Brexit fishing betrayal is even worse than it already seems for this simple reason
Remember how during the campaign to leave the European Union we were told it was critical we regain control of our fishing waters? Fish and Brexit were synonymous.
Well, and even though I am a Brexiteer, those Brexiteers lied. They did not care a jot about our fish, we did not get them back and nor are we likely to do so.
People like Michael Gove and Boris Johnson used and abused the hopes and aspirations of hundreds of coastal communities, and those who support them, to get their political way.
Even the Brexit Party, of which I was a member, turned its back on the fishing community. We all knew Johnson’s deal gifted the EU our waters and yet the Brexit Party vacated the battlefield on February 1 2020.
Nigel Farage accepted Brexit had been done – it most certainly had not. It has yet to be done. There were some notable individual exceptions, June Mummery (and I) being at the top of the list but the vast majority of Brexiteers accepted Johnson’s lousy deal and threw 186 coastal constituencies under a bus.
To her huge credit, June has consistently banged the drum against this betrayal. If people listened closely, they would also know we do NOT get back our waters in 2026. Yes, that is what Johnson said would happen, but it won’t.
He told us there would be an increasing share in our fishing take over the years between 2021 and 2026 but, in that year, we would regain full and absolute control of our waters. Yet another lie.
Our fishing quotas, such as they are in 2026, and those of the EU will continue in place for as long as the trade agreement with the EU exists. If we seek to vary our allowable catch, the EU would have the right to take compensatory steps against us.
These could include banning our boats from EU waters and imposing punitive tariffs on our fish exports. They may also ban our hauliers from access to the EU.
There will be no betterment to our position in 2026. Anyone labouring under the Johnson lie is in for a shock. What sort of sovereign nation does not control its own economic waters?!
This is one of many reasons why no one can claim Brexit has been delivered. By 2026, of course, our own fishing industry, will have suffered enormous damage. As will have our waters.
For all their faux environmental credentials, the EU is rapacious when it comes to exploiting resources. Our fish are no exception. Their industrial sized ships kill all in their path. Breeding grounds are dredged and habitats destroyed.
The North Sea, which in the early 20th century yielded around three million tons a year of fish for the UK now yields around 640,000 tons a year (down from 700,000 in 2016).
That downward trajectory is not going to reverse any time soon. It is the EU and its methods, empowered by Johnson’s sell-out, that are to blame.
Remainers habitually point to the negligible contribution to GDP made by fishing — some 0.1 percent — to justify their callousness. They are missing the point.
Fish are the most abundant form of naturally replenishing food. Ignore this industry and our waters to our own material detriment.
Why do you think the French fought tooth and nail to fish our waters? They know the true value of what they have now secured. Like with so much else, with fishing our political class has betrayed the country. The battle for Brexit will not be over until we have total control of our waters.
