IF, in its determination to play it by the book and stick to EU trade rules, the government will not stand up for our farmers and hit back at France's illegal boycott of British beef, then it seems consumers will have to fight this war and force the French to back down.

For, however virtuous the government's stance may be as the most scrupulous subscriber to EU ethics, it is, in fact, in the eyes of ordinary people looking weak and ludicrous.

Indeed, we now see it, in effect, leaping to the defence of French meat from animals illegally fed on sewage by not only refusing to ban it, but also telling people it is safe.

And it is doing this when the French government, using the BSE scare as its excuse, is breaking the EU rules and banning British beef which is safe and when arrogant French farmers, with the connivance of the authorities there, are staging a dockside blockade of British produce in an attempt to make our consumers drop their supermarket boycott of French food in support of our farmers.

In the face of such illegal political blackmail by the French government and its ever-anarchic farm lobby, it is the response of British consumers rather than the supine one of the government which displays the most integrity and certainly sticks up more for Britain.

For, let it be remembered, the shoppers' boycott of French food - be it in support of our farmers and fair play or out of horror at cows and chickens being fed human and animal excrement - is perfectly legitimate; the exercise of a fundamental freedom, in fact.

And if the French consider that they can deny the British people that right, with illegal blockades at their ports and scorn for the rules of free trade, then they will beg an even greater backlash from our shoppers - even if the government lacks the same sort of resolve.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.