Sneaked out without any fanfare is the first of the public consultations on William Hague's full audit of EU law and the UK, the initiative that was announced last July, with a view to producing a sort of "Doomsday Book" on where we currently stand with the EU.

This, according to Owen Paterson, is the first time we have ever looked at how we are governed in this country (separate post to follow). Every department of state is to take part in the process, which is intended to "give everyone, in Government, in Parliament and the British people a far better understanding of an important part of the governance of the UK, on which to ground and develop this country's policies in relation to the EU".

With the process now having been thrown open to public consultation, the lead has been taken by Defra, Paterson's department, as one of the government bodies which is most affected by EU law. The first of four tranches is now up on the Defra website.

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Well I've emailed the people who run several of the farmers' markets in my area, who can put it out to the stallholders who come to their market. A logical place to begin would be the farmers or fishermen in your area, who can be reached through the NFU, for example. Food safety? Well, that may mean anyone who handles food and that suggests a good place to go would be the local small business community.

Assuming of course that Ukip are even aware of this publication. Just a thought.

On a related subject, it would be good to see My local council is funded by Council Tax Payers to the extent of only 18%, so it is no wonder that it plays to the tune of central government's funding of most of its services. The local tax payer is almost irrelevant, and this is not a Socialist council, in name anyway but a council that used to be known as 'Conservative'.