Re: Happy Brexit Anniversary

Nope... your still no getting this are you.

Your making excuses because you've got your Boris goggles on

Re: Happy Brexit Anniversary

*** Please can you stop all the personal remarks.

https://www.over50sforum.com/showthread.php?t=9124

Thank you.

Re: Happy Brexit Anniversary

I've started and contributed to many fishing threads, I commented on the fisheries bill as it went through the commons, the house of lords and royal ascent. I pointed out the pitfalls and then supported in 100% when the final amendments were over ruled (when the Lords tried to put in a law for maximum quotas, meaning that we must by law allocated 100% of the quotas even though we don't have enough boats here to catch them - selling out again to the EU).

Anyway, I also said I would support the transition period and the new deal when it came into place, allowing the 5.5 year period where we would eventually claim back our entire fishing waters, both the EEZ and territorial waters.

However, the EU have decided to make a rule that our shellfish which we have been exporting to them for the past decades for washing and processing can no longer be exported without being washed here first. This means that our exported shellfish are outside the categories that define them as fresh, it results in them arriving in such bad condition they are not fit for sale or dead on arrival. However, a Dutch boat can catch them on our 12 mile limit and take them back to Holland for washing over there no problem at all.

So what I'm saying is, that we import around 600m of shell fish a year (from the EU as well) and export around 600m a year. So if we get supermarkets to change their supply chains to buy British shellfish (washed here in Cornwall, Wales etc) we create our own self sufficient domestic market and protect the industry from collapse. We can then implement the Fisheries Bill immediately (it is UK law anyway) to increase conservation areas and no take zones, reduce the overall quotas that are allocated (they are based on a % not a number). This means that we can allow our stocks to recover while the UK fleet have a chance to re-establish itself.

We can also implement the UK Fisheries Bill article where 60% of all catch just be returned for processing in a UK port which will screw the EU flag ships, super trawlers and pelagic freezer trawlers, reducing the plundering of fish by foreign vessels which is happening now. If the government invests in our fishing industry by promoting it abroad (not just the EU) we can also create new markets for our fish because we will no longer be hamstrung by the EU standards governing how fish is packed, inspected by EU vets and all that gargbage that comes with it, which prevented us doing this very thing for years as part of the CFP and shackled to the single market rules.

Our agreement with Norway and Iceland means that we all controller fisheries based on the same set of conservation, sustainability (zonal attachment) laws and rules, so as far as our fishing waters are concerned they automatically start to become protected and become sustainable for generations. This also start licensing vessels, giving priority to UK ones.

The problem is that none of this is implemented and none of it is being pushed by the government. If it was, we wouldn't have this problem - we still only have 23% of quotas and our shellfish industry is going to the wall. If we lose that, then we will be 100% reliant on the EU fleet to fish them for us in our territorial waters and it won't be long before we agree to them doing so within the 6 mile limit. I mean, why not, we won't be able to because we won't have a shellfish industry which is exactly what the EU are trying to do by pulling these stupid stunts.

Johnson needs to up his game and listen to the people in his party like John Redwood, Ian Duncan Smith, Steve Baker etc and sort this out now. These are family businesses that have been here for decades, long before the EU existed. Look at how the herring fleet has been devastated around Norfolk, all those little boats that use to catch herring and sell to Holland, Scotland, England, all over the place. It's gone, because people sat there and let it. They did nothing then and they are doing nothing now (especially regarding the plight of our shellfish fishermen).

I hope that helps to change your mind when you say things like "these fishermen didn't know what they were voting" and "its their own stupid fault" .....far from it. They voted to have a business that would thrive outside the CFP and the EU just like finance, manufacturing, retail, IT etc etc. and how all the other "little people", the Brexiteers did. It was promised during the Brexit process remember ? It was one of the main reasons for voting for leave and demonstrated by all those little boats sailing through the Thames with the Union Flags waving and Nigel Farage throwing back dead fish to demonstrate the sheer lunacy and the utter disaster of the discards process as part of the CFP.

