given to him to treat Parkinson's turned him into a 'gay sex addict'.

Didier Jambart, 52, was prescribed the drug Requip in 2003 to treat his illness.

Within two years of beginning to take the drug the married father-of-two says he developed an uncontrollable passion for gay sex and gambling - at one point even selling his children's toys to fund his addiction.

He was awarded £160,000 in damages after a court in Rennes, France, upheld his claims.

The ruling, which is considered ground-breaking, was made yesterday by the appeal court, which awarded damages to Mr Jambart.

Following the decision Mr Jambart appeared outside the court with his wife Christine beside him.

Jambart broke down in tears as judges upheld his claim that his life had become 'hell' after he started taking Requip, a drug made by GSK.

Mr Jambart began taking the drug for Parkinson's in 2003, he had formerly worked as a well-respected bank manager and local councillor, and is a father of two.

After beginning to take the drug he claimed he attempted to commit suicide eight times.

In total Mr Jambert said he gambled away 82,000 euros, mostly through internet betting on horse races. He also said he engaged in frantic searches for gay sex.

He started exhibiting himself on websites and arranging encounters, one of which he claimed resulted in him being raped. 

He said his family had not understood what was going on at first.

Mr Jambert said he realised the drug was responsible when he stumbled across a website that made a connection between the drug and addictions in 2005. When he stopped the drug he claims his behaviour returned to normal.

"It's a great day," he said. "It's been a seven-year battle with our limited means for recognition of the fact that GSK lied to us and shattered our lives."

He added: 'I am happy that justice has been done. I am happy for my wife and my children. I am at last going to be able to sleep at night and profit from life. '

He added that the money awarded would, 'never replace the years of pain.'

The court heard that Requip's side-effects had been made public in 2006, but had reportedly been known for years.

Mr Jambert said that GSK patients should have been informed earlier.

Sleep: Weird things people do in their sleep

By Denise Winterman

BBC News Magazine

Increasing numbers of people are asking for help with sleep disorders and some of them are doing rather strange things during the night.

Specialist sleep clinics are treating more people with sleep disorders than ever before.

It's not surprising. More than 30% of the UK population currently suffers from insomnia or another sleep disorder, according to the Mental Health Foundation. This can have serious mental and physical consequences.

Clinics say they are getting up to 50 new referrals a week. It's a fivefold increase in just a decade for some. This big rise has been put down to raised awareness of sleep disorders and more people reporting them.

The clinics are also dealing with some strange new sleep behaviour, while other rather odd sleep disorders are becoming more common. So what are the weird things people do?

Texting

Technology now plays a huge part in our lives so it's no shock that sleep experts are seeing new kinds of sleep behaviour related to it.

More people are reporting sending text messages during their sleep, says Dr Kirstie Anderson, who runs the Neurology Sleep Service for the Newcastle Upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust. Considering the number of Britons who now own a mobile phone - 92% according to Ofcom - it's not surprising. Many people also take them to bed.

"It is very common for people to do things in their sleep that they do repeatedly during the day," says Anderson.

This is largely down to sleep disorders called parasomnias. These are unwanted behaviours that occur during sleep.

They can be as small as opening your eyes while asleep or, at the very extreme end, driving a car while sleeping. Anderson has even treated someone who carefully dismantled grandfather clocks while asleep.

What happens in our brains during such episodes is still something of a mystery. Not much research has been done, largely due to the fact that gathering data is very difficult.

"The problem is people rarely do such acts under controlled conditions at a sleep clinic," says sleep specialist Dr Chris Idzikowski, director of the Edinburgh Sleep Clinic. "But this area of research is going to really move forward in the next few years because we now have the necessary equipment to record people in their own homes."

Reassuringly, the texts people send when asleep often make no sense. While it is common for people to do things in their sleep that they do during the day, they do them more clumsily or inaccurately, says Anderson.

Eating

Unexplained empty food wrappers and a messy kitchen are what some sleepwalkers face when they wake up. Often snacking in your sleep is not a big problem, but in more extreme cases it is classed as Nocturnal Eating Syndrome (NES). Again, increased awareness of the sleep disorder means more people are being referred to sleep clinics with it.

Sufferers can raid the kitchen several times a night but have no recollection when they wake up. Not only do they lose sleep but they can put on an excessive amount of weight, causing a whole range of problems mentally and physically. Other concerns include choking in their sleep.

