If, like me, you are deeply uneasy about the slide towards a federal Europe, why should you vote Conservative and not UKIP?

The reality is that two thirds of our trade is with Europe, and that even if we were to leave the EU, we would still be bound to comply with many of its regulations in order to continue with this trade. Better to be on the inside and have some influence, than on the outside looking in with no say at all. Complete withdrawal is, in my view, unrealistic but we must resist any further move towards a European superstate. Of course we should have been given the chance to vote on the Lisbon Treaty before Gordon Brown signed away even more power, but the ink is dry on the paper, and the focus now should be on making sure that we are able to fight our corner in Europe.

I would like to see us standing up for the fishing industry and pulling out of the Common Fisheries Policy before it is too late to save the Brixham fishing industry. I would also like to see resistance to the nonsense of restrictive and unnecessary regulations like the working time directive, which has had such a toxic effect on doctors' training. Europe should be about trade and co-operation, not about meddling, centralisation and the loss of sovereignty.

Surely it is time for Europe to open its books. We have all seen how daylight has been the best disinfectant for British politics; let's see the same transparency for European politicians and the whole of the Brussels bureaucracy.