§ Mr. Marlowasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will estimate the additional cost to the consumer in 1982 of having to buy food at common agricultural policy prices, rather than buying food at prices ruling on the world markets.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerIt is impossible to know what alternative import prices would have obtained in the radically changed circumstances envisaged. Furthermore, I do not consider that an estimate of the sort requested would represent the cost of the common agricultural policy since it ignores the cost of alternative support arrangements which would have to be financed were the destruction of British agriculture to be averted.