European Union (From Gazette & Herald)

European Union

WE have been in the European Union for nearly 30 years and, for all that time, MPs and MEPs of all parties have said they are going to reform the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy. Does Timothy Kirkhope MEP live in Euroland or Cloud Cuckoo Land or are they the same place? The French will never agree to change the CAP unless their farmers get even bigger handouts. Timothy Kirkhope and his pals in Brussels can't even get the French to take our beef, two years after the ban for BSE was lifted. Does anybody with a grain of intelligence think the Spanish will stop fishing our waters before our fish stocks are exhausted?

His warped logic in suggesting that the EU would fund flood defences just shows how ignorant he is about the workings of the EU. If he will send me a cheque for £1,000 I will be more than delighted to donate £500 to the fund, especially if he will then add a further £500.

Small farmers now realise our Government and the bureaucrats of Brussels don't want them. Like our fishermen, they are expendable in their eagerness to destroy our country and our culture. When people realise their pension funds have been raided to help finance this EUtopia I'm sure there will be a backlash. It has taken a long time for the penny to drop, but as Margaret Thatcher says in her book: "The EU is beyond reform, the only possible solution is to leave it".

STEPHEN FEASTER

Chairman, Ryedale Branch,

United Kingdom Independence Party,

Cropton

Updated: 11:09 Thursday, April 04, 2002