THE Scottish Fishing industry has been a troubled one and there is every indication it will continue to be so. It’s bound to be pivotal in future trade negotiations, whoever is in government and whether there’s a hard Brexit or not.
If there’s a hard Brexit, British waters would exclusively become the UK’s again. On the face of it this sounds good, and the Scottish fishermen may be pleased. But I also feel problems and controversy won’t be far away!
Currently Scottish waters produce the vast majority of fish for the EU. Britain currently exports 75% of its catch overseas and 75% of this is to Europe. A nasty fish war may ensue. Transport costs, delays at customs and added tariffs may aggravate an already volatile situation. The French and Irish fish industry are particularly worried because the knock-on effect would mean the only legitimate place for Spanish, Belgian, and Dutch boats to fish would be French and Irish waters!
We already know the French fishermen are prone to fight their corner. We’ve already clashed with Eire over Rockall. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone if an almighty rammy occurs!
“Ah!” I hear you say, “don’t fret, we’ve got a Royal Navy to protect us.” Well, that might not be as good as you may think! As John Jamieson highlighted in his letter in last weekend’s Sunday National, “according to the Yellowhammer document there are not enough vessels at present to properly police UK waters against border violations.”
This was already highlighted by Neill Finlayson in a Sunday National article, “Fears over post-Brexit fishing water patrols” (August 11). Just 12 ships to moniter space three times the size of the UK! This may be worse as the Royal Navy strives to protect oil tankers in the Gulf with only seven or maybe eight vessels. Lord West, a former head of the Royal Navy, has already said we have “too few ships”. As indicated in the Yellowhammer document, the worst-case scenario could be massive. It says up to 282 EU and EEA fishing vessels could enter illegally or already be fishing in UK waters on day one, which is ”likely to cause anger and frustration” in the UK catching sector and which could lead to clashes between fishing vessels. You don’t say!
John Jamieson suggested, quite rightly, that the UK should already be building some small, fast protection vessels. But don’t worry folks: Boris is, as I speak, discussing this and other related issues with Jean-Claude Juncker. He has also formed a “crack team of ministers and advisers” in the form of a War Cabinet to resolve such problems.
Convinced? I’m not ... as Britain loses its place in Europe could the War Cabinet be considering a Dunkirk-type resolution when more than 700 vessels were requisitioned! Could CalMac ferries and “Maid of the Loch” also be requisitioned”to save our fishing industry by deterring marauding vessels?
One thing’s for sure — it’s a problem we could do without. Another mess the privileged elite from their ivory towers didn’t consider! The sooner we make our own decisions the better!
Robin MacLean
Fort Augustus
HAS anyone ever done business with Luxembourg? I have. It’s a major centre of banking and investment. It has a high level of public services, a great education service, a tremendous health service, with pay scales well above the EU average for both. Luxembourg educates its children in French, German and Luxembourgish and sends huge numbers of young people to higher and further education all over Europe. And it’s a decent place to live. I’d be delighted if Scotland could be the Luxembourg of the North.
Jean Nisbet
Glasgow
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