Yesterday there was an Urgent Question on the EU ban on exports of bi valve molluscs from the UK to the EU. The Defra Secretary told us he had prior assurance from the EU confirming the legality of this trade post Brexit, but the EU have now changed their mind. The UK has been supplying continental restaurants and food shops with some shellfish. The English fishermen supply them straight from the sea, with continental processors cleansing them for sale with their own depuration facilities. He promised to seek urgent reversal of the decision, understanding the damage it is doing to small fishing businesses. It affects oysters, muscles and clams, not the larger trade in lobsters and crabs. Demand on the continent is down anyway given the widespread closure of restaurants.
I urged him to make help available to the UK industry so we can process the shellfish here. Then they could be exported as food products. It would also mean we could sell them through our own fishmongers and food stores. The EU is being unreasonable over various food trade issues. It is high time the UK government took tougher action to enforce our UK internal market and ensure the smooth passage of food into and out of Northern Ireland, and time to be firm over fish. I did get a more encouraging reply to a recent written question on growing more of our own food.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (144914):
Question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to promote and support more protected growing of vegetables and salad crops to extend the UK growing season. (144914)
Tabled on: 28 January 2021
This question was grouped with the following question(s) for answer:
- To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential to extend the UK fruit growing season; and what support his Department provides to growers to extend their season. (144915)
Tabled on: 28 January 2021
Answer:
Victoria Prentis:
We have the ideal climate and landscape to enable us to produce a wide range of fruit, vegetables and salad crops throughout the year. Innovation such as the development of new plant varieties and growing systems has already allowed growers to extend the domestic growing season for products such as strawberries.
We will continue to encourage and support our growers to produce more high-quality home-grown fruits and vegetables, ensuring a reliable and sustainable supply of top quality and healthy home-grown fresh fruit and vegetables throughout the year, all produced to high environmental standards.
Growers of protected and salad crops are currently able to apply for financial support to help them improve their productivity via the Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme, and looking ahead the Agriculture Act will provide powers to offer financial support to anyone starting, or improving the productivity, of an agricultural or horticultural activity.
Later this year, growers will have the opportunity to apply for support to invest in equipment, technology and infrastructure via the new Farming Investment Fund. This will help them to boost their productivity whilst also reducing impact on the environment.
The answer was submitted on 08 Feb 2021 at 14:57.
February 9, 2021
To extend the season for intensive agriculture one of the major costs is heating.
Large industrial units, electrical generating stations and nuclear power plants all produce waste heat during different processes generally in the form of flue gases or warm water. The high or medium temperate waste heat can be used for many applications, but low temperature waste heat has few usages and is just dissipated through cooling towers.
Plants in greenhouses also benefit from the addition of carbon dioxide which is essential for photosynthesis and growth. Power stations also produce carbon dioxide.
âCombine Power and Plantâ stations could make a significant contribution to our agricultural productivity and green agenda.
More generally the tax/subsidy system should encourage vale chain integration where there is no âwasteâ, because all by-products are the input to some other activity. As in the example above where the waste from the power station, low temperature heat and carbon dioxide, are just the inputs needed for intensive all year round greenhouse agricultural.
Penalise heavily the production of waste and see how creative people will be!
February 10, 2021
+1, a very interesting idea.
February 9, 2021
So DEFRA has been saying for 18 months that this live export from both Class A and B waters would be ok with the commission? And scarcely a week ago the horrible news broke. Loss of multi million industry.
And apparently we donât have many Class A waters…could that be remedied?
DEFRA has let us down big time.
Terrible betrayal of Brexit.
February 9, 2021
I doubt that anything can be done to improve the quality of coastal waters, because the English, and perhaps the British, attach little value to such things. This is despite 50 years of EU membership, from which nothing good appears to have rubbed off. Not only coastal waters either. Just 14% of English rivers are of a good ecological standard.
February 9, 2021
MWB, Two months ago UK shellfish were accepted by the EU. Now you say that the EU is right to reject them – even though nothing has changed in our coastal waters. Ahh, I see, the shellfish are very clever shellfish, and know that they have left the EU, so they’re different. Nothing to do with EU spite, then?
February 9, 2021
Well MWB, perhaps we actually need to thank the EU for bringing this ‘B grade water’ and the need to purify this catch so swiftly to the general public’s attention whilst the Country is locked down.
February 9, 2021
You need to encourage domestic consumption of shellfish..along with UK seaside holidays.
Seafood as a street food was very popular at one time. And in London Sunday tea was often winkles, removed from their shell with a pin.
If the govt. wants to make a success of home grown food re Brexit it will need to alter/ reignite food habits.
A more useful role for SAGE maybe?
February 9, 2021
I don’t think it is up to Government to encourage specific food consumption – why can’t the industry itself employ professional consultants to find new markets? Are fishing companies offering competitive prices to UK supermarkets? Are they investigating non-EU markets? I have repeatedly noted that Northern Hemisphere fish/shellfish are in demand here in S Africa, yet all I see are Norwegian frozen products (at high prices) in the supermarkets. Perhaps someone out there could inform me?
