Letters / Fishing to be sold out again
I voted Leave in the Brexit referendum.
I did so because the EU is not democratic and because of the damage done to the fishing industry by the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
Tory Prime Minister, Ted Heath, sold out the fishing industry in order to get in to the, then, Common Market, his civil servants told him the fishing industry was ‘expendable’, Norway, by comparison, took the trouble to get the CFP document translated and walked away from membership negotiations.
It does not surprise me that fishermen bodies are pleased with Brexit and the possibilities, but it does surprise me that they, against past evidence, are putting their trust in the Tories. Fishing must be high on the list to be sold out again.
At the BBC Hustings debate, the Lib Dem candidate managed to look both ways at once on the CFP and Brexit. He could not explain the logic of wanting back in the EU but out of the CFP, the implication of signing the Scottish Fishing Federation’s ‘Brexit pledge’.
The SNP candidate gave me hope, saying that the SNP believes that the CFP should be ‘radically reformed or scrapped’. As the EU will not reform the CFP the only alternative for the SNP will be either to join EFTA, no CFP, no CAP, or to walk away from the EU completely.
Perfect. On that basis, I will be voting for Miriam Brett next Thursday.
Brian Nugent
Hamnavoe
Burra
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