I SALUTE Geraldine Smith MP for taking a stand over the cockle licensing fiasco.

It would be common sense to simply charge a licensing fee which would fully reflect all the intrinsic costs. After all, the cockle gangmasters are making colossal profusrs.

But it is not surprising that our Fisheries Minister Ben Brad-shaw is too busy to do anything until Easter too busy, that is, to submit to every barmy regulation coming out of Brussels.

After all, he has presided over the devastation of our fishing industry to the extent that only a few weeks ago a poor Cornish fisherman was taken to court and faces a possible £50,000 fine for not dividing his yearly catch carefully into 12 monthly amounts a rule which even Bradshaw cannot explain.

T S Senior, Morecambe.