February 9, 2021
I was thinking of something like The Milk Marketing Board ( abolished by Mrs T) I believe that farmers found it most useful.
February 9, 2021
Are they offering fish at a good price in our supermarkets? You must be joking. Same as home grown meat. I was looking at the price of Welsh lamb yesterday. There is an abundance of it. While it may be good quality the price was extortionate. How can I buy a leg of lamb from New Zealand for half the price of Welsh lamb which in Shropshire is on my doorstep?
February 9, 2021
From âThe War-song of Dinas Vawrâ by Thomas Love Peacock.
â The mountain sheep are sweeter,
But the valley sheep are fatter;
We therefore deemed it meeter
To carry off the latter.â
February 9, 2021
FUS well that is a good question and one that Welsh farmers should answer, how can it be cheaper to ship in New Zealand lamb for half the price, what are you doing wrong in your Welsh farm?
February 9, 2021
Compulsory change of diet. Brexit bonus! I don’t remember seeing that on the side of a bus
February 9, 2021
I don’t recall seeing the ÂŁ200bn(*) a year that Remain promised us we got from the EU whilst remaining in, either, Grey.
(*) Remain leaflet promised “nearly ÂŁ10” back for every ÂŁ1 we put into the EU.
February 9, 2021
http://www.voteleavetakecontrol.org Spring 2016 âWhat happens when we vote Leaveâ
1. Trade with the EU will be tariff-free and involve minimal bureaucracy.
2. Northern Ireland border absolutely unchanged.
3. End supremacy of EU law and that of the EUâs Court of Justice.
4. Take back control on immigration and asylum, and cut migration to the tens of thousands.
5. Britain will take back control of its fisheries.
6. Brexit dividend of ÂŁ350m a week instead of being sent to Brussels.
7. New trade deals and access to European trading zone âfrom Iceland to Russiaâ.
8. Continue cooperating on security issues and counter-terrorism.
9. Financial protection for farmers who get from Brussels.
10. Continued participation in EU science research schemes, deeper scientific collaboration, plus increased funding for science.
11. Wages will be higher.
12. The Union will be stronger.
13. Cut VAT on energy bills to save the average household ÂŁ63 a year.
14. Scrap VAT on sanitary products.
15. The new treaty should be ready within two years and before the next election in May 2020.
That was not on the ballot paper, but certainly on the VoteLeave website.
Have you already forgotten that, NickC? How convenient, isnât it?
And obviously if one feels cheated, itâs only the EUâs fault, isnât it?
February 10, 2021
Hef,
Your fatal flaw in your post of course is that voteleave expressed what could be achieved the Fake Tory Govt. negotiated something completely different. Then used spin and lies to hide what they had agreed.
I am sure you know that, just a poor weak petulant reply.
February 10, 2021
As you have been allowed to provide a link, I will point out that
“What would happen if we vote to leave the EU”
is at this link:
http://www.voteleavetakecontrol.org/why_vote_leave.html
and much of what you have written is not there, it has been made up by somebody.
February 10, 2021
Hefner, Your link does not go to the list you claim, see the link provided by Denis Cooper. Noticeably you do not appear to be actually quoting verbatim, nor is the English in the style used by VoteLeave. So at the very least you have selected and edited, a bit like Remains who claim that Liam Fox said the trade deal “will” be easy, when he actually said it “should be” easy. Quite a different meaning.
Most importantly VoteLeave campaigning for a particular outcome – such as a free trade deal – is very different category to the claim by Remain that the UK gets back “nearly ÂŁ10” for every ÂŁ1 we give it. The first is an aspiration, the second is a (purported) statement of fact. As such the Remain claim is simply untrue, not least because it (deliberately?) confuses payment out of wealth (ÂŁ20bn/yr) with turnover (the near ÂŁ200bn we’re supposed to get back).
February 9, 2021
Well Nick, you should have looked more closely. Those shellfish rotting on the docks because they don’t have the proper paperwork, the lamb going bad because of delays – in the EU, there was no paperwork, no delay, and that’s where you got ÂŁ10 back for every ÂŁ1 – from free trade, which the UK doesn’t have any more
February 10, 2021
Grey, You simply reveal that you never traded with the rest of the EU when we were in it. Of course there was “paperwork” in the EU – lots of it. The EU has not changed its rules – the UK had to conform to the EU rules before, and our exporters still have to conform to those same rules now.
February 9, 2021
Do be quiet and eat up your bivalve molluscs, or there will be no telly for you tonight.
February 9, 2021
I visit an ex-matelot friend who lives just outside Portsmouth and used to have a Sunday pint in his local pub (sadly no longer open). A ‘Sea-Food’ seller used to come into the pub to sell his wares -and was always greeted by the old sailors with cries of “Dead things from the Sea”.
Could be the basis of a new UK marketing campaign possibly? đ
February 9, 2021
If the Climate alarmists were right we could all be eating home caught (and grown) Paella on the beach, seafood risotto, bouillabaisse, clam chowder or a pint of whelks on the beaches in Brighton, Cornwall, Sunderland or Blackpool – alas the alarmist are clearly wrong in their modelling & predictions as we know.
