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European Communities (Finance) Bill

Again, the hon. Gentleman makes a helpful and sensible intervention. I hope that Ministers are listening; they might learn from it. To return to my argument, all too often the projects financed by the European Union are marginal, or, in economists' terms, sub-optimal—not those that one would choose for oneself. That is the role of the scheme. As the sage from Great Grimsby was saying a few minutes ago, would it not be much better if in some cases we could choose the projects ourselves and spend our own money on them without the middleman—without having to send the cheque to Brussels and then get some of it back after jumping through various hoops to prove that the project is one with which we would not otherwise have gone ahead? It is a rather crazy way to spend money.