 The reward for giving up our sovereignty, we're told, is greater influence in Europe. To see how much influence we have, I've come to the place I grew up. For centuries, fishermen's huts called shields lined the river Tyne. From them came the names of the towns that straddled the mouth of the river, north and south shields. The seas here are rough, but the water is rich in mackerel, haddock, salmon, herring, cod, skate and shrimp. By the early 20th century, 14,000 tonnes of fish a year was being landed here at North Shields. There's a daily fish auction here still, in a building part funded by the EU. 24 pounds a year. In a corner of one of the halls sits fewer than a hundred boxes, part filled with fish. A dozen or so fishermen and merchants surround them. 74-year-old fish merchant John Ellis has been buying at this auction since the 1950s. How many boxes would there be in the market then? In MDAs, 8, 10, 12, and then you would get also you get 1000. 12,000 boxes a day? Uh-huh. So a different place? You couldn't get more. Now with this, well, I think the average for the A, there'd just be about 200 boxes a day. So it's quite a lot of business. When Britain joined the common market, it lost control of its fishing grounds. When quotas were imposed, several other European countries lobbied the EU for Britain's fishing rights to be divided up between them. The British government was powerless to stop this. The EU has just obliterated the English fishing industry altogether. The quota system they've got now is just, it's just mad. Local fishermen were now banned from fishing in waters they'd fished successfully for centuries. Oh, just beyond the pier over there. In fact, it might be the idea of this great big Dutchman, but that Dutchman's got 25% of the whole quota of all of England. It's only three or four miles off the town catching heron and mackerel. Local fleet kind of catch heron and mackerel, and it's right on the doorstep. There is still a prospering North Atlantic fishing industry, but only in countries that have retained their independence. Well, look at the Icelandics and the Faroes and the Norwegians. They sell millions of pounds for the fish to us. And they're outside the common market, but you tell me a common market currently that buys fish off us. But they send the fishing boats in the North Sea to catch our fish. And it's just madness. The EU has been paying British fishermen to destroy their boats. They set the fishermen, if you want to get out in the industry, we'll give you a lump sum. This here looks like an old boat that's been destroyed. They just watch them with big chainsaws, cutting your old wooden boats up and burning them. The EU pays fishermen to leave an industry and destroy their boats. Well, at the same time, giving rights to people elsewhere to fish the same waters. Oh, that's right. For the fishermen here, being in the EU does not mean that Britain has greater influence over European affairs. It means Europe has taken control of our affairs. We have not gained power. We've lost it. For the last couple of decades, Britain has voted against 72 measures in the European Council and been defeated 72 times. How will you be voting in the referendum? Oh, definitely, definitely. I've known that as soon as I ever got the chance I'd bought out.