TONY KELLY (HAS, Nov 16) said he voted to leave the EU because of European boats ‘plundering our fish stocks’. He has also introduced a personal boycott of fish and chips in protest.

I can think of many reasons to leave the EU, not least that it is an undemocratic bureaucracy run by bankers, but I am not going to get myself in a rage about fishing, because little Englanders like Nigel Farage are spewing out ill-informed nationalist propaganda on the subject.

In fact, Mr Kelly can continue to eat fish and chips and not feel guilty about it.

Cod and haddock are cold water fishes and are mostly caught near Iceland and the Berents Sea, north of Norway. Neither Iceland nor Norway are members of the EU.

Nevertheless, there are fish landed in the UK and Europe from British waters, mostly mackerel, herring, shellfish and flat fish, i.e. fish that most British people do not eat. Consequently, most fish from British waters are sold to EU countries, for example the bulk of shellfish landed in British waters ends up in the homes and restaurants of France and Spain.

So, fishing stocks are largely an emotive issue rather than a real one.

In fact, the fishing stock debate is mostly nationalistic ‘codswallop’.

John Gilmore, Bishop Auckland.