‘It’s a betrayal’: Cornish fishing vote turns
against Tories over Brexit deal
In Newlyn, anger at red tape and the falling price of
fish looks certain to be felt at council polls
Michael Bosustow: ‘We are not going to forget when it
comes to voting time.’
Tom Wall
Sun 25 Apr
2021 10.15 BST
Michael
Bosustow rubs his weary eyes as he climbs out of the cabin of his netter,
Annie-May, which is tied up on the harbourside in Newlyn, near the western tip
of Cornwall. He has been awake for about 30 hours and needs to prepare for
another couple of days at sea. But he can still summon the energy to condemn
the Conservative party for striking a deal with the EU that he – like many in
this tight-knit fishing town – regards as a betrayal.
“We are
dying out here – we are all getting older and there aren’t enough youngsters
following us,” he says as the pale spring sun rises and gusts of cool Atlantic
wind flap Cornish flags. “We could have got more fish and created a better
future for the youngsters. It’s a missed opportunity.”
The UK-EU
trade agreement, which came into force in January, gives British boats a
greater share of fish that can be caught in UK waters, but also allows European
boats to fish in those waters until at least 2026, with many in the industry
expecting that to continue for years to come. Border hold-ups and requirements
to purify shellfish before export to the EU have hit earnings and led to some
consignments being left to rot.
The
struggles of the fishing industry could pose problems for the Conservatives in
Cornwall in crucial council elections next month – the first electoral test
since the pandemic hit over a year ago. Although the Tories are the largest
single group in the council chamber – Cornwall has a unitary authority for the
whole county – the Liberal Democrats were able to regain control by forming a coalition
with independent councillors in 2017.
Those
hoping to deliver Boris Johnson’s goal of a Conservative-led council in time
for the G7 summit in Cornwall in June will have to tread carefully in places
like Newlyn, which is home to England’s biggest fishing fleet.
Bosustow,
48, a Brexit supporter, will not be supporting the Tories on 6 May. “We are not
going to forget when it comes to voting time,” he says. “I don’t feel like they
[the Conservatives] deserve my vote at the moment.”
Further
down the quay, Brackan Pearce, 28, is restocking his trawler. He travelled up
the Thames as part of a flotilla of fishing boats demanding control of British
waters during the referendum campaign in 2016. Now he feels betrayed. “They
lied to us. They’ve used us to get Brexit. Without the boats going up the
Thames, Brexit would never have happened,” he says from the deck of his boat.
The deal,
he says, is the worst of all worlds. “It’s a complete sellout. It’s a betrayal.
The deal we have got is lose-lose. We have got friction at the borders and they
[EU fishing boats] have still got access to our waters.” Johnson has lost his
support: “I can’t vote Conservative.”
Newlyn’s
fishers and fish merchants survived the near-complete shutdown of the
hospitality industry during the pandemic by selling more to shops and direct to
the public. But Brexit has caused a whole new set of problems, because 80% of
the catch they land usually gets exported to Europe.
The port’s
harbour master, Rob Parsons, has seen the impact of border checks and delays up
close. “Fishermen would say it has been ‘a lash-up’ – it means it’s been really
bad,” he says, perched on a wall outside his small office. “In January,
next-day delivery became two to three days and that hugely impacted on the
price.”
Prices for
some fish fell to the point where they were not worth catching. “Hake is
normally about £5 to £6 a kilo. It fluctuates daily but we’re down to 60p,”
says Parsons over the squawk of gulls. “In order to make a trip – one boat
going out for five days – you need to clear £2.20 a kilo.”
Outside the
port, there are many in Newlyn who share the fishers’ frustrations. On a park
bench, below the colourful jumble of cottages and terraces rising up the hill,
two neighbours, who typically vote Conservative, are considering voting for
other parties. “The fishermen have been shat on,” says Helen Lugg, 47, a chef,
who has lived in Newlyn all her life. “For working villages like this which
rely on fishing, it’s bad.”
The port is
a constant presence in their lives even though they don’t work in the fishing
industry. “Each boat that goes out we watch for it to come back in,” says Jan
Crawford, 62. “They work hard and risk a lot.” She will not be voting Tory in
May. “We were lied to,” she says. “I used to be Conservative but not any more.”
The
village’s current Conservative councillor, Roger Harding, who is not standing
again, also believes the fishers’ frustrations may cost his party. “They will
lose votes over it,” he says in the gloomy office of the car showroom he owns
near the port. “In a way, the fishermen were expecting something that couldn’t
be delivered, but certainly there is unhappiness. They will be showing their
discontent.”
However,
the two main candidates vying for the newly created Mousehole, Newlyn and St
Buryan electoral division are avoiding the political fallout from the deal. The
Lib Dems’ energetic newcomer, Thalia Marrington, is keen to help the port
prosper outside the EU, but is steering clear of issues connected to Brexit.
“It’s been so divisive. To me it’s happened – we need to move on. I literally
don’t mention it,” she says, pushing her bike stuffed with leaflets through the
village.
