January 2000

MILLENNIUM BLUES FOR BELEAGUERED FARMERS

The twenty first century was heralded by the sound of popping champagne corks, as Scots quaffed unprecedented quantities of this rather expensive French sparkling wine. I am sad that the French economy received such a boost at a time when the French government's illegal ban on British beef is causing huge suffering to our beleaguered beef farmers.

France would do well to remember that our farm animals in Britain enjoy the highest welfare standards of any country in the world, while our meat is processed in the cleanest and most hygienic plants. The bureaucracy surrounding the rules for exporting meat are so cumbersome that so far, only two abattoirs, one in Cornwall and one in Strathaven, have achieved the necessary licensing standards set by the Commission and Westminster.

Meanwhile France continues to send 10,000 tonnes of beef to the UK every year, while they have a rising incidence of BSE in their national cattle herd and yet still allow spinal cords and brain matter to enter the food chain. We should insist on the European Commission applying the same criteria to French beef as they have applied to ours. A world-wide export ban on French beef would quickly bring them to their senses!

Back in Scotland, while farmers face their worst recession for more than three quarters of a century, the best we can hope for from the Scottish Parliament is legislation to ban fox hunting and reform our land laws, both of which will have a further negative impact on the Scottish rural economy. Thank goodness our Tory MSPs are waging a daily battle to highlight the plight of rural Scotland and drive home the shortcomings of the current Lib/Lab coalition.

FISHERMEN REELING FROM QUOTA CUTS

Unfortunately it is not just the farmers who are suffering an economic recession. The CFP (Common Fisheries Policy) has been a disastrous failure for the Scottish and UK fishing industry. Since 1972 when the UK signed up to "equal access to community waters" under the Treaty of Accession, the British fleet has lost more than 3000 vessels and over 3000 fishermen.

Many thousands more have lost jobs in related industries as a result. One third of all UK registered tonnage is now owned by Spanish and Dutch fishermen. The entire fisheries sector is over-regulated and over bureaucratic. Now the industry is faced with the latest round of savage quota cuts.

Clearly we will have our work cut out in the years ahead within the European Parliament, fighting to protect the interests of Scottish farmers and fishermen, while ensuring that the Franco-German agenda to create a federal United States of Europe is stopped in its tracks.

WWW.SCOTTISHTORYMEPS.ORG.UK

Now that the whole of Scotland is a single European constituency with a population of five an a half million people represented by only eight MEPs, it is all the more important to find new and innovative ways of keeping in touch with our electors. That is why John Purvis and I, the two Scottish Conservative MEPs, have launched a new web site.

We hope our web site, which will be regularly updated, will provide electors with an opportunity to see what we are doing in Europe, with various pages containing details of our committee work, press output and key areas of interest. There will also be plenty of information about how to make contact with each of us.