Quote:EU subsidies are crippling our farming and fishing industries. Our waters are now controlled by Brussels and we have quotas on how much fish we can land. Britain has something like 7% of the total. Why are we allowing a foreign power to dictate to us? The EU is an abomination. Have you seen the articles and pictures of millions of perfectly good fish being dumped in the North Sea because of EU quotas being exceeded?
I haven't seen those news reports for over 10 years. And I actually agree that the UK needs to stop overproduction in farming and fishing. We have been running out of North Sea fish stocks for some years, and it is the British obsession with maximising farming production that resulted in the BSE crisis. I only hope that fishermen adapt their practises instead of throwing fish back into the sea :roll:
EU legislation forced arable farmers to leave some of their land fallow. This was intially very unpopular in the 90s, but had a very positive environmental effect in the areas where I've lived (the top soil was previously being eroded because of over-farming).
I think it is Britain's current trade with China, India and the rest of India that is crippling our own industry - we have to produce huge volumes in order to keep costs down (and this is why EU legislation is seen as restrictive). We buy plenty of cheap goods from these countries, but what do they get from us? We no longer produce the quality that made Britain respected. They have been sending students over here to our universities, and now they are setting up their own professional industries and world-class universities too.
I honestly see no future for Britain in the current world climate. We are a small island. Prior to the EU, we relied on the Commonwealth, then the Empire.
We need to support British (and other European countries') farmers and fishermen by encouraging people to buy local produce, instead of substandard goods that have been flown halfway around the world.We cannot compete with Asia on price, but people will pay more for high quality, organic produce. This will not only support local food producers, but will force Asian companies to rethink their working practises.
This will cause a rise in the price of meat and dairy, forcing consumers to stop overeating these products. Then our NHS will not be under so much pressure from our obesity and heart disease epidemics :twisted: I can understand that my views will be unpopular with most of the electorate ;-)
With regard to fraud and expenses... I think it is now apparent the British MPs are also guilty of this ;-) I deeply suspect that politicians of all varieties are going to be under increased public scrutiny and will have to mend their ways to get elected in future. It will be interesting to see what happens.
