I HAVE often written about the lunacy of the EU, particularly in regard to the rules and regulations that are routinely foisted upon our country at huge cost.

Jeffrey Titford MEP

I HAVE often written about the lunacy of the EU, particularly in regard to the rules and regulations that are routinely foisted upon our country at huge cost. However, there has seldom been a sillier proposal than the suggestion that sea anglers should be brought under the control of the Common Fisheries Policy under article 47.

Under this insane proposal sea anglers who fish for sport would have to declare their catch like trawler fishermen so that it can be included in the national fishing quota. Failure to do so would result in extortionate fines. It is quite conceivable that a child catching a tiddler off the end of Southend Pier would be required to pay a �50,000 fine if the catch were not declared. Parents beware!

Certainly, every sea angler who fails to declare their catch would become a criminal. This would affect over a million anglers who contribute �1 billion a year to the UK economy. Recreational boat skippers would have to apply for licences and stop fishing when they reach the limit of their quota.

The other aspect to consider is that if this mad scheme was to be approved our already beleaguered commercial fishermen would find their quota reduced even further. There is also a major logistical problem in that there is simply no means of administering and policing the EU scheme which would have to cover thousands of miles of coastline and thousands of private boats.

My Party is fighting hard to get article 47 of the Common Fisheries Policy scrapped and will be lobbying MEPs before the matter comes up for debate in April, when the Commission hopes to ram it through. We have launched a petition called SOS - Save our Sport, which can be found at www.ukip.org . Please do sign up. You can also download a poster for display in your home or at your local fishing tackle shop.

All that said, we do, as a nation, need to look at the bigger picture in regard to our membership of the EU, rather than concentrating too much on the individual issues it generates for us, almost on a daily basis.

The EU is a millstone that is constantly dragging us down. Life would be so much simpler and less costly if we were to become an independent country again.

In regard to the cost of EU membership, a new research project by Gerard Batten MEP, in conjunction with the Bruges Group, has discovered that in 2008 it cost us �55.77 billion or �106.117 per minute or �915 for every man, woman and child in the country, which is an eye watering amount of money for a country facing financial Armageddon.

It is quite simply indefensible to continue paying it. In these troubled times we have to cut our cloth to fit and jettison the EU, which is a needless drain on our resources.

Readers interested in more information about Jeffrey Titford MEP or UKIP can find it on www.jeffreytitfordmep.co.uk