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European Commission

Clearly, fish do not speak languages, so that is very difficult. They do not wear badges or flags. My right hon. Friend makes a point that has been made to me many times—fish can swim. However, if the sea is sufficiently big for fish to live in one area rather than another and if there are large shoals of fish around Norway and no shoals of fish around Britain, something has happened to the fish around Britain, which I suggest is the result of overfishing and it might just be because of the common fisheries policy. This is over-simplification and there are various detailed policies that I debated recently in the European Standing Committee with the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Chatham and Aylesford (Jonathan Shaw), who is responsible for fisheries. However, the common fisheries policy was a give-away at the time of negotiating entry to the European Union. It is irrational nonsense and I urge the Minister to put the case for at least the possibility in a few years' time of re-establishing national fishing waters and abolishing the common fisheries policy. I am convinced that that is the way forward. I am sure that, if we said that we were going to retake our national fishing waters in five or seven years' time and gave the European Union time to adjust to that thought, common sense would prevail in the end. The Minister responsible for fisheries has said that if we did that, we would be thrown out of the Common Market—sorry, I mean the European Union; I am using the old terminology. I think that it is highly unlikely that we would be thrown out of the European Union. It has a very big trade surplus with us and the rest of the European Union benefits so much in economic terms from Britain's membership that it is unlikely that it would expel us. If we made our case now and said that we would abolish the common fisheries policy or re-establish our own waters, we would be doing a great service to the fish stocks in our waters and in the waters around the rest of Europe and helping other countries in the European Union as well as ourselves. It is not just a selfish nationalist policy; it is a policy of conservation. It is a green policy, or a green sea policy. It would ensure the restoration of fish stocks that have been attacked to a dangerous degree in recent decades. I could speak at greater length on a number of other subjects, as I am sure you appreciate, Mr. Bayley, but I have probably had more than my fair share of the time. I apologise, because I have to attend another meeting now, but thank you.