EU Thought We’d Cave On Fish
ON Thursday April 29 it was announced that the renewal of something called the Access and Quota Transfer Deal between Norway and the United Kingdom had ended without reaching a satisfactory agreement.
Brokered by the European Union and biased against UK pelagic (mackrel and herring) and demersal (cod and haddock) fleets the failure was welcomed by many British fishermen. The Shetland Fishermen’s Association executive officer Simon Collins said: “This brings a long-awaited end to past practice in which the EU used to hand substantial amounts of Scottish quota to Norway largely to the benefit of a single foreign multinational that claims to be English”.
He went on to say: “Since the announcement that there will be no deal, we have had predictable squealing from that one company. This in no way reflects the mood of the Scottish family-owned fleet”
SFA chairman and whitefish skipper James Anderson added: “We are convinced that a mutually advantageous annual agreement on access and quota transfer can be struck with Norway in the future. But Norway has to understand that we are not going to cave in, Commission-style, to the detriment of Scottish businesses”
Ian Gatt chief executive of the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association said: “The multinational UK Fisheries, which is non- UK owned-had been seeking significant tonnage of Barents Sea cod quota. Historically that had been secured in exchange for a significant share of Scottish fishing quota.”
Defra commented saying: “The UK had put forward a very reasonable offer, asking Norway to pay for access to UK waters to help correct what ministers believed was an imbalance in previous EU agreements.
“In 2019 the UK took just £31 million in fish from Norwegian waters while Norway landed £249 million-worth from UK waters”
Scottish White Fish Producers boss Mike Park believes that the UK needs to stick to the principles of why Scottish fishermen backed Brexit in the first place and said: “It would be nice to have an agreement in place because our boats were looking forward to getting back fishing in the Norwegian zone.
“But, like everything else, the principles that we stood on for Brexit was about how we will determine who comes into our waters, for how long and how much it costs them.”
The fact the UK did not cave under pressure was welcomed by many in the UK fishing industry but, unsurprisingly, excited those who still haven’t accepted the democratic vote of the British people to leave the European Union.
In 2016 a referendum on UK membership of the EU was put to the people of Great Britain with a simple question, do you want the United Kingdom to remain part of or to leave the European Union.
The overwhelming majority vote was that the UK should leave the EU.
That was the democratic decision by the people and the instruction to Westminster Parliament was to get us out.
This did not sit well with the political parties who had all campaigned to remain.
Over four and a half years of negotiations with the EU, Britain’s political parties and MP’s, all stating publicly in front of TV cameras or directly to constituents they accepted the peoples decision, pulled every constitutional stroke in the book to go against the will of the people.
In 2019 Boris Johnson rode into Downing Street on the back of an 80 seat majority promising to get ‘us out’ and to ‘take back control of our waters’ along with ‘ I will lay dead in a ditch before there is a border down the Irish sea’.
As the new Prime Minister he inherited former PM Theresa May’s negotiating team , the same civil servants who were willing to deliver a BRINO on behalf of May.
Mr Johnson appointed David Frost to head up the negotiations on behalf of the nation and for those nerds like me who followed every cough ans spit of the negotiations and rhetoric coming from Downing Street, Brussels and Westminster it was becoming blatantly obvious that we were not getting the Brexit we had campaigned for since 1995.
As I have stated many times and particularly in 2020 leading to the final months of the year it was going to be an 11th hour deal and a poor deal for the country (and an especially poor deal for Britain’s fishing industry).
As 2020 came to an end the final draft of the Withdrawal Bill was presented to Westminster giving merely days for MP’s to read , digest and scrutinise the implications to sectors such as fishing.
They then were given four and a half hours to debate nearly 50 years of membership of the EU.
Over in Brussels the 750 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) delayed and delayed when the deal came before them with such excuses as “it hadn’t been translated into the member state language” or “we haven’t been given enough time to scrutinise”.
This was nearly five months after Westminster had voted, very late April 2021 that they finally acquiesced and voted in favour and ratified the deal.
British MPs came back from their Christmas break and gave their support – one wonders how many had actually read the deal, 2000 pages HEADING FIVE :FISHING.
Because anyone reading this document can see it’s a poor deal for Britain’s fishing industry.
The only man to stand up in the debate and declare he wouldn’t support the Government was Sammy Wilson of Northern Ireland’s DUP.
He basically told the PM “You haven’t included the DUP or asked our opinion so don’t expect our support”.
The Labour party MPs on the other hand, on instruction of their leader Sir Keir Starmer, voted in support.
So it’s surprising now to hear Sir Keir commenting on the Norway deal on a local election campaign visit to Hull claiming those 67 percent of electors in Hull who voted for Brexit had been betrayed by the Government.
Bottom line is not enough time was given to Parliament to scrutinise the deal nor to debate this decision’s impact on the future of Great Britain. It was hurried through to enable MPs to return to their Christmas pudding or Nativity Plays.
The MEPs in Brussels made the right decision, delay to give time for proper scrutiny.
Brexit is about thousands of fishermen and their families in coastal communities around the UK. It is about industries and retail shops which rely on fishing, it is about an artisanal way of life that is struggling, and most of all it is about an industry that has been used by political parties for generations as a political football.
I will not apologise, as those who can’t accept the decision of the British people, are asking me to do for devoting 15 years of my life in campaigning for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.
I believed then as I do now, Britain’s future is better served outside of the EU. We want to be a trading partner not in a Political Union.
I have been attacked on social media for my beliefs, par for the course in today’s society, I have not lied or made false promises, I campaigned for the return of Britain’s waters I don’t believe this Conservative government has yet delivered that.
One keyboard warrior stated, probably from the sanctuary of his mother’s back bedroom, “Hookem’s thick he doesn’t realise the fishing industry is over”.
Thick I may be, I won’t argue, but I will argue my commitment to Britain’s fishermen.
So don’t ask me to now abandon the fishermen I grew up with and who are friends;
Don’t ask me to abandon the wonderful fishermen and their families I have met on my travels around the many coastal communities;
Don’t ask me to abandon an industry and industries that rely on fishing that I believe will have a great future when we truly take control of our coastal waters and EEZ;
And don’t ask me to abandon the generations to come who will find employment in an industry that their fathers and forefathers have made a living from.
The people of Great Britain must support Britain’s fishing industry and buy their fish fresh from High Street fish mongers or as many supermarkets now sell supposedly fresh fish, ask when buying where it was caught and when, major retailers must buy local fresh caught fish from the coastal harbours.
Support Britain’s fishermen, buy fresh, buy British.
Be Proud of Britain’s fishermen who risk their lives to put food on the nation’s table.