European Communities (Finance) Bill

I do not want to make changes: I just want to scrap it. That would be the sensible thing to do, because then we could support our own agriculture in our own way. That is enough for now on the CAP, but the key point is that it is a massive budgetary contribution to a small section of the European economy. Before the changes proposed in this Bill, our gross contribution to Europe over the past few years was between £7 billion and £8 billion a year, and our net receipt—the money that the EU graciously gives us back—was between £3 billion and £4 billion a year. That is our money with their costs deducted to spend on purposes that they see fit. It annoys me, as it does my hon. Friend the Member for Luton, North, to see on every dogs' home or retirement home for eurocrats the sign with the stars saying that it was built with European money. It was not built with European money, because it is our money that we have been given back, with their costs deducted. We could spend all that money for our own purposes much more effectively—and certainly not on the CAP.