European Affairs

Indeed, the whole thing is a bureaucratic nightmare. All those organisations and structures are always inefficient. I think that the polities or Governments who can make the best decisions on behalf of their agriculturalists are the national member states. Our Government would make much better decisions about how and what to subsidise than any European Union could ever do. The milk producers would have a much better time if they were looked after by our Government rather than by the European Union. Let me finish by saying that the biggest nonsense of all is the common fisheries policy, which has led directly to the over-fishing of our seas. They will not be restocked, I believe, until we abolish the CFP and re-establish the national waters that used to be recognised so that each country has responsibility for husbanding its own resources in its own fisheries. The issue would be taken more seriously in that case. While it is possible to fish in other countries' waters and land "black fish" as they are called—effectively cheating on the system and over-fishing elsewhere—countries will carry on doing it. Only when they have the responsibility for managing their own waters will we start to see fisheries restocked as they should be and a more sensible approach to fishing. We all enjoy fish, and as we have been told over the last couple of days, the Spanish enjoy them more than anyone else. Unless we go back to that system, however, we may finish up not being able to eat any fish at all. I would have liked to have spoken for longer, but perhaps I have said enough.