On February 8th, despite much spluttered outrage from ministers at the farmers' antics, the government decided to meettheirdemands half way, offering to buy 50, 000 tonnes of their pork at a decent price.
They are bound to Formula One by the "Concorde Agreement" until the end of 2007 but would be free to set up a new series in 2008 should the sport's chiefs not meettheir financial demands.