Have you ever wondered why in all of the EU it is only UK farmers who are constantly suffering from financial crisis?

Since 1973, UK farming has never been in net profit. Over the last five years, farming income grew in the EU by 14 per cent but in the UK it fell back by 36 per cent. Average income for a British farmer is £4,500. Hardly surprising that 85,000 have left the industry in the past five years.

Disillusioned young people are going to countries such as Canada and New Zealand where skill and industry are encouraged not strangled by an alien bureaucracy.

We now know that the CAP was designed and introduced in 1973 for the benefit of France, whose huge peasant population, influenced by communism, habitually showed its displeasure with its rulers by violent demonstrations. Not until 1973 when the CAP was written into the 'acquis communitaire' did de Gaulle agree to Britain's entry to the Common Market. We are the second biggest contributors after Germany, contributing £30 million a day to keep French farmers happy. Little wonder tourists often say how prosperous the French countryside looks.

It is claimed that Europe is our biggest market but the reality is that Britain is Europe's biggest customer, taking one fifth of all their exports. Of our international trade less than half is with the EU, the bulk is with the rest of the world. Europe needs us more than we need them.

The latest Brussels attack on our agriculture, the Mid Term Review, still clouded in uncertainty as it pursues its tortuous way guided by France and Germany, will undoubtedly prove to be another nail in the coffin of British agriculture.

Food production is the front line in the battle of control of our nation. We are no longer able to feed ourselves. Despite having the best climate in Western Europe for grass production we are forbidden by Brussels from producing all the milk we consume, and the Mid Term Review is designed dramatically to reduce our livestock.

The MTR can best be described as a ten-year pay off, a retirement scheme for all farmers.

The process of decoupling and modulation is intended to steadily transfer support to park keeping and land enhancement. With the keeping of stock optional many of the older farmers will keep just the minimum numbers necessary to qualify for assessment. But don't worry, France and Poland will send us all the meat we need.