The
Conservative candidate William Bolitho, another newcomer, is saddened that some
in Newlyn won’t be turning out for the party. “I’m disappointed by it,” he says,
on his farm in the windswept hills above the village. But he adds that he
understands their frustrations: “They didn’t get what they expected and I do
feel for them.”
French fishermen threaten to block Calais port
over Brexit dispute
Fishermen say Brexit deal promise ‘turned out to be a
lie.’
BY CLEA
CAULCUTT, GIORGIO LEALI AND ESTHER WEBBER
April 23,
2021 2:13 pm
https://www.politico.eu/article/french-fishermen-threaten-to-block-calais-port-over-brexit-dispute/
PARIS —
Major French trade unions are threatening to block the port of Calais within 15
days if fishermen do not receive licenses from the U.K. to operate in British
waters.
“All the
fishermen agree that if we don’t receive a positive response, we will have to
increase the pressure,” said Stéphane Pinto, of the CFTD, one of two unions to
make the threat (the other being the CFTC). “We have to hit British exports to
Calais, the tunnel and the ferry.”
“We were
told we would get our licenses within four to five days and we’ve been waiting
four months, so giving them 15 days is enough,” he said.
A blockade
on the port of Calais would cause severe disruptions for British exporters who
have already been hit by extra costs and paperwork due to Brexit. 7,500 to
8,500 trucks travel through the Calais port on a daily basis.
On Thursday
night, French fishermen staged a protest over the issue in the northern town of
Boulogne-sur-Mer. Around 150 protesters blocked trucks carrying fish from U.K.
waters from entering Europe’s largest seafood processing center.
Only 22 of
the 120 boats operating out of Boulogne-sur-Mer have obtained licenses to fish
in British waters, according to the regional fisheries committees. Under the
Brexit deal with the U.K., French fishermen can apply for licenses to carry on
fishing in British waters but conditions set for qualifying for a license have
proven difficult for many to meet. Fishermen must show that they have been
fishing in U.K. waters from 2012 to 2016 using GPS data.
“The
promise of a deal we had has turned out to be a lie,” said Pinto. “I don’t know
who was deceitful, but we would have preferred a no-deal because at least we
would have had the whole of the EU behind us trying to find a solution.”
The UK
however says it has issued licenses to all the vessels that that met their
criteria and has said the fishing protests were “unjustified.”
“We take an
evidence-based approach to licensing fishing vessels using the information
provided by the European Commission,” the U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s
official spokesman said, “we do not recognize the figures shared by the French
fishing industry.”
The EU
commission says only 20 European applications for the access to British waters
are still pending. "The Commission received and notified to the UK 108
requests for authorisation, out of which 88 have meanwhile received a licence.
These 108 requests cover all relevant regions in France, not only
Hauts-de-France [the Calais region]," a spokesperson for the Commission
said.
The devil
is in the details
The EU
commission on Friday said it was in contact with the British authorities to
resolve the dispute.
“The top
priority when it comes to fishing is to make sure that we have these licence
applications that are all dealt immediately,” said a Commission’s spokesperson,
“For us, this is indeed an urgency.”
Thursday,
France’s Europe Minister Clément Beaune and the Fisheries Minister Annick
Girardin called on the EU commission to take “firm and determined” action to
get the U.K. to apply the Brexit deal.
At the
heart of the dispute is whether the criteria agreed in the withdrawal agreement
make it difficult for fishermen to qualify for licenses, or whether the British
are dragging their feet in delivering licenses.
French
fishermen acknowledge the British are right when it comes to the small print of
the withdrawal agreement, but say they don’t respect the spirit of the deal.
“The global
deal looked superb, but it was too good to be true,” says Olivier Leprêtre,
president of the regional fisheries committee in the Hauts-de-France. “When we
started sifting through the 1,200 pages of the agreement, we realized that
there are lots of blocking criteria. Ultimately, we have been almost completely
excluded from British waters."
Leprêtre
says criteria on netting, fish species and fishing zone demarcation are
particularly problematic.
According
to the EU commission, there is no specific tool in the EU-U.K. post-Brexit
agreement to tackle a blockage on fishing licenses, apart from the general
dispute settlement mechanism.
'Profits
have plunged'
Fishermen
in Boulogne-sur-Mer say they need access to British waters because the Channel
is at its narrowest and busiest between France and the U.K.
“Profits
have plunged since mid-January, fishermen here have lost 60 to 70 percent of
their revenue,” says Leprêtre.
“The
problems are only getting worse. We can’t access British waters, but neither
can the Dutch nor the Belgians,” said Leprêtre. “And so they are pushed into
French waters, which is putting a lot of pressure on our stocks.”
Meanwhile
the European Commission cleared €100 million of French aid to the fisheries
sector to compensate revenue losses caused by Brexit on Friday.
“The
fisheries sector is one of the most affected by Brexit, requiring fishermen and
downstream market operators in affected Member States to re-organise and adapt
to the new situation,” the EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said in a
statement.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário