Who remembers the EU budget meeting in 2005 when that nice Mr Blair went to give those nasty men in Brussels a firm talking to?

He went strongly demanding that the French please possibly accept opening talks about fiddling with the Common Agricultural Policy. Not ‘reforming’ it. Oh no. Not actually renegotiating it or Heaven forbid abolishing the scam…no…the deal was to accept the principle of starting to talk about it.

Finally the cost of this marvellous diplomacy has come out. In figures sneaked out last month just before the long Parliamentary holiday and only just number-crunched, our subscription fee to the EU goes up next year by 60%

Yes, for the privilege of being soaked like fools our annual shafting goes up from £4.1 billion this year to £6.4 billion next.

As The Telegraph notes: The latest Treasury figures also show that Britain is currently the second biggest net contributor, behind Germany. The new net UK contribution of £6.4 billion is the equivalent of £257 for every household in Britain – or 3p on the standard rate of income tax.

Britain’s budget rebate – won by Margaret Thatcher in 1984 – is to shrink from £5.1 billion this year to £3.3 billion in 2010/11. The percentage increase in the net contribution between this year and next year is by far the biggest between any two years since 2003, according to the Treasury figures.

In 2003/4 Britain’s net contribution was £3.2 billion, and in following years was at £3.9 billion, £4.4 billion, £3.5 billion, £4.2 billion and £3.0 billion before hitting £4.1 billion this year under current spending plans.

TheEye is just drooling at the prospect of keeping our money back where it belongs and spending it on what we want to spend it on. Doesn’t matter what colour your rosette is – spend it on public sector non-job wages, big tax cuts, reductions in gin import duty or whatever – but spend our money here. Anyone who has ever driven in Spain will have been amazed by the quality of the motorways, although the scenic views are slightly marred by huge signs at the roadside every 20 yards emblazoned with the 12 stars and the phrase “Thanks UK, You Paid For This Road”.

Before those EU negotiations in December 2005, Mr Blair said in Parliament that the “UK rebate will remain and we will not negotiate it away.” However, at the European Council he gave away around 20 per cent – or £7.2 billion – of the rebate Britain would have received over the period 2007 to 2013. This rebate was specifically designed to compensate for the fact that the UK has a smaller farming sector than mort of the rest of the EU and, unlike the French, isn’t very good at defrauding the CAP skillfully.

No wonder 26% of voters in the last EU election voted for parties wanting to leave. Wouldn’t we be Better Off Out?