Toby on Tuesday

'Take the current when it serves' 

 

Recently I wrote about two countries which are about to join the EU – Bosnia, where the First World War broke out in 1914 and which has enjoyed visa-free travel to the Schengen zone since 2010, and Turkey, where visa-free travel starts in June, despite the warnings from the courageous King Abdullah of Jordan that it is deliberately “unleashing ISIS terrorists into Europe” and “the fact that terrorists are going to Europe is part of Turkish policy.”   In both cases, the process for EU membership is well underway.  Today I want to write about a country that has successfully left the EU – Greenland.   As the world’s largest island with only a tiny population dependent on its fishing industry, the potential for Greenland is enormous.   And in 1982, following a dispute over the folly and injustice of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, to which Ted Heath had signed up Britain, Greenland had a referendum on continued EU membership.   53% of Greenland’s voters opted to leave, around the same proportion of British voters who I believe will opt for “Leave” on 23rd June.   The same fear tactics and pressures were brought to bear on Greenland then, but the good sense of its people prevailed.   And what is significant is that in 1984 Greenland and the EU signed the Greenland Treaty which allowed for an amicable withdrawal and continued trade, precisely what Britain should now be seeking.   So a precedent already exists for the way ahead for Britain.

Now where this is relevant is that when Michael Howard was leader of the Conservative Party, Conservative policy was to withdraw from the Common Fisheries Policy.   Today, as Lord Howard of Lympne, he has declared his support for leaving the EU.   But as soon as David Cameron became leader of the Conservative Party, he followed the Ted Heath line and dropped the policy.   And in so doing he condemned our fishing industry to the continuation of a deeply destructive system that embodies all that is wrong with the EU.   Until 1973, Britain enjoyed the finest fisheries in Europe, representing 70% of the Continent’s fishing grounds.   But under the EU’s quota system, we now have only 13% of the EU’s whole fishing quota.   We have to import vast quantities of cod, haddock and other species which have always formed part of our national diet.   Ted Heath’s government had no authority to give away our territorial waters in 1973 and this great crime, for crime it was, must now be put right.   And under EU rules huge quantities of good fish are simply destroyed.   Last year’s “reform” of the Common Fisheries Policy has already failed and the scandal of discarded fish continues unabated.   £2.5 billion a year of fish sales have been taken out of our economy, while industrial fishing techniques which destroy marine life continue to be permitted under EU law.   And while the UK fleet, which is made up mainly of smaller fishing boats, receives only 4% of the English quota, the five largest foreign-controlled industrial fishing vessels take 32% due to quota sales, a figure that is simply unacceptable.   Electric pulse trawling, which the EU allows, destroys marine life and the ecology of our seas.   If you really need an allegory for the sheer awfulness of the EU, then just look at our membership of the Common Fisheries Policy.   If we still had any gumption left as a country, this alone should have led us to follow Greenland out of the EU years ago.

And there is a huge psychological advantage as well for Britain in coming out of the Common Fisheries Policy.   Under international law we would have the right to reclaim the 200-mile exclusive economic zone under our control, as well as our 12-mile zone for UK fishermen.   We could restore our fishing industry and our boat-building industry, and recapture the sense of our being an outward-looking, adventurous maritime nation again, open to the world beyond the disaster that is the EU.   And our nation’s security could be strengthened by rebuilding our Border Force patrol fleet.   Believe it or not, we now have just three Border Force patrol vessels for a coastline that is as long as America’s East Coast, although America’s Border Force patrol fleet is the same size as her Navy.   We can become a seafaring people once more when we vote “Leave” in June.   As voters weigh up the risks and advantages in a “Remain” or “Leave” vote in June, and are inundated with information and misinformation, they must sometimes think that they are being asked to choose between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.   Well, I would say that there’s a very simple answer to the choice between forming part of a political union with Bosnia and Turkey or following Greenland out of the EU – the time has come to turn our backs on the Devil and set out onto the Deep Blue Sea!

Until next Tuesday!

Toby

take the current when it serves
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/sea_2.html