Columnist Andreas Whittam-Smith recently wrote in the Independent (subscription required) that "every country should subsidise its own farmers".

Frankly, only one thing could be worse than the Common Agricultural Policy – and that would be to have twenty-five separate agricultural policies, each with its own competing subsidies, each with its own protectionist measures. That would ultimately cost the economy, the tax-payer and the environment far more.

It's far better to pursue further reforms of the CAP – reforms which we have already made a start on, and where we have had a significant measure of success, for the first time in thirty years.