Like other strange nocturnal behaviour, sleep eating often happens when people experience parasomnias, which half a million Britons regularly do, according to Anderson. When it comes to eating in your sleep often it is related to what happens before bedtime.

"Sleepwalkers will often do simple things that make some kind of sense, like eat when having gone to bed hungry or dieting during the day," says Anderson.

In more complicated cases, where someone might cook a meal, the person is actually awake but will have no memory of what they have done. It's a type of amnesia, says Prof Jim Horne, from the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University.

"They are basically in a confused awake state. In these more extreme cases you can't attribute the problem to sleep itself. Often it's a case of stress, for example, affecting sleep."

Sex

Sexsomnia, a condition where people have sex in their sleep, has only really been brought to the public's attention in recent years. As yet very little research has been done into it, say sleep experts, but more cases are being reported.

It can become more frequent during times of stress or under the influence of alcohol or drugs and ranges from minor behaviour to full sexual intercourse, in some cases with serious consequences.

Idzikowski gives expert evidence at trials that involve serious sexual assaults and rape.

He says sexsomnia is a parasomnia. It is most likely to occur in the "deep sleep" stage when the thinking and awareness part of the brain is switched off but not the part of the brain responsible for basic urges like having sex.

"It is instinctive behaviour, people are not conscious at the time," says Idzikowski.

"When you are in a deep sleep moral and rational decision-making do not occur.

"It constantly surprises me the type of sleep problems people live with for years. Often they don't realise they can get help ."

Stop breathing

When sleepers stop breathing this is often caused by a sleep disorder known as Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA). While it is not a new sleep disorder, an increasing number of people are being referred to sleep clinics with it. As obesity is a contributing factor, experts expect numbers to keep on rising.

Usually accompanied with very loud snoring, OSA occurs when the throat muscles collapse and block the airways and stop people from breathing - the apnoea. After recently undergoing tests as part of the new BBC One series Goodnight Britain Paul Asbury, from King's Lynn, found out that he regularly stopped breathing in his sleep for up to 26 seconds at a time.

"I was really scared when I was told," he says. "It made me panic to think I regularly stopped breathing and for that long. I thought I had a snoring problem but it was much more serious."

These breaks in breathing woke the 47-year-old lorry driver up to 50 times an hour during the night. In extreme cases it can be up 80 times, says Idzikowski.

"The sufferer will often not remember waking up. This is because the brain does not quite connect with the body, so the person is awake but doesn't know it. It can take up to a minute for the brain to connect with the body causing people to be conscious of waking up.

"The result is that sufferers get very little deep sleep which is one of the restorative phases of the sleep cycle. In the morning they usually feel incredibly tired," says Idzikowski.

This can have serious consequences if people are doing things like operating machinery. Asbury's disorder is being treated using a special face mask, which is working so far.

Exploding head syndrome

You're peacefully falling asleep and suddenly it's like a bomb has gone off in your head. It's exploding head syndrome, when a sudden and incredibly loud noise comes from within your head.

It's another parasomnia event. Sufferers have described the loud noise as sounding like a bomb explosion, a thunderclap and lightning or a gunshot. It is painless but can leave the person distressed. There are reports of people running to their windows to look out as they think a bomb has gone off nearby.

Some sleep experts say it is very rare but Anderson says cases have been referred to her in recent years. It is really the sensory equivalent of the motor start [the hypnic or sudden jerk accompanied by a falling feeling] we all sometimes get as we are going off to sleep, she says.

"People hear a really loud bang or explosion as they are drifting off to sleep, and then work out that it can't be external as no-one else heard it. Sometimes people get bright flashes of light.

"It is entirely benign, but can be alarming and mostly we simply reassure sufferers. Sometimes medication is used if people are very bothered and therefore worry about falling asleep and make it worse."

Often there is no pattern to episodes, but they can go on for years and be a significant disruption to quality of life.

India's poster boy for vegetarianism – he's just fathered a child at 96

Andrew Buncombe in The Independent

The world's oldest father has been recruited by activists in India who maintain lifelong vegetarians retain their "vigour" better than others.

Ramajit Raghav, who shot to celebrity two years ago at the age of 94 when he first became a father, features in a new campaign by for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) India.

A photograph of Mr Raghav, who recently fathered his second child, Ranjit, at the age of 96, shows him cradling the baby with the headline "Vegetarians Still Got It at Age 96".

