Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Will the Conservatives resurrect repatriation of fishing?
The Times reports here on the parlous state of cod in the waters around Britain.
Despite EU rescue plan after rescue plan, it appears the situation is now so bad that a complete ban on cod fishing is needed. To be truly effective, this would also means a ban on fishing for other species too as it is impossible to fish for haddock and whiting without catching cod. According to the figures, last year a 26,500 tonne quota for cod was in force, but 50,000 tonnes was caught "accidentally" by fishermen fishing for other species. This 50,000 tonnes had to be thrown back dead into the sea as it is classified (by the EU) as an illegal catch.
So a quota of 26,500 meant a catch of 76,500, but 50,000 was thrown away, not even eaten. It doesn't take too much brain to realise the farce this is. Remember officials who work with fish quotas and the like should know how fishing works and that a total catch of this magnitude could not be avoided and therefore they should have accounted for it last year.
Of course, we shouldn't even have been in this situation to start with and years of EU sponsored mismangement are to blame. Here we have an example of an unpopular and failed EU policy, (you can't blame the previous Conservative government for the cod collapse now so you can force Labour to take the rap), not so long ago the Conservatives were talking about transfer of powers back to the UK from the EU including fishing policy. What will they do now? They say they want power and government, here is a good opportunity to put clear distance between themselves and Labour, attack both Labour and the EU, and put forward some good sensible policy, pointing out the rather obvious failures of the present policies.
Will we see this happen? Well I'm not holding my breath. What's more important to the Conservatives? Supporting the EU? Or providing policies and government for the United Kingdom? Until or unless they "grow a pair", and start standing up for themselves, and for the people of the UK, it doesn't matter how many logo changes and jingle jangles they do they'll always be in opposition and quite honestly they'll deserve it.
Despite EU rescue plan after rescue plan, it appears the situation is now so bad that a complete ban on cod fishing is needed. To be truly effective, this would also means a ban on fishing for other species too as it is impossible to fish for haddock and whiting without catching cod. According to the figures, last year a 26,500 tonne quota for cod was in force, but 50,000 tonnes was caught "accidentally" by fishermen fishing for other species. This 50,000 tonnes had to be thrown back dead into the sea as it is classified (by the EU) as an illegal catch.
So a quota of 26,500 meant a catch of 76,500, but 50,000 was thrown away, not even eaten. It doesn't take too much brain to realise the farce this is. Remember officials who work with fish quotas and the like should know how fishing works and that a total catch of this magnitude could not be avoided and therefore they should have accounted for it last year.
Of course, we shouldn't even have been in this situation to start with and years of EU sponsored mismangement are to blame. Here we have an example of an unpopular and failed EU policy, (you can't blame the previous Conservative government for the cod collapse now so you can force Labour to take the rap), not so long ago the Conservatives were talking about transfer of powers back to the UK from the EU including fishing policy. What will they do now? They say they want power and government, here is a good opportunity to put clear distance between themselves and Labour, attack both Labour and the EU, and put forward some good sensible policy, pointing out the rather obvious failures of the present policies.
Will we see this happen? Well I'm not holding my breath. What's more important to the Conservatives? Supporting the EU? Or providing policies and government for the United Kingdom? Until or unless they "grow a pair", and start standing up for themselves, and for the people of the UK, it doesn't matter how many logo changes and jingle jangles they do they'll always be in opposition and quite honestly they'll deserve it.
Tags: EU, Conservatives, fishing policy
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
