Set-aside set aside?

in the wake of mumping about the price of pasta no surprise to discover that the EU proposes to do away with its set-aside legislation on the grounds that with the rising price of wheat we need to get more land back into production. all of which is very fine except that the driver for this move is of course the opening up of land to offsert that which is being used for biofuels. aside from any discussion on the efficacy of biofuels it seems strangely ironic that a law which provides for biodiversity and the environment should be revoked in order to promote production of biofuel

as an aside it would be great if in this country (was i affected by swedish public transport? oh yes!) a public transport system that would lessen our requirement on either biofuels or the internal combustion engine. after my recent cycling to the atlantic escapade T expressed a wish to maybe do the route by train and meet me at the other end, until that is, aside from price, we realised that i can cycle the 90 miles almost as quick as it takes the train! and there's only two trains a day! and this is assuming i can even get my bike on the train in the first place! the scottish executive would do well to address such an issue.