For more homegrown food we need cheap reliable energy indeed we need it for almost everything. We need to repeal the appalling climate change act and Mayâs moronic net zero carbon lunacy.
February 9, 2021
Last I heard most of the whelks were going to Japan.
Checking on that, I found:
https://www.great.gov.uk/export-opportunities/opportunities/japan-seafood
offering an opportunity to export seafood to Japan, including whelks.
February 9, 2021
Is anybody in Government listening to your perfectly logical comments, Lifelogic? I doubt it! They are too wrapped up in their own ideological thoughts to give a ****!
February 9, 2021
The EU is applying the rules for third countries that the UK designed while it was a member. No exception is being made for Great Britain.
February 9, 2021
So why did they previously “agree” that this would not be the case ?
February 9, 2021
Please show any evidence of that.
February 9, 2021
Is the UK applying the same rules to the EU Tab? Or are we playing this out being too nice whilst having deals reneged on at a whim? I’m not sure but newspapers said the UK gave rights i.e. ‘EU boats will continue to fish in UK waters for some years to come’, what for if there is no ‘trade deal’ and we are just the same as any other ‘third country’?
February 9, 2021
The UK applies the rules it wishes. That’s the whole point of Brexit.
Meanwhile, the EU looks to treat the UK as any normal third country. Are you sad the EU looks to be treating the UK post-Brexit as any normal third country ?
February 9, 2021
No
February 10, 2021
It’s worth reading Article 8 TEU, which starts:
” The Union shall develop a special relationship with neighbouring countries, aiming to establish an area of prosperity and good neighbourliness, founded on the values of the Union and characterised by close and peaceful relations based on cooperation.”
Not:
“The Union shall treat neighbouring countries in the same way that it treats other third countries around the world.”
February 9, 2021
Precisely the lack of friendship and respect which made me vote for Brexit. If the EU are such Britain-haters then we are better off OUT. I don’t want to belong to an organisation that spits in our face after everything we have done for them!
February 9, 2021
Because you genuinely think Brexit was not perceived as inherently hostile as seen from the continent ?
February 10, 2021
No, Brexit was not “inherently hostile”, Tabulazero, any more than the UK disagreeing about EU policies when we were in. Or Italy disagreeing with the EU now. Unless you’re proposing that every country should agree with the EU, just because the EU demands it? The EU will have to be grown up enough to accept it cannot flatten all opposition all the time.
February 9, 2021
Tabulazero, Why didn’t the EU impose those rules – if they are specifically because of shellfish/water quality – whilst we were in the EU? It seems less to do with quality than spite, which is illegal under WTO rules. Unless the shellfish are very clever and know about Brexit, of course?
February 9, 2021
Those rules were designed to protect the British shellfish industry while it was a member of the Single-Market. They must have worked quite well since it allowed Great Britain to develop a thriving shellfish industry.
GB has since left the Single-Market as it wished. Why should the EU treat the UK any differently from other third countries ?
February 9, 2021
You might as well act surprised that the gym doesn’t let you use the equipment once you stop paying your subs. You chose to leave the club, OK?
February 9, 2021
And yet Grey the UK government allows the EU to run and jump in all our gyms and fish in our oceans for now. I think it is good that all this is being revealed quickly, it is certainly making people I talk with discuss these matters, what we buy, where we buy it from etc.
The EU isnât to blame here, our weak UK government who the public gave sovereignty to are letting us down.
February 13, 2021
John, Classic fm are reporting that British musicians are being charged around ÂŁ450 for a performance visa, it is implied this is for a one off booking in Spain. All EU musicians were given free work visas for nothing in return (why?) are your government purposefully trying to provoke the biggest spokespeople/supporters and campaigners for Remain? At the same time our government is not allowing British musicians to work in the EU profitably but you are allowing EU musicians to work and take jobs in the UK for free why?
Your government allowed French fishermen to keep fishing in UK water yet they stopped our exports. Why are you allowing this?
Your government allows people to flood into our airport and ports with no restriction/negative tests yet the French have not allowed British people into France other than tested lorry drivers and medical workers since Dec 23rd.
February 9, 2021
Good morning
Sir John
I wish to divert your attention to another fish related area that the UK can benefit post BREXIT. It concerns the return of Bluefin Tuna to UK waters.
Now that the UK is able to make more of its own decisions I can confirm that the UK has become a member of ICAAT. My. Understanding is that membership would help the UK develop this resource for recreational fishing which would be a boost to the UK economy, especially in places like Cornwall. It is s imperative that DEFRA put in the UK ‘s application to the to exploit this. Currently we have until the 15th of this month to do so.
I cannot give more information but perhaps others can as I only found out last night.
It would be a scandal if we lost this great oppotunity. This is a very simple and cheap way of helping our fishing and hotel industry that has been so blighted. All it requires is for someone in DEFRA to pull their finger out !
Please help.
February 9, 2021
Farage made a video on the subject yesterday on YouTube.
February 9, 2021
Yes, I watched it and it was very informative. Why isn’t DEFRA submitting our application ASAP? If Nigel is aware of this lucrative opportunity why are our Government officials so clueless?
February 9, 2021
‘… why are our Government officials so clueless?’ It seems JR has no answer or he doesn’t want to let the cat out of the bag.
