I'd love to be a fly on the wall at the meeting of EU leaders in Brussels next week. Not only to enjoy all the recriminations following the rejection of the proposed EU Constitution by France and the Netherlands, but to see the bust-up over Britain's contribution rebate.

Mrs Thatcher negotiated the rebate - which saves the UK about £3bn a year on its membership dues - back in 1984, arguing that while her country paid much more than most in contributions, it got much less back in EU spending.

Downing Street says that the UK is the second largest net contributor to the EU budget, after Germany. Prime Minister Tony Blair said that even with the rebate the UK still paid 2.5 times more than France or Italy. Without the rebate, it would have been 15 times as much as France.

The main reason for the discrepancy is that a major part of EU spending goes on the Common Agricultural Policy, which subsidizes the hugely inefficient farmers of France in preference to efficient UK ones, as well as hitting developing world producers. Blair is saying that you can't try to reform what people pay in unless you also reform the daft way the money is paid out. For once, he's right.

Philip Webster and Anthony Browne report on this in the Times, and point to the somewhat one-sided nature of President Chirac's demands:

M Chirac excluded any challenge to a Franco-German deal on the agricultural policy, from which France greatly benefits. "We cannot accept any reduction whatsoever of the direct aids to our farmers," he said.

No CAP reform, no rebate reform. Enough said.