More from the increasingly wise-sounding National Farmers' Union. Our regional director here in Yorkshire wrote the following in an article for British Farmer & Grower:

"In terms of actual trade flows the EU, far from being protectionist, imports more farm products from developing countries than the US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada put together and absorbs 70% of the imports from least developed countries while the US takes just 17%. …

"The media delight in emphasising that the CAP represents 40% of the EU budget. This seems high until you take into account that the EU has no responsibility for health, education or any of the main expenditure items associated with government activity. In fact, CAP expenditure in the UK only amounts to some 0.5% of total government expenditure."

I would only add that CAP spending has anyway fallen from nearly 70% of the EU budget to just over 40% and is scheduled to fall to about 30% over the next 7 years, even ahead of the further review due in 2008.