Saturday, December 12, 2020
Johnson declares war on the EU
If we were worried before about the UK entering splendid isolation after Brexit then things may have deteriorated markedly from such a scenario as Boris Johnson puts the British navy on a war footing to repel the hordes of European fishermen determined to infiltrate our waters and steal our fish. Why he has not thought of branding each fish with the union jack, as with the Pfizer Covid vaccine I do not know.
The Guardian reports that the government have ordered four Royal Navy patrol ships to be ready from 1 January to help the UK protect its fishing waters in the event of a no-deal Brexit, in a deployment evoking memories of the “cod wars” in the 1970s, and we all remember how well that turned out.
They say the 80-metre-long armed vessels would have the power to halt, inspect and impound all EU fishing boats operating within the UK’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which can extend 200 miles from shore - right up to the French coast then.
Naval sources have told the paper the deployment had been long planned, and of course the navy has always patrolled our territorial waters, but this is not a routine operation. The Guardian say Conservative ministers quietly doubled the total fleet of patrol ships from four to eight, partly in case of a crisis caused by a no-deal Brexit, and of course the fact that this story is headline news in most newspapers today is no accident. Johnson wants to let it be known that he has declared war on the EU in retaliation for him not getting his own way.
The European President is not backing down: Speaking at the end of Friday’s European council meeting of EU leaders, Ursula von der Leyen, the European commission president, said: “We understand that the UK aspires to control its waters. The UK must, on the other hand, understand the legitimate expectations of EU fishing fleets built on decades and sometimes centuries of access.”
The scene is set for confrontations in the waters around the UK followed by lurid headlines in all the tabloids and Sun journalists autographing missiles as happened in the Falklands. Nobody has yet explained though to whom the fish caught in British territorial waters by British fishermen will be sold. A huge amount of this catch is sold to EU countries, will they be so keen to buy it if their own fishermen are being penalised?
The Guardian reports that the government have ordered four Royal Navy patrol ships to be ready from 1 January to help the UK protect its fishing waters in the event of a no-deal Brexit, in a deployment evoking memories of the “cod wars” in the 1970s, and we all remember how well that turned out.
They say the 80-metre-long armed vessels would have the power to halt, inspect and impound all EU fishing boats operating within the UK’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which can extend 200 miles from shore - right up to the French coast then.
Naval sources have told the paper the deployment had been long planned, and of course the navy has always patrolled our territorial waters, but this is not a routine operation. The Guardian say Conservative ministers quietly doubled the total fleet of patrol ships from four to eight, partly in case of a crisis caused by a no-deal Brexit, and of course the fact that this story is headline news in most newspapers today is no accident. Johnson wants to let it be known that he has declared war on the EU in retaliation for him not getting his own way.
The European President is not backing down: Speaking at the end of Friday’s European council meeting of EU leaders, Ursula von der Leyen, the European commission president, said: “We understand that the UK aspires to control its waters. The UK must, on the other hand, understand the legitimate expectations of EU fishing fleets built on decades and sometimes centuries of access.”
The scene is set for confrontations in the waters around the UK followed by lurid headlines in all the tabloids and Sun journalists autographing missiles as happened in the Falklands. Nobody has yet explained though to whom the fish caught in British territorial waters by British fishermen will be sold. A huge amount of this catch is sold to EU countries, will they be so keen to buy it if their own fishermen are being penalised?