February 9, 2021
That’s where I saw it. Had a look at the ICATT Website but could not find the information needed.
February 9, 2021
Hope. I’ve looked for this video but cannot find it. Could it have been taken down already? After all they don’t like people talking common sense or the truth lately.
February 9, 2021
Go to YouTube and type in the Search Box, “Bluefin Tuna are back in Britain.”
It should take you there.
February 9, 2021
âThe EU is being unreasonable over various food trade issues.â
Without going public on the issue, the U.K. should be arranging retaliatory action against key EU exports to the U.K. These exports should be getting turned away or delayed with new UK âissuesâ. This should be something put in place by our own officials with leadership from specially appointed Brexit-minded individuals.
A strong government would also build on public anger to tear down any EU arrangements that cause problems, giving notice of a move to WTO terms if necessary. Unfortunately we do not have a strong government.
Instead, we get anodyne statements from ministers stating the bleeding obvious but telling us nothing.
February 9, 2021
Weâre an island. You are basically advocating imposing sanctions on ourselves. Are you mad?
February 9, 2021
Read the post. Sanctions on the EU.
Also substitution of EU imports with imports from other parts of the world.
February 9, 2021
Andy, What has being an island got to do with it? The WTO allows retaliatory action for unreasonable behaviour by a trading partner. There would be no sanctions against the rest of the world, you know. Ohh . . . I forgot, Remains think only the EU exists outside the UK.
February 9, 2021
Itâs time to ban the import of bottles of wine using cork stoppers.
3% or more of cork-stoppered wine is tainted or gone off.
Cork is bio-degradable, but aluminium and plastic are recycled repeatedly.
Most Australian, New Zealand, and Californian wine already uses screw tops. Itâs only the Luddite Europeans that insist on using cork, in order to protect the monopolistic cork production industry in Portugal and Spain
February 9, 2021
Without cork stoppers, there wouldn’t be any of those wonderful cork trees farmed in Spain and Italy.
February 9, 2021
I only buy wines from New Zealand, Australia, USA, SA and the UK when I can find them. Indeed English sparkling wines are superb.
February 9, 2021
F U S
Second that.
February 9, 2021
We could do that, or alternatively we could seize and keep the moral high ground by continuing to behave in a reasonable way while making sure that the rest of the world is made well aware of the unreasonable behaviour of the EU. Who knows, it may even help to persuade President Biden that he should not automatically support whatever the EU says or does, and that could feed through a better solution for Northern Ireland.
Unfortunately I have doubts about whether the UK government and civil service have the right instincts for a worldwide propaganda campaign against the EU after decades of supporting it.
Michael Gove never set up the rapid rebuttal unit we were promised in August 2019:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/10/michael-gove-takes-brexit-fake-news-new-rapid-rebuttal-unit/
“Michael Gove will launch a new ‘rapid rebuttal unit’ at the heart of Government on Monday to provide instant responses to “media myths and half-truths” about the risks of a no-deal Brexit.”
February 9, 2021
Denis Cooper, You have a point. And you may even be right. But I don’t think so. I am less sanguine than you are that the rest of the world cares two hoots about any so-called “moral high ground” we may adopt.
International trade often seems to be regarded as a proxy for war by most of the world, especially by the EU and China. They think we’re either soft in the head, or out to cheat them in some way, with our poncing around with declamations of “soft-power” or “moral high grounds”. However, you are definitely correct that our government is too inept to take advantage of any higher moral ground we could claim.
February 9, 2021
Unfortunately, when dealing with the EU âthe moral high groundâ is a mugâs game.
It is also code by certain members of our lazy (or reluctant, or timid) government for doing nothing.
February 9, 2021
Denis Cooper
Unfortunately I have doubts about whether the UK government and civil service have the right instincts for a worldwide propaganda campaign against the EU after decades of supporting it.
You are not alone, it is not just the politicians its the people who advise them
February 9, 2021
“The moral high ground” – hahahahaha. The only thing that matters is power politics. ‘The moral high ground’ is a childish fairy tale. No-one gives a rat’s arse for ‘the moral high ground’. The world would just laugh at us and think how pitiful, whiny, weak and pathetic we were.
February 10, 2021
I think you are quite wrong about that.
February 9, 2021
WE can take our own action in the form of a Boycott provide that we have proper labelling on origin of goods.
February 10, 2021
Whatever blockages there are now, they would be worse under WTO. WTO is the very worst trade deal it is possible to have, it is the absence of a deal. Amazing that, after all this time, you Brexiters still don’t understand sonething this basic
February 10, 2021
Have you any idea how little value there is in most special trade deals going beyond the WTO trade deal?
The UK government has never published any assessment of the economic benefit the UK might secure through Boris Johnson’s favoured “Canada style” free trade deal with the EU; why do you think that is?
February 10, 2021
Danny, WTO rules govern trade between the EU and the UK now. Indeed WTO rules govern trade within the EU as well. Amazing that, after all this time, you Remains still donât understand something this basic.
