Non Negotiable Fish
John Lamont talking tough whilst scrabbling about for credibility on BBC Radio this morning was as funny and as tragic as his colleague, the unfortunate Douglas Ross with his pint of cold sick.
Mr Lamont had previously said:
“Brexit is a huge opportunity for our fishing communities including those in my constituency. After the implementation period is over, full control over our waters must come back to the United Kingdom from Brussels.
“Anything less will be a betrayal of our fishing communities who voted for Brexit in large numbers.”
To be absolutely clear the message being put out by by Ross and Lamont is:
- I have no power in my party
- I can’t represent you as a community
- I am intentionally powerless
- I am functionally useless
No doubt it’s an absolute betrayal – but it’s also a beautiful revelation.
And as Bertie Armstrong and others indulge in mess self-delusion that the deal will somehow be changed further down the road, we have Jacob Rees-Mog channeling Salvador Dali, Ivor Cutler and Erica Cantona throwing dead fish off a trawler into the Thames.
This is Bertie Wooster meets Bertie Armstrong and confirmation that British politics is high farce and Brexit is a Performance Art piece titled ‘Elite Rule has Failed’.
With the BBC’s Nick Robinson talking of “British fish in British waters” (no doubt grinning from gill to gill about their new Blue passports) this is confirmation that we have descended into a land of unrestrained British Nationalism which is going to have real trouble coping with the reality of deals brokered by hard-nosed and pissed-off European negotiators.
‘What does non-negotiable mean?’ #bbcgms
‘Well, I’m not part of the negotiating team’ @John2Win
ScotTories MPs out their depth in the sea of opportunity pic.twitter.com/zJPU80zijF— Phantom Power (@PhantomPower14) March 20, 2018
MPs like Lamont and Ross now have a choice, stand up for what they purport to believe in and oppose the Brexit bill, or expose themselves as craven impotent MPs elected on a tissue of lies.
Let me translate Lamont’s Tory ‘double-speak’ from this morning, “I’ll do whatever PM, Foster tells me.” Oh PM in this case means ‘Puppet-Misress.’ An interesting point was made to me about Brexit by a lad from Fermanagh after the Ireland v Scotland match when he said, “It’s 1921 and Carson all over again,” says it all really.
The fishermen took the bait and were subsequently reeled in.
They should have known better.
Yes they should have known better – but two things are also clear. There is not one single group representative of ‘fishermen’ (with variations within sectors and geography), second I’d be very careful at writing off an entire group of people (especially one who may be hurting and open to a new direction).
The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation should expect nothing and then they will not be disappointed.
The Conservatives owe them nothing and will give them nothing.
More fools them for throwing their lot in with the Tories.
Once again a group of people have been fooled. They stuck with the union, they believed the Tory lies, they are now dead in the water. After transition the fishing rites will be bargained away for the financial wishes of the city. Scottish fishermen are now as they say in Australia, ‘wet arse no fish’.
When as the song says will they ever learn? All over Britain people are losing out and they are accepting their lot. Democracy is not about having a vote, or winning a referendum, but about living with the consequences
Bill
I thought Mr Lamont’s most revealing comment – and he repeated it twice during the programme – was when Mr Gary Robertson asked him an separate occasions if he would vote against the Government and he replied that the ‘most important thing for Scotland is to have a Conservative Government at Westminster.’
I guess the knighthood and the directorships will be on their way soon.
Come on Alasdair surely you realise that he has to do what PM Foster tells him. Oh, sorry PM in this case means ‘Puppet Mistress’.
Yeah I wouldnt be holding my breath. The Precious Union appears as a sort of mythical force that resists logic, economics or principles …
Scottish fish in Scottish waters. What was a major issue along the Moray firth at the last general election? What was the issue that resulted there in Tory gains? What is the ongoing silence I hear from the SNP?
I don’t understand what this comment is about.
Are taking the protectionist / narrow British Nationalist Brexit view that all ‘foreigners’ should be expelled from our waters? I have to say if you are, then as much as it may seem a reasonable course of action it falls to pieces when you actually consider the issue.
For example, and in no particular order:
1. Fish do not respect borders and the North Sea and a lesser extent the North West Atlantic are thus shared resources and they need to be managed in some form because if they are not then they shall be destroyed by human greed (the oyster industry of the 19th century is a perfect example). This requires cooperation, goodwill and in many cases a quota system. There is no way round this and Brexit does not mean there is going to be some sort of free for all as it would seem some in the industry expect.
2. The bulk of Scottish landings are high value species that the British public are NOT prepared to pay for and thus they are exported to markets who are prepared to pay for them. This is the reason that the UK imports as much fish as it exports. This means that a key issue is access to trade. How exactly is that going to work in this Brave New Brexit World? Why would the EU permit free access to their internal market on the back of the plucky Brits throwing out all their fisherman? That is just daft. In addition any access to the market shall probably require a tariff and more than that lots of extra paperwork and cost that shall make any product less competitive.
