A standard analysis of the effects of the European Union would include the fact that it subsidises the production of certain agricultural goods. This is what led to those wine lakes and butter mountains of yore. Set the price well above the market price and watch as producers flood the continent with product that no one wishes to eat.

One such product is sugar. The EU price is well above the world price and has been for yonks. This keeps the sugar beet barons in business and leads to, as always with a price above the market clearing one, excessive production. Fortunately, this is about to change. We consumers will be less ripped off to favour some few thousand landowners, how excellent, eh?

Except there are those who think this is not a good idea:

British efforts to tackle obesity could be rendered futile by a European Union deal that threatens to flood the market with cheap sugar, experts have warned.

Campaigners fear the reform, described as a “threat to public health”, will allow companies to laugh off Government measures such as the Soft Drinks Levy, aimed at forcing a reduction in sugar content.

Beginning in 2018, the levy promises to tax companies which make and sell sugary drinks almost £1.5 billion over the first three years.

The high mandated prices are accompanied by quotas, so that entire countries do not in fact disappear under the overproduction of sugar. Those quotas are to go, as are the guaranteed prices.

And here's the lovely thing. The people telling us that we should continue to be ripped off in favour of those few thousand land owners are in fact paid by us. The claim being that they are experts looking out for our interests. It being somewhat difficult to see that they are really.

That Carthaginian solution is looking better all the time, isn't it?