Category Archives: Europe

Fish and Chips – Our National Dish

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If a foreigner asked an Englishman to name his country’s national dish the chances are that he would answer “fish and chips”. Up until a few years ago that was almost certainly true but following the collapse of our fishing industry in the late 20thcentury our eating habits have changed. How can this have happened?
Well, by the late 1950s the British fishing industry was buoyant and fishing ports like Fleetwood, Hull and Grimsby were booming with the latter said to be the largest fishing port in the world landing greater quantities of haddock, plaice and halibut (to name but a few species) than anywhere else on the planet.

Now, however these once great ports are mere shadows of  themselves and where once there would be hundreds of boats lined along the docks their place has been taken by pleasure craft and the odd inshore fishing vessel. Today the main business in many English fishing ports is the freezing and processing of fish caught by fishing fleets from other countries.

It’s hard to believe that this was allowed to happen and almost harder to believe how it happened. Over-fishing undoubtedly caused a reduction in fish stocks leading in turn to a drop in catches but that could have been dealt with by a system of fishing quotas, limiting the size of catches. The main reasons for the decline were the Government’s failure to back the fishing industry in the Cod Wars of the 1970s (a dispute over the size of the Icelandic fishing grounds) and then in the same decade, the surrender of British fishing rights in return for entry into the European Economic Community. Yes, in a clandestine deal the British Government gave away our exclusive right to fish our own waters to our new European partners. At a stroke the fishing industry was decimated leading to mass unemployment in British fishing ports and a severe restriction (authorised by the European Commission) in the size of British catches.
Matters were and continue to be made worse by the absurd European Union’s Common Fisheries policy, a policy that enforces rigid quotas but which at the same time forces fishermen to discard any fish not included in the quota for that particular fishing trip. This means that a boat authorised to land cod and haddock, for example, must throw away any other fish caught in their nets. Thus millions of tons of perfectly edible and valuable fish (already dead in the nets in most cases) are dumped at sea every year to rot at the bottom of the ocean. In a country where many fishermen are struggling to make a living and in a world where millions of people are dying of starvation it is an absolute disgrace and it almost defies belief that politicians can allow such a scandal to exist.
Of course we still enjoy our fish and chips in spite of the fact that a big increase in price, over the years, has been followed by a corresponding decrease in size. To the average Englishman the taste of cod or haddock and chips cooked in beef dripping is still a mouth-watering prospect but for many the bitter aftertaste of the betrayal of our fishing heritage is the taste that lingers the longest.

European Crisis

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The crisis continues?

As the European financial crisis escalates and yet another bail out places greater strain on the euro and the Union in general isn’t it odd how quiet the usually vociferous pro-European groups have become? You know, those people who laugh scornfully at any who dare to show opposition to their European dream and deride them as “Little Englanders”. To many, the crisis has been a long time coming and has seemed as inevitable as a rainy day in Manchester.

The whole concept of modern Europe was founded on the idealistic dreamings of liberal intellectuals who were convinced that totally contrasting European nations could co-exist happily in a one-size-fits-all federal Union similar to that in the USA. They were convinced that despite the obvious differences between the lifestyles of the European nations a common policy could exist for all and square pegs could be driven into round holes. Not surprisingly they can’t and the predicted collapse of the euro followed by the collapse of the Union itself should surprise nobody.

I’m sure that there will be many future references to Europe in this blog but for now let’s just watch the crisis develop. First though, perhaps we should look at the history of this country’s involvement in Europe and see how we have arrived at this point. It seems that the whole exercise has been one of deceit, duplicity and totally undemocratic behaviour from former Prime Minister Edward Heath onwards.

In 1975 we were given the chance to vote in a referendum on whether we should stay in the Common Market, as the then European Economic Community was known. We were asked whether we thought it a good idea to trade with our near-neighbours without the presence of trade barriers and other restrictions to free trade. Most of us voted “Yes” because we felt a free market could only benefit our economy.

After a while, without even a cursory nod of the head to democracy, the limiting word “Economic” was dropped and we were now part of the European Community. Even more sinister was the  transformation to the European Union and a system far removed from the collection of sovereign states engaged in free trade. Next came the proposals for a European Constitution so that the Union would resemble the USA with the UK having a similar role to play as, say, Alabama in the USA.

Were we asked? No we were not, in spite of the promises of various leaders across the political divide. Maybe there would be no point because as in the case of Ireland a “No” vote is deemed unacceptable and you will simply be asked again and again until you produce the right answer as Ireland, of course, eventually did.

There can be no doubting the fact that the European Union is undemocratic, is corrupt on a massive scale and the bureaucratic bungling and inefficiency (eg. the Common Fisheries’ Policy) almost defies belief. It cannot last and even though the economic price of its failure will be a high one many will see it as a price worth paying. The sad thing is that a European Common Market with no trade barriers and free trade still makes sense but political union? No, it is and always was a step too far.

PS. At least we managed to stay out of the euro and a big thank you for that is owed to Gordon Brown who, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, resisted the pressure of his boss, the then PM and European-President-wannabe-Tony Blair.