In a leaked document published by the Guardian, the EU makes the mistake of seeming to claim as a right that which can only be granted by the UK - access to resources within our 200 mile economic territorial waters. We will manage our own fish stocks to our best advantage - that can be anywhere from fishing 100% ourselves to licensing others to fish it. And we may use that power to negotiate licenses directly with the nations involved, including Denmark and Holland, rather than with the EU.
Of course it will take years to build our fleets up again - not only boats to be built, but men to train, skills to acquire. And the management of fish stocks to assure our future prosperity to be achieved. If there is one red line for the British people, it is regaining total and absolute control of our waters. No conditions. No restrictions. Any foreign boat that fishes in our waters after we leave must do so with our explicit consent or be seized, have its crew imprisoned and its catch forfeit. That's international marine law.
Really, the sooner those deluded fools from Brussels realise they're dealing with a sovereign independent nation and one with warships to boot (though not nearly enough) and not some cowed Euro-Satrapy, the better.
In fact, Mrs May could send the appropriate signals by ordering now the building of ten new fisheries patrol vessels, suitably armed and equipped to carry Royal Marines boarders, and new fisheries patrol drones. The foreign aid budget is rich in resources - and fisheries patrol can be said to be a form of foreign aid.
13 comments:
Unfortunately if it came to a "Cod War" with our EU opponents I think we might loose looking at the present state of our navy!
It is something I have been boring people with for years, that rather than waste money on the small, American controlled Trident fleet. We should have put the moeny into building up a navy of small fast patrol boats to protect our borders, fisheries and seas.
Still I suppose those two Jeep Carriers up in the Firth of Forth could be used for fisheries protection work whilst they wait for their planes!
Barnacle Bill
The UK lost the Cod War because Iceland threatened to pull out of NATO, and they were absolutely essential to keeping the GIUK gap shut to Soviet Submarines
This is all just theatre, when it comes down to it, EUrope has no choice but to accede to all of our demands, or run the risk of none belligerent UK sending Russia a complete and live picture of western and central EUropes military.
Totally agree with your post R, foreign aid money being put to a good use for a change and while the vessels are being built don't forget about surveillance drones. They are relatively cheap and can stay aloft for quite a while, I wouldn't be surprised if there were some types that even carried armaments. How off putting it would be for some thieving eu skipper to be hauling in, then have the bag shot to shreds just as it left the water.
A divorce presumes we went into the EEC happily in the knowledge that the wedding was an equal partnership, the divorce means we do not want to be part of the partnership because of a breakdown, we were never in a marriage, it was all lies from the beginning and it's failed because it was founded on lies, if it's a divorce let them have the DVD's and let's get away quickly because the family the EU has taken in are literally the family from hell, there will be no saving of Europe this time they are on their own.
Barnacle Bill
Any "Cod War" with the EU, would see them lose (not loose). Can you imagine the terribly damaging publicity it would receive not only in the UK but worldwide? The EU isn't terribly popular in Europe right now.
The Trident boats are not American controlled. Just as in the case with Polaris before them, the boats are British, the warheads are British, only the missiles themselves were bought from the US. There is no American control over them whatsoever. As the boats are entirely crewed by RN personnel I fail to see how the US could prevent the release of any Trident missile from a UK boat.
btw no submariner ever calls it a submarine. They are always called "boats"
Fast Patrol boats are not sufficiently capable. You need more Fishery Protection Vessels or as in the Cod War - more frigates.
Agree absolutely with the content, but I think I read somewhere (probably eureferendum.com) that English fishing quotas have been sold to the Spanish etc, so that when we have left the EU the Spaniards will still be fishing within our own 200 miles.
Or have I missed something ?
They are NOT having our fishing grounds. End of. Same as Falklands.
Dadad - AFAIK UK quotas can be sold to other boats so long as they are UK registered i.e. red duster vessels; and yes, several Spanish and Dutch boats have been UK flagged to use such UK quotas
But it's possible this can be dealt with in the longer term by domestic legislation or the quotas becoming time expired.
Good idea about the patrol boats. And they would count as part of our NATO budget.
So keeping Donald happy too.
A reminder:
The final betrayal of Britain’s fishermen was confirmed in 2003, when British waters officially became a European Union (EU) asset, under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
Edward Heath, in his haste to get Britain into the Common Market, fell for a swindle, conceived just days before negotiations for us to join began. It gave the other member states freedom to fish in our waters by making them a ‘common resource’. Having exhausted their own fishing grounds, they wanted to get their nets into the rich fishing waters inside the British 200-mile limit. In accepting it, Heath betrayed British fishermen and gave other EU nations a licence to rob, loot and pillage our fish forever.
Since then, the ongoing process of taking control of our fishing waters by stealth has continued unchecked..
But the whole thing goes much further back:
When Edward Heath (Minister of State for Europe) visited Professor Hallstein, the President of the European Commission, in November 1960, his report on the meeting noted how Hallstein had emphasised that joining the Community was not just a matter of adopting a common tariff “which was the essential hallmark of any ‘State’ (and he regarded the EEC as a potential‘State’)”. It would be necessary, Hallstein insisted, for any new entrant to accept the principle that the EEC was intended to evolve into something much deeper, “some form of Federal State”, which was what the Commission was working towards (PRO/FO 371/150369).
Particularly revealing in this context was the reply given in December 1960 by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Kilmuir, to a request from Mr Heath for comments on what would be the constitutional implications of signing the Treaty for Britain’s sovereignty. Kilmuir responded that in several respects the loss of sovereignty would be considerable: by Parliament; by the Crown in terms of treaty-making powers; and by the courts, which to an extent would become“subordinate” to the European Court of Justice (PRO/FO 371/150369, Bell pp.36-9).
Heath knew he was a traitor - he alludes to it in his diary, published after his death: 'If they (the British People) knew what I had done they'd probably hang me'.
Steve
The EU really isn't getting the message is it?
The second word of my response to them would be 'off'
The trident system is controlled by theAmricans we leese the missiles,they service them, guidance systems and satallite programming are American. Once the missiles are fired the American have the ability to control where they end up.
Ted Heath - he was right, we should have hanged him.
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