Instead of planning for life after the CAP, we took the other route, which was to stick our heads in the sand and pretend it could be dragged on forever and that the good times would continue. This debate has proceeded in that vein. That is the reason it is important a dissenting voice is heard. We have persisted with this doomed policy at enormous cost. In absolute terms, agricultural policy swallows up the lion's share of the EU budget year in, year out. For an entity with the aspirations of the European Union to spend three quarters of its entire annual budget on farm supports shows a peculiar sense of priorities, although that is not the nub of my objection to the policy.