February 9, 2021
Sir John
With all this grief being poured on our fishing industry you are totally correct in your post it is about time that England had it’s own depuration facilities. It would not only increase the value of the saleable product but it would create jobs and encourage more opportunities for our own national market. This just highlights the thinking of British industries over the last four decades. Only marketing half of the finished product and having to rely on processing and packaging facilities abroad. How much shell fish is returned to the UK in non recyclable packaging? I would suggest it would not happen if the packaging was carried out here.
In respect of your encouraging supplies received. I trust that the ministers dedicated to the task of providing renewable energy projects and homes for all the ever growing population fully understand the importance of having large areas of arable land? After all you cannot eat electricity, trees and bricks and mortar. Will the different departments have the abilities to come up with properly costed projects based on a jĂČined up thinking process and planning?
February 9, 2021
When we were in the EU we could sell fish without any restrictions at all. Now we can do it as and when the EU chooses. The EU has control, we lose. This is EXACTLY what you voted for, so please stop complaining and please start facing up to reality. Disastrous job-crushing reality
February 9, 2021
I agree Perry less carping more action.
February 9, 2021
Indeed. The EU decides if French and Spanish restaurants can offer mussels from waters outside the EU. It must be very galling to be under the heel of such a powerful, remote, authoritarian body. Thank heavens we are sort of out.
February 9, 2021
It depends. There are plus and minus to being inside the EU. Coming back to fish, it did manage to cut quite a nice deal for EU fishermen because it played its cards (market access) well.
February 9, 2021
We can still sell fish without any EU restrictions within the UK, apart from Northern Ireland of course.
February 9, 2021
Perry, That is untrue. International trade (yes, even trade by the EU) is governed by WTO rules. I suggest the government immediately lodges a complaint at the WTO against the unfair discrimination by the EU. The EU cannot claim the shellfish fall foul of their quality rules, because they accepted them two months ago, and nothing – quality wise – has changed.
February 9, 2021
The UK is not checking inward freight due to its inability to properly prepare for Brexit. That in itself is a breach of WTO rules.
February 10, 2021
Which WTO rules?
February 9, 2021
Our shellfish were foul of the quality rules which is why the cleaning had to be done in France – that’s what I’ve read.
February 9, 2021
Perry
Get a life and behave yourself
February 10, 2021
Yes, that really is all that you have.
February 9, 2021
Quite right Sir JR
Keep hounding the Ministers
February 9, 2021
Good grief, the EU are being difficult with regards to imports, who would have thought it, its not as if they (in particular the French) are doing anything different, as they have in the past burnt the odd lorry which has been carrying goods they do not like, they have drained Spanish Lorries of wine, they have blockaded fishing ports, all whilst we and other Countries were in the EU.
Why are we surprised that they would now use regulation as a weapon.
Time for us to stop playing Mr Nice guy and being taken for fools, help our own industries out, and make life a little bit more difficult for them with our own compliance rules.
How are our border checks going, are we still waving them through without any form of checking.
Sometimes you have to cut off your own nose for a while just to make a point and to get back on track, failing that you simply purchase goods from elsewhere.
February 9, 2021
YEP it is about time we refused entry of EU goods, especially food where we can question all manner of doubts about conditions etc. Revenge can be sweet.
February 9, 2021
Fred H
Revenge can be sweet.
Yes but only when served cold
February 9, 2021
Just ask yourself ‘What would the French do if another country was arbitrarily blocking their exports?’ And then do the same.
February 9, 2021
Hw can we stop being “Mr Nice guy” when we are led by Boris who is ‘Mr weak, cowardly and pathetic guy’.
That, unfortunately, is the problem. We are led by a man who simply lacks the guts to stand up for Britain. We are told that he likes to see himself as Churchill, but I never imagined he was referring to the nodding dog!
February 9, 2021
Indeed Alan but we need Boris to develop some testicular fortitude.
February 9, 2021
The EU has changed its mind. As it is entitled to do. This is Brexit Britain – weak, on the outside. We have thrown away huge export markets, for nothing
February 9, 2021
For self determination
February 9, 2021
You have self determined to put shell-fishermen, dairy farmers, musicians and many others out of business. And to make things needlessly more expensive.
Bravo.
February 9, 2021
Indeed. It is well known the Beatles did not have a residency in Hamburg in 1960. They couldnât have. It was before we joined the EU and working in the EU was forbidden then.
February 9, 2021
Don’t be even sillier than usual, Andy, we can eat all the food we produce, and more. And would you throw away our independence because the EU is being spiteful about touring musicians and their crews? Ah, of course you would. Well, you will be able to try again – because there are bound to be a few more teething problems with our third biggest trading partner as we adjust to trading more with the rest of the world instead.
February 9, 2021
For freedom to change our minds as we are entitled to do I think Len
February 9, 2021
The government and exporters need to change their mindset dramatically and put their energies into countries that want what we have to offer. We can then bypass the intransigent EU who are clearly not interested in trading, but second to none when it comes to using burearcracy to prevent it. There’s no point Ms Truss doing a stellar job securing trade deals if a minimal number of firms pick up the gauntlet to exploit them. Only by strengthening our worldwide trade will the EU’s power be diminished because they’d be forced to compete. Of course, we need to loosen the grip of the risk-averse public sector so we can get back to work, but that’s a discussion for another day!
