Fisheries Spokesman: Andrew George
The fishing quota settlement announced today represents a reprieve for Britain’s fishermen and leaves Tory critics all at sea, according to Liberal Democrat Fisheries spokesman Andrew George MP. He commented: “When the Minister kicked off the Commons Fisheries debate on Tuesday, he steadfastly held to the view that the fishing quota should be subject to an additional 2% cut to cushion the stock as a margin of error. “I and the industry argued strongly that he should phase in the precautionary element to the quotas. Both he and the other EU Fisheries Ministers have now accepted this logic. An aura of gloom has been lifted from the fishing industry, and the fishermen I spoke to this morning in Newlyn expressed relief rather than delight. “However, it is high-time we abandoned the absurd process of last-minute planning for the industry. It is simply not good enough that fishermen can only plan two weeks ahead when they should be planning two years ahead. “The Tories are all at sea on this subject. After 18 years of fiddling and fumbling while the industry was brought to its knees, they can offer nothing other than an absurd proposal to pull out of the Common Fisheries Policy, which is impossible at this stage, as they know well.” |