3. The SFF is mainly a voice of the the larger scale North East White fish boat owners and it is interesting that it seems to have escaped the attention of these people that their access to cheap labour (Non Scottish) that they use on these boats shall be limited by the Brexit they seem to want. Smacks of wanting to have your cake and eat it. If these people are so patriotic why do they not just employ ‘Brits’ on their craft? In addition despite the billing they get from the BBC the SFF are not the only voice in the industry and they do NOT speak for everybody and that includes inshore fisherman, West Coast interests and the not insubstantial aquaculture sector.
4. The processing of fish is actually a more important sector than the fishing in itself. These plants rely hugely upon EU labour that is likely to be choked off by Brexit. What happens then? As an interesting aside a large section of this industry is located in the North of England and in those plants they process the vast amounts of fish that are imported from outwith the UK (Norway being the prime supplier). If anyone thinks that the Tories shall sacrifice those interests in favour of a few Scottish Fisherman (who vote Tory anyway) then they are in dreamland.
5. The CFP for all its faults also includes the EMFF. This is a funding mechanism that has injected hundreds of millions into the Scottish economy over the years and has helped with all sorts of capital investment from boat upgrades, to harbours, to onshore processing facilities and aquaculture. So the obvious question becomes where shall the replacement money come from? The answer is it won’t, again if you think any British Government is going to hand over extra millions to Scotland you are dreaming. They at a push might transfer some management responsibility for the industry but they won’t give any cash and shall they and their worthies shall then just try and lay the blame with the Scottish Government.
6. The quota system as we know it and the CFP in general are not ideal and require to be removed but it important to remember that the quota system we have in place was designed by the British Government themselves. The EU does not dictate how the quota system should function only that there should be one. If the Fisherman are unhappy with that system then they should look to the British Government as it is they that implemented a system that favoured large scale industrial fishing, which subsequently put many small boats out of business and resulted in large multi national interests hovering up quota. It is ironic that the same people who created much of the mess are now posing as the saviours, of course they have reverted to character and sold out again.
As for the SNP and the so called silence, what silence? I heard Fergus Ewing today quite explicitly state that the SNP are Pro-EU and what prefer to either be outside the CFP or engage with it and try to reform it. You can say what you like about that position but at least they are honest and have principles which you definitely can not say about the British Nationalists.
And this is the key point, if we were within the EU as a independent country we would have our own voice at the table instead of having to rely of the British to do the speaking for us. In this way we could / can influence the outcomes in regard to this key sector of our economy (not so key for the British). The CFP needs reform but do you want evidence that it is not a complete failure? Well it is funny how the other small EU nations, such as Denmark for example, have managed to carve out a successful industry. In addition are you aware that we (Scotland) get the least support via the CFP of all the EU fishing nations?
Just goes to show the important of having control of your own interests. Too may people in this ‘country’ appear to be focused on the wrong issue.
Iain,
You did not mention the fact that there will still be foreign boats fishing as they have historic tights under the International Law of the Sea. You mentioned foreign crews but what about all those boats with licences that were sold-off to Spain et al years ago.
What happens to them are they suggesting stripping them of their licences? As for crew for too many Brits fishing is too much like hard work and poor soft wee souls might get hacks on their hands!!!!
Well said sir!!!
Why these guys are even surprised is beyond me. Fishing is expendable, shocker!! Scotland is expendable to these guisers and Muppets like you aid them. I feel like saying get it up you Bertie but I’m above that. All I’m going to say as things develop I hope more come to finally see the great Oz of union is a weak, lying, shriveled up cocoon that Scotland will break free from.
Thanks Iain, great comment, rally useful.
Have you got any stats on the numbers of people involved in processing?
It was recently reported that Grimsby fishermen have requested that they have a bespoke deal with the EU after Brexit. It would be interesting to have more details of such a proposed deal.
I have also been interested to find out how Scottish fishermen will cope with crewing issues after Brexit, given what I understand to the sector’s substantial dependence on EU migrant labour. The same consideration applies to the fish processing industry.
We sometimes see the example of Singapore cited as a model for a future, buccaneering U.K. – but Singapore can meet its needs for migrant labour with migrants who are in many cases commuters across the causeway.
We can’t win everything all at once, so each battle must be fought in turn…
Sea fishing contribution to GDP is something around 0.48%
City of London contribution to GDP accounts for 22%
Sea fishing employment all sectors: @140k (15k current fishermen)
CoL employment all sectors: 7% of UK workforce (2.2million spread across the UK)
Surely those numbers make it obvious why financial services is a bigger priority in the negotiations than fishing.
NB: we have to discuss the fishing quotas of the North Sea with the Scandos NOT the EU and it would be wise to remember we are also the 2nd largest in terms of gross tonnage – how much more fishing can we do?
Imo, are you really saying that the ‘Casino’ Bankers, who incidentally were the cause of the ‘Crash’, should receive preferential treatment while our Fishermen are sold out once again by a bunch of Tory muti-millionaires so that they can continue to line their already bulging pockets (with most of their wealth parked in off-shore accounts) at the expense of hard working fishermen and for that matter every other worker/pensionner in this country?
Surely no one is suggesting that the SNP policy would resolve the issues which the fishermen face.
For any SNP politician attempting to make political capital from this it must be obvious that he dabbles in absolute hypocrisy which is easily seen through.
Maybe not so perhaps that tells you something.
Can’t make head nor tail of that, Jamsie !!!!!