The No Way Deal
On Thursday 29 April 2021 it was announced that the bi-lateral renewal of 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 and demersal fleets the decision 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 claim’s 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”
SWFP Chief Mike Park OBE believes that the UK needs to stick to the principles of why Scottish fishermen backed Brexit, he say’s “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, “we will determine who comes into our waters, for how long and how much it costs them”.
The decision welcomed by many in the UK fishing industry unsurprisingly excited those who still haven’t accepted the democratic vote of the British people to leave the European Union as calls of ‘this is the fault of Brexit’ and three Labour MPs joined in the media frenzy lobbying on behalf of the owners of the fishing vessel ‘Kirkella’.
We live in strange political times as the Conservative government impose Covid restrictions on movement of the populace resembling North Korea the Labour Party lobby on behalf of a multi-million-pound foreign fishing company.
I’ve written on ‘flag ships’ and the ‘Kirkella’ many times but let’s examine her? again. As you can see Simon Collins of the Shetland Fishing Association is referring to the Kirkella and her owners when he say’s “we have had predictable squealing from that one company” that company being UK Fisheries Ltd. Registered at Companies House London UK
Fisheries Ltd has listed as directors
Haraldur Gretarsson Manager (domicile) Germany
Diederik Parlevliet Managing Director (domicile) Netherlands
Jan Cornelis van der Plas Managing Director (domicile) Netherlands
Jane Vanessa Sandell Director (domicile) England
Graham Edward Jones Solicitor (domicile) Scotland
Thorsteinn Mar Baldvinsson Managing Director (domicile) Iceland
The company is owned by
Onward Fishing Co Ltd (Iceland)
BV Tory (Netherlands)
So, we see the vessel is what is commonly termed a ‘Flag ship’ registered in the UK but foreign owned it holds English quota to fish Denmark, Greenland, Faroe Islands and Norway. A multi-million-pound state of the art vessel built in 2018 typical crew of 35, not all British, and an office in Hull.
Rich and powerful enough the Dutch Icelandic consortium’s press office hit every mainstream media outlet also local press, it really was an impressive campaign that they should be congratulated on. In their reporting the MSM stated hundreds of jobs would be lost due to this decision one stating “Hull’s remaining fishing fleet would be lost” emotive words except ‘fleet’ is plural Hull no longer has a fishing fleet the beginning of that decline started with the Icelandic ‘cod wars’ of the 50/60/70s but that’s another story.
Let me make it quite clear, I do not desire to see Hull lad’s or UK fishermen lose their job’s and if we look at the past practice of the Dutch/Icelandic owners I don’t believe they will.
Let me remind you of the “FV Margiris” a super trawler owned by the, I believe, same people caused controversy when it was registered in Australia renamed the ‘Abel Talisman’ with an aim to fish the seas off Tasmania protests began including from local fishermen, saying it would decimate their livelihood’s the company hit back through the MSM talking up the employment and economic benefits the ship would bring. The protest’s from local fishermen and environmentalist’s prevailed and Australian Environment Minister Tony Burk appeared on national TV stating that legislation had been passed which meant that the Abel Talisman was effectively banned from fishing in Australian waters. The Abel Talisman was renamed the ‘FV Margiris” registered in Lithuania and now fishes in UK waters. The Margiris is one of the biggest trawlers in the world registering with an EU country means you gain some of that countries fishing quota.
Now I am not saying this will happen with the Kirkella, but one has to think if a company has invested huge amount of money into building a state-of-the-art fishing vessel, they are not likely to send it to the scrap yard especially when they have history of moving ships about and reregistering.
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 ‘we will 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 , Johnson appointed David Frost to head up the negotiations on behalf of the nation and for those ‘nerds’ like me who followed the negotiations and the 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 when the campaign began.
As I have stated many times and particularly in 2020 leading to the final months of the year it was going to be an eleventh hour deal a poor deal for the country and especially poor deal for Britain’s fishing industry and as we saw as 2020 came to an end the final draft 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”, it was nearly five months after Westminster had voted, very late April 2021 that they finally acquiesced and voted in favour and ratified the deal.
As was seen 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 any one reading this document can see it’s a poor deal for Britain’s fishing industry, we know the Fisheries Minister Victoria Prentiss stated on camera that she hadn’t read the deal saying “she was busy organising a nativity activity for her children” she also said that she hadn’t been consulted on fishing by David Frost or his negotiating team, but she voted in support. The only man to stand up in the debate and declare he wouldn’t support the government was Sammy Wilson of Northern Irelands DUP and I paraphrase addressing the PM he said, “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, except for one or two who abstained, so it’s surprising now to hear Sir Keir commenting on the Norway deal on a local election campaign visit to Hull that those 67% voters in Hull who had voted for Brexit had been betrayed by the government.
Other Labour MP’s who have weighed in on the outcome of the Norway deal pointing the finger of blame directly at Brexit and those who campaigned and voted to leave the EU, are Luke Pollard who represents the Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport constituency, Emma Hardy Hull West and Karl Turner Hull East checking voting records we can see all three voted in support of the government Brexit deal, a deal that fishermen in coastal towns around Great Britain declared had sacrificed and abandoned their industry, but according to the Labour Party the fault lies not with those MPs who voted in support but the electorate who voted to be free of the restrictive EU.
Not enough time was given to Parliament to scrutinise the deal nor time to debate this decision on the future of Great Britain, yet 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.
The Kirkella is a wholly owned foreign vessel UK registered receiving English quota , a Flag ship, it occasionally lands its catch in the UK ‘some’ of her crew are British, the company has an office in Hull, Hull no longer has a ‘fishing fleet’ no matter what the MSM say, Brexit is not about one fishing vessel it’s about thousands of fishermen and their families in coastal communities around the UK coastline, its about industries and retail shops that rely on fishing, it’s about an artisanal way of life that is struggling and could be on its last legs, its 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 fifteen 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 promise, I campaigned for the return of Britain’s waters I don’t believe this Conservative government has yet delivered that.
One keyboard warrior stated from the sanctuary of his mother’s back bedroom, isn’t that where they usually hide, “ Hookem’s thick he doesn’t realise the fishing industry is over” thick I maybe, 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 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 super Markets 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 nations table.