For a nation with links to the sea as strong as the UK, nothing raises such visceral protectiveness as our territorial waters and fish. Oh sure we can get a little bit excited about the economic benefits of passporting for the City, but it simply doesn't raise the blood to battle as does the prospect of a Dutch trawler stealing our cod. Gaining economic sovereignty (I won't say regaining) of our 200 mile commercial limit in 2019 is therefore a big deal.
For UK fishing fleets to take up the catches currently taken from our waters by the EU27 will take time. Boats must be built, crews must be trained, shore facilities must be expanded - and most importantly, vessels to patrol and police our waters from foreign poachers must be built and crewed. If new keels are not laid this month, we simply won't have the last capacity in March 2019.
I'm not surprised that the EU27 want to hold onto their right to take British fish during the 2-year transition period, nor that the government seem prepared to concede this. If not the CFP then some form of licencing would realistically have been needed to allow continental fleets to wind-down their operations. However, our lost licence fee income from these two years must be deducted from the financial settlement - after 2019 they'll be taking our fish, not a common EU fish stock.
And one measure we can take, one piece of legislation we can prepare, is to reverse the judgement in Factortame. Requiring red duster flagged vessels to have a majority of UK national owners would at least halt the despoliation of stun fishing, and ensure that within reasonable time the full economic benefits would return to the United Kingdom.
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It seems to me that the biggest problem that we have is that our rulers have either a well developed sense of fair-play, which is not shared by any of the other EU states, or those same people have been through a so-called modern education system where socialist indoctrination has brought about the application of universal virtual lobotomy as a requirement for a career in bureaucracy and politics.
I rather think the latter, particularly following the recent referendum, which demonstrates that these same people believe and practise the idea that anyone that believes in the dignity of labour is by definition thick and incapable of discussing or understanding their lofty ideas.
One of the most frightening aspects of recent times is the idea, fostered by everyone in government from royalty down that the most pressing issue for them is that of endemic mental illness. This was a feature of the soviet empire, which disappeared overnight with the emergence of Boris Yeltsin, who drunk or not, was a red blooded Russian.
Apparently, we are not so fortunate as the Russians.
My apologies, the above comment is from right-writes.
According to P Eye, Gove signed a 5 year fishing deal with the EU last December, ending in 2023.
As soon as we regain control of our own waters we must stop the Dutch from using electronic pulse "fishing."
In May's "Green revolution" talk yesterday, when she was wittering-on about plastic in the sea, not one word did she say about this ecologically-destructive practice which the EU has sanctioned for the purposes of "research."
If it's really "research" no fish killed by it should be available for human consumption .... and that would stop the Dutch from carrying it out!
Radders - dream on, for all that I agree with you totally on this you can bet that the government has not the slightest intention of fighting on this issue.
Abject surrender is guaranteed.
And as Amber Rudd is MP for two important fishing fleets, on Hastings Beach, and Rye Harbour, she will be doing her utmost to support every move to retain our fishing prosperity.
Won't she?
The answer is simple. If the EU want to fish in UK waters then they must pay to do so. Down payment of €50 billion and €1 billion a year thereafter.
The EU rulers are happy for us to become a "third country" ie nobody, end of March next year. Why should we have already given them fishing rights to save their destructive fleets?
I guess because the inter government, old boys club has already decided that us plebs will get what we are given.
All tied up in a disinformation and bullshit deal sold to us by a compliant media and the EUphile AlBeeb.
The whole Brexit deal is starting to stink like a rotten fish!
The penpusher crew don't want to leave and I suspect we'll see more intrusive, contrived and actually spiteful "regulation" foisted onto fishermen.
The Common Fisheries Policy and the bureaucrats that run it need euthanising.
If we really want to regain control of our own waters, we should be having talks with the Icelanders to (re)learn how it is done.
Since Theresa May wants a "new, deep and special partnership" with the EU shadowing the SM and CU, being partially subject to the ECJ, and signed up to military, security and diplomatic subjugation to the EU, the fact that the Tories have done nothing about regaining our fishing waters is no surprise. The only surprise is that so many are still surprised by May's betrayal.
Not much has changed since we last discussed this, so I will cut/paste my previous comment.
And why is this happening? Simply, the RN is ineffectual, looking at their website there are four patrol vessels, digging down further, one is in the Atlantic, another "at sea" and two alongside. Summarizing, there is actually one fishery vessel available-about par for the RN, and even that vessel could be called upon should the Russians decide to traverse the North Sea.
The RN site now shows six inshore fleet vessels (though how a vessel under construction and another that is decommissioned can be included can only be explained by the liars in government):
Forth-Sea training
Medway-Being built
Clyde-Falkland Islands
Medway-Antarctic patrol
Severn-Decommissioned
Tyne-Alongside, Portsmouth.
So one vessel is available for fishery patrol, but patrolling has such a low priority, the vessel is not even at sea.
So once again the politicians are lying to you, effectively there is NO inshore fishery patrol, the Dutch surely know this and will continue to do whatever they damn well please.
A government that truly wished to Brexit would have had a fully funded budget for an inshore patrol vessel fleet,(amongst other necessary requirements) and tenders ready to start construction.
This government is incapable of Brexit.
28 November 2017 at 01:33
Allow me to correct two silly errors
The RN site now shows six inshore fleet vessels (though how a vessel under construction and another that is decommissioned can be included in the fleet can only be explained by the liars in government):
Forth-Sea training.
Medway-Being built.
Clyde-Falkland Islands.
Mersey-Alongside, Portsmouth.
Severn-Decommissioned, Portsmouth.
Tyne-Alongside, Portsmouth.
So two vessels are available for fishery patrol, but patrolling has such a low priority, the vessels are not even at sea.
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