"I have been a vegetarian all my life, and I credit my stamina and virility to my diet," said the elderly father from the state of Haryana. "Being a vegetarian is the secret to my strength and good health."

Peta claims living a vegetarian life makes perfect sense and that India is increasingly seeing problems associated with heart disease, cancer and diabetes, which it says are associated with a meat-eating diet.

"And since each vegetarian saves the lives of more than 100 animals a year, their consciences are lighter, too," it said. "Viagra and other anti-impotence drugs may get you through the night, but a vegetarian diet can get you through your life. Numerous physicians agree that the best way to prevent artery blockage and other conditions that cause impotence is to eat a diet high in fibre, including plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains."

When he was interviewed last month by The Times of India, Mr Raghav revealed he had been a bachelor until meeting his wife, Shakuntala Devi, ten years ago.

He has been a strict vegetarian and has never drank alcohol. Instead, his diet is made up of fresh milk, clarified butter, vegetables and chapattis.

"I wake up at five in the morning and go to bed before 8pm. During the day, I work in the fields and also take an afternoon nap," he said

Fitch downgrades Argentina and predicts default

Credit rating agency Fitch has downgraded Argentina, which is locked in a court battle in New York over its debt, and said the country would probably default.

Also read Ratings Agencies - The Power of Modern Day Astrologers

Also read How could Greece and Argentina – the new 'debt colonies' – be set free?

Fitch also said that Argentina's economy has slowed sharply this year Photo: AFP

11:55PM GMT 27 Nov 2012

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Fitch cut its long-term rating for Argentina to "CC" from "B," a downgrade of five notches, and cut its short-term rating to "C" from "B". A rating of "C" is one step above default, AP reported.

US judge Thomas Griesa of Manhattan federal court last week ordered Argentina to set aside $1.3bn for certain investors in its bonds by December 15, even as Argentina pursues appeals.

Those investors don't want to go along with a debt restructuring that followed an Argentine default in 2002. If Argentina is forced to pay in full, other holders of debt totaling more than $11bn are expected to demand immediate payment as well.

Argentine politicians, even those opposed to President Cristina Fernandez, have nearly unanimously criticized the judge's ruling as threatening the success of the debt relief that enabled Argentina to grow again.

Ratings by agencies like Fitch are used by investors to evaluate the safety of a country's debt. Lower ratings can make it more expensive for countries to borrow money on the bond market, exacerbating their financial problems. 

Argentina is in a deepening recession and is grappling with social unrest. Besides the court case, Fitch cited a "tense and polarized political climate" and public dissatisfaction with high inflation, weak infrastructure and currency.

Fitch also said that Argentina's economy has slowed sharply this year.

Of the two other major rating agencies, Standard & Poor's has a rating of "B-" for Argentina, five steps above default, and Moody's rates it "B3 negative", also five steps above default.

Russians profit from Britain's offshore secrecy

The UK's approach has attracted many post-Soviet billionaires, including some on the run

• David Leigh, Harold Frayman and James Ball
• The Guardian, Tuesday 27 November 2012 18.21 GMT

Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov used a BVI company to buy the most expensive flat sold in London, at One Hyde Park. Photograph: Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty

Also read HSBC - A case of Discrimination

Britain's friendly regime of offshore secrecy has tempted an extraordinary array of post-Soviet billionaires to descend on London, sometimes to the sound of gunfire.

Vladimir Antonov fled permanently to Britain after his father, Alexander, was gunned down in a Moscow street in 2009. Another associate, German Gorbuntsov, narrowly survived a volley of shots in London last March.

When Antonov bought a luxury yacht in Antibes, the Sea D, he was careful to register its ownership to an anonymous British Virgin Islands (BVI) entity, Danforth Ventures Inc.

He also found funds to try to take over the ailing Swedish car manufacturer Saab, though he did not take control. He did succeed for a while in owning the even more ailing Portsmouth football club.

Antonov is currently on bail in Britain. Lithuanian authorities are trying to extradite him for allegedly looting their collapsed bank Snoras, which he denies.

The allegation that oligarchs exploit Britain's offshore secrecy regime to shift assets out of their own countries is not an uncommon one. One refugee from the law is the Kazakh billionaire Mukhtar Ablyazov, who was allegedly last seen in February heading out of London on a coach to France. Ablyazov has been sentenced to 22 months in jail for contempt of court as the BTA Bank in Kazakhstan attempts to pursue his maze of offshore assets. The bank's lawyers claim Ablyazov has made off with £4bn using BVI and Seychelles companies, nominee directors and layers of front men. Ablyazov denies it.