February 9, 2021
Yet, Len, we keep our import market completely free and open. People on the leave side said they wanted sovereignty, freedom and self-determination now our politicians have to get off their knees and get this sorted or take similar action.
February 9, 2021
How “huge” would that be?
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/02/eu-rules-on-some-types-of-shellfish-leave-uk-fishermen-devastated
“These rules have closed off many exports of live bivalve molluscs from the UK, since Brexit took full effect. The market for such shellfish is a small and specialist one, valued at less than ÂŁ12m a year, but for the small number of fishers who operate in it, it is often their main livelihood.”
ÂŁ12 million a year, about 0.0006% of GDP.
Not so much a mountain made out of a molehill but one made out of bivalve mollusc shells …
February 9, 2021
If the UK companies are supported during this lockout by the government, won’t the bivalve molluscs still be there for British vessles to sweep up in the future if an entrepreneur opens up a Cornish purification plant or will the EU vessels be allowed to hoover up?
February 9, 2021
But that 0.0006% of GDP doesn’t include, boats, repairs, engines, fuel, oil, nets, transport, refrigeration, navigation equipment etc., etc. and the VAT on all that – still small no doubt but employs many people.
February 10, 2021
Still small and employs few people, most of whom can use their talents and energy in other jobs.
February 9, 2021
I want to know what measures are being taken to make local housing affordable to workers in the agricultural sector. Will they continue to be priced out of the market by second home buyers and holiday lets?
Is it the government’s intention to remove course fees from British people studying in agricultural college?
February 9, 2021
Dave, effectively agricultural workers only pay back course fees when theyâre earning over ÂŁ26,575 per annum and only on the earnings above that amount the same as every other profession that requires degree level training.
February 9, 2021
‘The Defra Secretary told us he had prior assurance from the EU confirming the legality of this trade post Brexit, but the EU have now changed their mind.’ So what counter-action will the spinless government take? The EU isn’t either our ‘friend’ or ‘partner’. It’s a nasty, evil empire wanting to hold us down.
I look forward to buying some Scottish scallops rather than the Patagonian and Canadian products currently on offer in my super-market.
February 9, 2021
I meant ‘spineless’. ‘Spinless’? The very idea of it!
February 9, 2021
Of course the govt is spineless. Arrive illegally in a rubber dinghy – get punished by being put in a hotel and waited on.
February 9, 2021
Prior assurances! that’s the best joke today
February 9, 2021
Time for Boris to grow a pair. Our weak supine response to EU food aggression and the NI border is seriously hurting our citizens. Frankly nowhere good enough.
February 9, 2021
He won’t and that’s why he needs to be replaced. The action by the Chinese communists against British passport holders in Hong Kong also needs a rigorous response of the Charlie Croker type. A threat to withhold student visas to any Mainland Chinese for the next academic year will soon have the Chinese middle-class giving the local CCP officials a finger-jabbing experience.
February 9, 2021
Withhold student visas? What, and lose all that money? No way.
February 9, 2021
Nig l,
The PM does not need to grow a pair, they are quite big enough, he is an absolute dictator. “seriously hurting our citizens” – it is Johnson, Gove, Sunak, Hancock and Patel who see individuals as possessions, they have stripped individuals of any human rights and treated them/us as mindless objects to be seriously and irreparably hurt at their pleasure. You are not alone in falling for the hypnotic propaganda if you think the dictators in any way have individuals’ interests at heart. You are part of a big psychological experiment that is rapidly becoming permanent.
The people who urgently need to grow a pair (and some decency and free minds) are the MPs who could bring the dictatorship down, and ensure it never happens again.
(At best the shellfish distraction is a distraction, but in the current spread of elite dictatorships it is more likely EU and UK ‘leaders’ again signalling they have the power to rip up the livelihoods of whoever they choose when they choose.)
February 9, 2021
+1
February 9, 2021
I have read some rubbish but really âseriously hurting our citizensâ âmindless objectsâ âhypnotic propagandaâ
If there is any mindlessness going on it is this dystopian conspiracy theory tosh.
February 9, 2021
Nig L,
No. Look at the data, do some biology, read some ethics, do some economics. Visit (oh your not allowed) the poor.
February 9, 2021
A Government for the People by the People comes to mind.
Boris as he states has ‘friends’, EU friends. A Commission that from the get go that has set out to punish not reciprocate as good friends and neighbours.
As promised in the referendum a ‘clean break’ was all we asked for, but never got because Boris has friend he must placate before the People that sort of helped him into office.
February 9, 2021
My family used to eat Scottish mussels every week as a favourite meal. Since lockdown the fish counters in supermarkets have been shut or mussels are not on the list for delivery. We would also buy British lobsters and crab if it was available for delivery or click and collect. It’s all boiled and can’t infect us. Why is it not available?
February 9, 2021
because the EU is spiteful ……end of.
February 9, 2021
The Supermarkets prefer imports to home grown products – how else can they increase food miles and fight ‘net zero’
February 9, 2021
All these problems have been caused by your brexit and by nothing else.
