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Thanks so much for your thoughtful response David.

Brussels is of course dysfunctional but Westminster and the City are just as corrupt if not more so - I have worked in all three, and never come across anything quite so blatantly dodgy as the City of London.

I'm not at all expert in the application of the CAP but if it is anything like the CFP Defra's policies will be as much to blame if not mores so for the mess that is the UK rural economy, bearing in mind agricultural policy is shared (in)competence under Article 4 of the Consolidated Treaties. I'm not an apologist of the EU - they've made some daft regulations - but I am not at all sure there is any evidence that Defra or its dreadful predecessor MAFF have been any better or are geared up to take the full reigns of control (particularly given the current Government approach has been to sack everyone so they have no policies). One of my favorite "Men from the Ministry" episodes is "the Rhubarb Pirates" - it's on you tube, you'll love it - that's how it was in the 'good old days'.

So how do you know that the 17p per liter payment is down to the EU? The system is infernally complex and I've never read an accurate analysis of any of these issues in the UK press and where would you find out? There's just so much misinformation in this debate. Certainly I would have blamed to the fisheries collapse on the EU until I spend nearly 10 years understanding how the system worked.

But the EU rural policy is an afterthought, and in reality a small part of the EU's business - the core reason for the EU is far larger than that - and is basically a swords to ploughshares mechanism. So in respect of the "they'll be blood" I found a bundle of newspapers up the chimney in our old house dated August 1914. On the front page it glibly said it would all be over by Christmas. I agree they'll be blood. There will be definitely blood if we leave - and I see no point in that at all - particularly as no one seems to have any idea how much. As Paul Krugman said in the New York Times - Europe feels like 1914.

This is a very poor question - put at a daft time - by some incredibly light weight politicians,

Enjoy the RL and have a good weekend

Tom