The EU is trying to destroy what's left of our fishing industry while we try and rebuild it. We have around 6 to 9 super trawlers working almost 24/7 around Scotland hoovering up everything in sight. Harbour porpoises and dolphins are being carved up because they are entering the marine conservations zones in places like Dogger Bank illegaly and nothing is being done. Their nets are up to 1 mile long and do not discriminate between species. Once caught its all dead, the pulse beam and beam trawlers continue to carve up the sea bed, devastating marine life and natural habitat, so much so that there is a blanket ban on UK sea anglers taking any sizeable bass home at all. It's illegal for 6 months of the year and then, even when we can take them, only one is allowed, to make way for the commercials to take as much as they want whenever they want.

Don't get me wrong, the Fisheries Bill (UK law) is brilliant, its exactly what we need but its worthless when it isn't implemented and we allow the wholesale continuation of the CFP and EU rules shafting small UK businesses in favour of the big corporates in place like Holland and Denmark. Their boats are hoovering up their livelihood and sticking two fingers up at them as they sail off into the distance.

So, that's my rant over. It isn't what I voted for and its why the whole fishing community is up in arms about it. So is a lot of the Conservative party, and Labour, the Greens etc. This is for Boris to grow a pair and stop the nonesense. He could do something now, but he isn't. Nobody is except people like me and those part of the Fishing For Leave campaign and organisations like that.

On another point, you said that if we can't sell the fish to the EU then what's the point of fishing anyway (or words to that effect). My answer (although way over simplified) is like this ....

The EU gets around 77% quotas at the moment (such as bass, sole, cod etc - stuff people want to buy)

The UK gets around 23% of quotas of species like whiting that nobody wants (except pet food etc) and only tiny amounts of the good stuff

Give UK an increase its quotas of good stuff and give the EU 0%

That means 60% of our remaining fish stocks can have a chance to recover, while the UK can have all of our fish we want while the EU can either buy it off us, Norway, Iceland, USA etc or for free from its own territorial waters, 6 miles off their coast.

Then we don't need loads more boats, but we protect our industry, make it more profitable to increase investment while it rebuilds. We then sell our fish into our domestic market and for the first time in decades we stop being a net importer of UK fish and become self sufficient.

The EU can stuff itself - it's had 40 years of plundering our fisheries let them burn their boats like we did in the 80s and 90s when Spain joined the EU and the CFP went into high gear.

So, there you go.....

But to say "fishermen didn't know what they voted for" and "fishermen were too stupid to realise" and "fishermen deserve all they get" is simply not true. This is where people like me, and hopefully, now you need to lobby our government to correct this crappy part of the deal and get behind our fishermen.

Apologies for the insults too, and the rather long rant.

Re: Happy Brexit Anniversary

Something the government want to see introduced before the first anniversary of leaving with the plan being that these will be introduced this year:

London sets pace in the race to launch a new era of freeports

"Advocates hail a new era of free trade. As Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, has put it: “Our new freeports will create national hubs for trade, innovation and commerce, levelling up communities across the UK, creating new jobs and turbo-charging our economic recovery.”

Ministers promise favourable customs duties and processes, VAT suspensions, business rates relief, zero national insurance contributions, enhanced capital allowances, simplified planning and development and stamp duty reliefs. In exchange, they want prospective freeports to show how they will increase global trade and investment, create jobs, be vectors for regeneration in some of the most deprived areas of the country and become hotbeds of innovation and technology. Once approved, the chancellor says that they will be “open for business in 2021”.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/l...orts-rx3zcgstq

Freeport applications should have been in by Friday.

"At least 30 ports and airports around the UK are considering bids for just 10 slots to become freeports — special economic zones that will benefit from lower taxes — which were presented by Brexiters as a benefit of leaving the EU."

https://www.ft.com/content/fdbed687-...7-00d98abbb690

This is another area which willundoubtedly benefit the UK long-term but will probably upset the EU who will try to argue some sort of tripe about tax evasion and money-laundering as their reason.