The rules now applied to UK food by the European Union are exactly the same as those applied to any other non-member country not in the Single Market and Customs Union.
This was explained during the campaigns and ever since by pro-European Union people.
You Leavers can fake shock if you like – it just makes you look even sillier.
February 9, 2021
How very loyal of you.
February 9, 2021
It can work both ways – we can buy our own goods and more food. Isolation from the evil empire is inevitable.
February 9, 2021
The Cabinet Office says that lorry traffic through our ports is now 98% of normal. That the “68% loss” claim was erroneous.
Wot say you ?
(The French kicked off lots of times when we were in the EU. Operation Stack springs to mind. )
February 9, 2021
But are the lorries returning to the EU empty?
February 9, 2021
They often do anyway, because we send less goods back than we buy in.
February 9, 2021
Hang on – you told us fishing was such a small % of GDP that we could ignore any damage to jobs in the sector that staying in the EU would result in. So why are you so bothered about it now ?
February 9, 2021
Correct,
And these live bivalve molluscs rejected by the EU form a miniscule part of GDP.
February 9, 2021
That is not the problem. The deal struck still leaves the EU with unrestrictive access to the UK market which is not reciprocated. A straight forward WTO agreement that us leavers voted for would have created a level-playing field.
The only shock is still having a pro-EU HoC that fights against the people controlling their own destiny and prefers the unelected unaccountable EU Commission to rule the UK
February 9, 2021
MiC – did you not read John’s article “The Defra Secretary told us he had prior assurance from the EU confirming the legality of this trade post Brexit, but the EU have now changed their mind.”
John, Why wasn’t the ‘prior assurance from the EU’ in writing? This was poor care from the UK government. How long are you just going to keep on allowing free flow no change into the UK?
February 9, 2021
Au contraire, MIC, we’re not shocked, but disgusted that after 4.5 years of marathon negotiations presented as the agreed route to smoothing these anticipated difficulties, the EU is deliberately choosing an alternative interpretation and acting as the playground bully.
It’s not in the least helpful to continually look backwards when the reality is we’ve left the confines of the EU and faux outrage won’t change anything, no matter how much its loss is mourned. The EU middleman is a political construct, not the Europe we know and love, so we have to trust that the remaining members will keep pressure on Brussels to modify its stance.
February 9, 2021
Well, is not the answer to the mollusc problem to stop the foreigner-owned water companies pumping sewage into the sea in the first place? Our shellfish deserve clean seawater and with many already planning UK staycations, so does the public.
February 9, 2021
And foreign Government owned at that
February 9, 2021
Sakara, The EU readily accepted our shellfish two months ago, but not now. What has changed so quickly in our seawater, do you think? And didn’t you Remains tell us the one advantage of the EU was that it had cleaned up our water? What’s happened to that in just two months?
February 10, 2021
What has happened is that the European Union has lost the legal means to ensure that the UK complies with its food safety requirements.
Sensibly it does not allow itself to trust the UK to do that voluntarily, and nor would any other country or bloc.
February 10, 2021
Martin, No, the EU has not lost any means, legal or otherwise. The UK shellfish could be processed in purification plants just as they were two months ago. Nothing has changed – all the rules we conformed to before Christmas are still there and we still conform to them.
February 9, 2021
That is a lot of government intervention listed by Ms Prentis. What will be the impact of fraud and unintended consequences of such intervention?
We must do something – yes leave it to the market
February 9, 2021
One has to question the desirability of extending some fruit and veg growing sessions simply to provide consumers with fresh rather than what was traditional preserved, even more so if the govt is serious about UK ‘Net Zero’ (and using trade as a form of international aid for necessary imports), it’s not as if UK farmers and growers do not have other seasonal crops they could cultivate and UK consumers should be eating.
February 9, 2021
I would be interested to know who exactly is applying the rules on the transfer of goods from GB to Northern Ireland. Are there EU officials there to check things, or is it U.K. officials applying what they see as the rules?
If the latter, surely some advice on interpretation of the rules would prevent tractors with muddy wheels etc being stopped. Just tell them to wave through all reasonable shipments.
February 9, 2021
Sea food is grown up food. Not so much demand for it in the UK, I’m afraid.
February 9, 2021
@NLA; Really, grown up food, not so much demand for it in the UK? I thought Fish-n-Chips was one of our national dishes, along with scampi, never mind a pint of winkles or Jellied eels (and Mushy peas) … oh hang on, I take your point…!
February 9, 2021
The solution is we start boarding EU fishing vessels in UK waters, take plenty of time doing it, and impound and prosecute them for any minor transgressions of the rules that we find. Simple.
February 9, 2021
How does that help with tonnes of shellfish you canât sell?
A better course of action would be to elect grown ups to run our country.
February 9, 2021
From my observation, UK Supermarkets will not supply UK sourced fish but prefer to import all their stocks. The big chains through aggressive pricing have destroyed the local fishmonger, the local guy was the main provider of locally sourced products.
How does that square with ‘net zero’ when we unnecessarily increase food miles?