These billionaires justify their use of British-controlled secrecy jurisdictions because they say they must protect themselves from corporate predators and political enemies in their home countries.

Another fleeing oligarch, the Georgian Badri Patarkatsishvili – a partner of fellow exile Boris Berezovsky– was found dead in 2008 in his Surrey mansion. Patarkatsishvili's business manager, Eugene Jaffe, managed £500m of the Georgian's assets from a central London office through a BVI company, Salford Capital Partners. Jaffe's company was owned in turn by an opaque BVI trust he set up called Montana River.

The wild-west financial landscape of post-Soviet Russia has attracted at least one entrepreneur from the British Isles to exploit the possibilities of the BVI secrecy regime. We have traced BVI entities used in Russia by the man once known as the richest in Ireland, the property developer Seán Quinn. He expanded into schemes for shopping malls in Moscow and Kiev.

He has now declared himself bankrupt and has received an Irish jail sentence for contempt, as the now state-owned Anglo Irish Bank seeks to recover what it says is a missing £2bn.

Other post-Soviet financiers have used Britain's secret offshore facilities for widely different purposes. The London-based Latvian oil trader Evgeny Tikhonov set up an entity in the BVI to hide a total of $2.4m (£1.5m) that his employer, Shell, subsequently convinced a British civil court he was wrongly skimming off from fuel deals. He was, however, acquitted of criminal charges over this.

The fund manager Igor Tsukanov, another arrival in the fashionable west London area of Notting Hill, kept funds in the BVI that will have apparently legally sheltered them from Russian taxes.

Dimitry Sergeev, a mobile phone games entrepreneur from Novosibirsk, whose firm was BVI-registered, faced a potentially costly dispute with a small Manchester supplier over some allegedly unpaid invoices. A source there said: "We decided it was too difficult to bring a legal action in the BVI." Sergeev did not comment.

Undoubtedly the most flamboyant post-Soviet beneficiary of Britain's offshore secrecy regime is Rinat Akhmetov, the richest man in the Ukraine. From a base in the coal-mining Donetsk region, he has personally acquired industrial assets estimated to be worth £11bn. He shifted £136m out of the former Soviet republic in 2007, in order to buy the most expensive flat sold in London, at One Hyde Park.

Asked why he hid behind a BVI company, his company spokesman in the Ukraine said it was "for internal structuring reasons". He added: "Water Property Holdings Limited fully paid all taxes and charges … as required by applicable laws in the UK. This includes payment in February 2011 of stamp duty land tax (SDLT) at a rate of 4% which amounted to £5.467m."

Legal use of BVI entities to disguise Russian movement of funds into British companies, also appears to be widespread. In one example we have unearthed, a British-registered firm, Pennard Chemicals Ltd, with an address at rental offices in Cannon St in the City of London, has had declared revenue over the last 3 years of more than 100 million euros, described as commission on unspecified Russian deals. Pennard Chemicals named director, The Hon Andrew Moray Stuart, with an address in Mauritius, is one of the sham nominees the Guardian/ICIJ research has identified. The shareholder, Imex Executive Ltd, is a BVI entity set up by a Moscow incorporation agency. In turn, its sham nominee directors include Jesse Hester in Mauritius and a sham nominee shareholder, Brenda Cocksedge. These nominees sell their names, without exercising genuine control or ownership. The real owner, according to company records we have seen, is named as Ivan Kovlachuk.

Europe's €50bn subsidy that enriches landowners and kills wildlife

The EU's farm subsidies are a modern equivalent of feudal aid. As Europe suffers under austerity, it's right to call for reform

• 
• • George Monbiot
  • The Guardian, Monday 26 November 2012 20.30 GMT

'Not long ago, farm payments were justified on the grounds that world demand was low. Now they are justified on the grounds that world demand is high.' Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA

There's a neat symmetry in the numbers that helped to sink the European summit. The proposed budget was €50bn higher than the UK government could accept. This is the amount of money that European farmers are given every year. Britain's contentiousbudget rebate is worth €3.6bn a year: a fraction less than our contribution to Europe's farm subsidies.

Squatting at the heart of last week's summit, poisoning all negotiations, is a vast, wobbling lump of pork fat called the common agricultural policy. The talks collapsed partly because the president of the European council, pressed by François Hollande, proposed inflating the great blob by a further €8bn over six years. I don't often find myself on their side, but the British and Dutch governments were right to say no.

