Damaging policy

Joseph Smith (Letters, 22 January) reiterates the tired old line that the Conservative Party took Britain into the common fisher-ies policy. While it is true Ted Heath signed up to the Treaty of Rome, and thus to the eventual CFP, there is more than enough blame to go round. Membership would not have been possible without the support of the Liber-als, and without the support of Labour members who would go on to form the Gang of Four.

While the Heath government gave away our 12-mile limit, it was the Labour government in 1977 that signed away our 12- to 200-mile limit, a far graver consequence.

At least the Tories have now pledged to take Britain out of the CFP when it returns to government at Westminster. The SNP‘s similar policy is unachievable, given that it will never be in power at Westminster and that its goal of an independent Scotland seems unlikely to happen.

As for the UKIP, which is even less likely to achieve power, Mr Smith is wrong to say the majority of people want to leave the EU. Conservatives are committed to membership of the EU, but that does not mean we are prevented from renegotiating treaties not in Britain’s interest.

This we shall prove when a fu-ture Conservative government withdraws from the CFP.

TED BROCKLEBANK, MSP

Scottish Parliament