BRITAIN'S fishing industry is indeed in crisis. Fishermen are right when they say many of them will be driven out of business by the quotas announced yesterday by the European Union.

But Michael Portillo, opening a shoe shop in Stockton yesterday, is wrong to blame Europe or the British Government for the decline in the industry.

The simple truth is that there are no more fish left to catch. And without fish, there can be no fishermen - no matter what country they come from.

North Sea fish stocks are dwindling to the point of no return. Thirty years ago, there were 250,000 tonnes of adult cod in the North Sea. Now there are about 70,000. The estimated minimum level for the species to survive is 150,000.

Cod is on the verge of extinction. It is being hunted down by fishermen with bigger, more efficient boats and better, more sophisticated equipment. Like pandas or elephants, cod needs protection.

The real villain of this piece is the way successive governments have manipulated the Common Fisheries Policy. Rather than listen to scientific evidence, they have heard the vocal fishing lobby shouting about the need to protect its jobs.

In fact, this is one area where Europe should have worked. Fish are not the proud bearers of maroon-coloured passports and so every nation state has to work with its neighbours to safeguard the common stocks.

However, this does not mean we should simply let our fishermen drift away. Unlike on the Continent, successive British governments have failed to persuade British fishermen not to fish by offering them subsidies. If farmers can be offered money to set aside, there is no reason why fishermen shouldn't be given money to leave well alone.