It is a source of perpetual wonder that the people of Europe tolerate this robbery. Farm subsidies are the 21st century equivalent of feudal aid: the taxes medieval vassals were forced to pay their lords for the privilege of being sat upon. The single payment scheme, which accounts for most of the money, is an award for owning land. The more you own, the more you receive.

By astonishing coincidence, the biggest landowners happen to be among the richest people in Europe. Every taxpayer in the EU, including the poorest, subsidises the lords of the land: not once, as we did during the bank bailouts, but in perpetuity. Every household in the UK pays an average of £245 a year to keep millionaires in the style to which they are accustomed. No more regressive form of taxation has been devised on this continent since the old autocracies were overthrown. Never mind French farmers dumping manure in the streets: we should be dumping manure on French farmers.

It would be unfair to stop there. There are plenty of people in the UK who deserve the same treatment. Last year the House of Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee, in a bizarrely unbalanced report, maintained that the farm subsidy system does not go far enough. It wants to supplement payments for owning land with a resumption of headage payments: money for every animal farmers cram into their fields.

This nonsense outfrenches the French. There were excellent reasons for phasing out headage payments in 2003. They provided an incentive to load the hills with as many animals (mostly sheep) as possible, regardless of the impact on the natural world and the welfare of the sheep. The extra sheep flooded the market, bankrupting the farmers whom the payments were supposed to protect. The committee's proposal accords with a longstanding and idiotic European principle: the less suitable a region is for farming, the more money is spent to ensure that farming persists there. This is the rationale for such extra subsidies as less favoured area payments.

This approach is justified by a groundless claim: that farming, particularly in the uplands, is required to protect the environment. The European commission maintains that farming is essential to "combat biodiversity loss" and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The parliamentary committee claims that fewer cattle and sheep in the hills has led to "undergrazing", causing such horrors as the growth of bracken. How nature managed to survive for the 3 billion years before humans arrived to look after it is anyone's guess.

These statements are seldom accompanied by anything resembling a scientific reference. They reflect a biblical view of human stewardship. It would be lovely to believe that hill farmers, the landholders with whom it is easiest to sympathise, are delivering only blessings, but this is pure wish fulfilment.

Flooding of the kind now blighting the UK is exacerbated by grazing in the hills, which prevents trees and scrub from growing. The sparser the vegetation with which the hills are clothed, the faster the water runs off. Woodland and scrub preserve more carbon – both above and below ground – than pasture does. There has been a catastrophic decline in farm wildlife in the past few decades, as a result of grazing, drainage, sheep dip residues poisoning the streams and farmers' clearance of habitats. Last week's shocking report on the state of the UK's birds shows that while 20% of all birds have been lost since 1966, on farmland the rate is over 50%.

The subsidy system doesn't just encourage this destruction: it demands it. A European rule insists that to receive their main payment farmers must prevent "the encroachment of unwanted vegetation on agricultural land". In other words, they must stop trees and bushes from growing. They don't have to grow crops or keep animals on the land to get their money, but they do have to keep it mown. All over Europe essential wildlife habitats are destroyed – often on agriculturally worthless land – simply to expand the area eligible for subsidies.

The European commission maintains that subsidies are required to help farmers "contribute to growing world food demand, expected … to increase by 70% by 2050". But if world food demand is expected to grow by 70%, why do we need subsidies? Not long ago, farm payments were justified on the grounds that world demand was low. Now they are justified on the grounds that world demand is high. The policy comes first, the justifications later.

While David Cameron is right to press for major cuts, he is simultaneously seeking to goldplate the injustice by opposing the only vaguely progressive measure in the commission's proposals for reform: capping the money farms can receive, at a maximum of €300,000. This, our government complains, would discourage the "consolidation" of land. Britain already has one of the highest concentrations of land ownership on earth. How much more "consolidation" do we need? And how much more brazenly could Cameron favour the interests of his aristocratic chums?

Europe is in crisis. It is in crisis because the money has run out. Essential public services are being cut (often unjustly and unnecessarily), but at the same time €50bn a year is being paid to landowners. This spending is so gross, so nakedly indefensible, that it's hard to understand why it does not obsess activists across the political spectrum: from UK Uncut to the TaxPayers' Alliance. Seldom in the field of human conflict was so much given by so many to so few.