It is becoming increasingly clear that we will be far worse off as a country outside the EU and it really is incumbent on our elected representatives to be honest about the choices ahead.

The most recent intervention on the Brexit negotiations from Richard Drax MP does nothing to heal the rifts in our country following the 2016 Referendum. This time it’s on fishing policy (Echo, March 9: South Dorset MP launches bid to protect UK fishing rights).

Taking back control is an emotional and attractive proposition; facts don’t make such good copy. In order to ensure that our fish stocks are sustainable, Britain, the EU and its Member Countries are all parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which lays down that countries must jointly manage fish stocks that migrate between two or more countries’ waters. This applies to more than 100 of the stocks present in UK waters.

Even the avowedly Eurosceptic fisheries minister George Eustice has admitted: When it is said, “We are going to take back control it sounds perhaps more dramatic than it might be, in that we ‘would then still engage in international negotiations around mutual access rights, mutual shares and the like’?, and that the UK will be bound by ‘clear commitments’ to agree shared Total Allowable Catches (TACs)?

So, our ability to negotiate will remain crucial and the track record of George Eustice – or indeed any of the Ministers involved in the Brexit negotiations – does not inspire much confidence.

KAY WILCOX

Chairman

West Dorset for EU