**Brexit Jokes & Comments Thread**

[Deleted]

Oh, and regards fishing quotas and the EU and demands by trawlermen to get their fishing rights back...Did you know that 23% of UK quota is caught by one Dutch vessel the Cornelis Vrolijk? That 44% of UK quota is owned by Dutch and Spanish companies? That 61% of UK quota is owned by just three companies - Dutch, Spanish and British?

link

That's right, British fishermen sold their rights.

[mids]

Sold or had taken from them and got bunged a few quid compo?

[Minge är en jävla besserwisser]

I'd be intrigued to know who sold what to whom for how much and when?

[perrykneeham]

Yeah, that boat wasn't built until 1988.

[nobody]

Wasn’t it part of the deal to give up our fishing rights around our coast to get entry to the Common Market

[bertruss2]

Brexit isn't necessarily going to make any difference to the British fishing industry. Unless the UK is going to leave the global capitalist system and become a closed shop.

Many British fishermen have sold their boats and the licences that go with them to huge fishing companies which have a British registered subsidiary but which are ultimately foreign-owned. That's capitalism. Fishing is no different from other industries in that respect.

The British car industry is almost entirely foreign-owned. The workers are (mostly) British, the cars are assembled in plants in the UK, the company is British but the parent company is abroad. All investment decisions are taken, for example, in Mumbai, Munich, Yokohama where Tata Motors, BMW and Nissan have their headquarters.

The fishing industry isn't quite at that stage but the principle is the same.

[bertruss2]

Wasn’t it part of the deal to give up our fishing rights around our coast to get entry to the Common Market

No. We haven't given up our fishing rights. The national quotas are agreed in Brussels by the fishing ministers of the 28 member states. The UK government (and the devolved governments) divide the British quota among British-licensed fishing boats.

[flatandy]

Mar 6, 2018 7:57:55 GMT perrykneeham said:

Other countries' civil servants don't run UK, dumbo.

Also, I don't think you'd find many people in UK who think we have too few civil servants.

Somewhat ironic given that the people of the UK voted 52-48 to require a whole lot of extra administrative tasks by the border force, the customs agency, the immigration agencies, the DWP and so on.

[flatandy]

Of course, a common fisheries policy is infinitely more sensible than letting a country have a free-for-all in their own waters, encouraging their fishermen to take all the fish before they can swim into Norwegian or Dutch or Icelandic water, which only guarantees the complete destruction of the fish stocks. The practice of the current fisheries policy might be flawed, but it's infinitely better than having no common policy at all.

[nobody]

The current policy, unless Hugh Fernley managed to get it changed is bollox.

Tons of dead fish were being thrown overboard due to EU quotas 

[bertruss2]

Tons of dead fish were being thrown overboard due to EU quotas

EU quotas are our quotas. If you have any complaints, contact Tory fisheries minister George Eustice. He's the UK representative at the meeting of member states at the Council in Brussels to decide quotas. After the quotas are fixed, the UK government (and devolved governments) share out the quota for British registered boats (many of them foreign owned).

[nobody]

Have you any idea what the quota/rule is?

[bertruss2]

Have you any idea what the quota/rule is?

I have a vague idea, but this is something that the fisheries ministers of the member states have been discussing and agreeing on for 45 years. You have to ask George Eustice.

[Deleted]

When the quota system was introduced it was left to the individual countries to use the quotas how they wished. Some put the quotas on their fishing ports while the UK put the quotas on trawlers. This way, the trawler owners could sell-off the boats to whom they wanted, and a lot did, to retire in comfort. I don't blame them - I'd do the same. But it ain't the fault of the EU.

wiki

[Deleted]

[Minge är en jävla besserwisser]

Mar 6, 2018 17:03:04 GMT @oneofthelessergods said:

When the quota system was introduced it was left to the individual countries to use the quotas how they wished. Some put the quotas on their fishing ports while the UK put the quotas on trawlers. This way, the trawler owners could sell-off the boats to whom they wanted, and a lot did, to retire in comfort. I don't blame them - I'd do the same. But it ain't the fault of the EU.

wiki

Slightly misses the point. The quotas were imposed on the individual countries. Sure the countries get to determine how they can divide up their allocation of 2 mackerel and flounder (that's a fish, not a remainer in this instance) but it's just allocating the crumbs from Junker's table.

[flatandy]

Are you saying that their shouldn't be quotas? Or that quotas should be applied by competing nation states? You do realise that both of these lead to tragedy-of-the-commons situations where the fish stocks end up vanished, don't you?

[nobody]

One of the big problems (unless it’s been addressed) is that fisher folk are allowed a quota of a type of fish. Since catching them with nets is indiscriminate, if they catch the “wrong sort” they are thrown over the side, dead, they keep fishing until they reach their quota of the “right” sort.

[bertruss2]

Mar 6, 2018 18:58:02 GMT nobody said:

One of the big problems (unless it’s been addressed) is that fisher folk are allowed a quota of a type of fish. Since catching them with nets is indiscriminate, if they catch the “wrong sort” they are thrown over the side, dead, they keep fishing until they reach their quota of the “right” sort.

In 2011, the EU Commission set out its policy to stop the waste of throwing non-quota fish overboard. The Commission isn't the government of the EU and can't make laws. The main decision-making body is the Council. In the case of fisheries policy, the Fisheries Ministers of the 28 meet at the Council building in Brussels. They finally reached an agreement, based on the Commission proposals and legislation was adopted in February 2013. The ban is being phased in gradually from 2014 and, by 2019, it will cover all the EU’s fisheries, with some exceptions.

[bertruss2]

The quotas were imposed on the individual countries.

The Commissioners don't 'impose' anything. They can only act under the authority of the member states. On the basis of scientific advice, the College of Commissioners proposes limits on the catch of different species in order to preserve fish stocks. This is the TAC (Total Allowable Catch). The member states, then have to reach agreement among themselves about the TACs and the national quotas. So, the quotas are agreed, not imposed. Once they are agreed, the national governments allocate their quota to their fishers.

You can look all this stuff up on the UK gov or EU Commission website.