As an extreme example (some named ed) fresh fish that’s actually thawed frozen fish from South Africa. A similar pattern exists for all the main supermarkets around Wokingham. Yet these same species exist in UK waters but bizarrely the UK fishermen are not permitted to fish for them but their EU ‘friends’ are!
The Brexit deal is the EU still has the baulk of UK fish for their fleets and to rub it in where the fish is caught by UK fishermen they are now facing barriers in exporting to the EU – win-win for Euroland. Even less gains for UK resources and industry – the EU is laughing at the UK. Fundamentally the problem is the UK Supermarkets will not supply UK fish so exports to our fishing fleets was their livelihood. Rock and a hard place for a UK industry.
And we haven’t even got to the neglect of the Financial and Service industries, from any arrangement. In the round the Brexit trading deal was that the UK got to keep all its free trade EU imports but through double talk and sleight of hand this wasn’t reciprocated in UK exports to the EU. The UK would have been far better (and still would) placed with an upfront WTO agreement at least we would have derived tax income to fund our own exports.
The EU punishment of the UK continues.
February 9, 2021
Ian@B
âThe UK would have been far better (and still would) placed with an upfront WTO agreement at least we would have derived tax income to fund our own exports.â
Correct. A good government would realise that and capitalise on public opinion to move to WTO.
However we donât have a good government. Maybe Farage will take votes from them at the next election and force them to act?
February 9, 2021
Fishing, EU 760 tonnes from UK territory, the UK just 90 tonnes. The EU remains in control of UK territory just as it does in NI. There was no Brexit, just punishment.
You will submit to our rule or we will keep punishing you – the unelected, unaccountable EU Commission still is the final voice in the UK. Any so called democratic freedoms for matters concerning how the UK works internally are not permitted.
February 9, 2021
Ian – JR doesn’t seem to disagree with your analysis.
February 9, 2021
It is tedious but I guess not really surprising that the EU have decided to wage a low-level trade war against the UK, despite there being an FTA. This episode is one example – the deliberate over-interpretation of rules so as to needle divided communities in Northern Ireland is another. and of course the attempted vaccine blockade and the nonsense anti-vaxx lies promulgated by the likes of M. Macron and Frau von der Leyen have been much the worse.
I assume the strategy is to try to move debate in the UK to saying maybe we should go back to EEA / EFTA, the ‘Norway’ model. I wouldn’t be surprised if Labour propose this at the next election. From there it would be a short step to re-joining the customs union, and then, well you may as well re-join.
If the Boris Johnson govt is going to expend its time in office with introducing anti-business, anti-investment taxes and layers of anti-business regulations such as those apparently under consideration by Mr Kwarteng, we will unfortunately have little or nothing to show in 3 years’ time for the economic benefits of Brexit, and rational voters will conclude it wasn’t worth it. Be warned Conservative MPs.
February 9, 2021
âIn Dublin fair city,
Where the girls are so pretty,
I first set my eyes
On Sweet Molly Malone
As she wheeled her wheel barrow,
Through the streets broad and narrow,
Crying cockles and muscles,
Alive alive o!â
February 9, 2021
Once again the EU PROVE what great friends they are not, by changing the rules to hurt us.
WHY are we not evoking one of those mutual committees that was supposed to ensure fairness?
Oh, of course, They were only their for the EU to make sure the UK didn’t do anything the EU considered unfair.
February 9, 2021
So how is the shellfish that we do buy and eat in the UK cleaned? Is it sent to Holland and reimported back here? Surely this canât be the case and we must have some facilities here. Near where I live we used to have several huge mussel cleaning tanks but they are now just viewing platforms. Shellfish in Victorian days was part of the staple diet especially oysters in London. They were considered the poor mansâ food. Overfishing wiped out these oyster beds. I would love to buy langoustines like I do in Spain but they are twice the price here. Why are we still importing king prawns from Thailand and India that are farmed in the cruellest way with great damage to the surrounding seabed? Surely if we are buying produce from these countries we can find new markets for our shellfish. I notice many new on-line suppliers are now selling shellfish. We are lucky to have a fantastic local fishmonger, many fish delivery vans and a Morrisonâs store with an extensive fresh fish counter. So the suppliers are there they just need to find customers.
February 9, 2021
Christine
So the suppliers are there they just need to find customers.
When you look at the really dire programming schedules of the BBC packed with cooking programmes, the corporation could get behind our food industry and produce the similar type of programmes fronted by British presenters with the criteria all with food content produced and processed within the UK. Rocket science it is not
February 9, 2021
The damage to sea beds, overfishing, the land/soil/ the sea itself and how animals are treated with chemicals/hormones etc. is all due to human overpopulation. If more and more people, producers have to cut corners and use any method to produce for the billions. Also requires carbon pricing, wind farms, massive housing programs etc. – it’s a nightmare.
February 10, 2021
Christine, huge amounts of products – cars, food etc – were imported, re-imported, etc all across the EU with no regard for borders, so British firms were in supply chains with German firms, Dutch firms etc, it was easy to cross the Channel as it was to go from Surrey to Kent. That was the glory of the EU single market. Not now, thanks to Brexit we have borders, and we have red tape. So British firms are being shut out of all those supply chains, Brexit means it is just too much hassle to bother with British firms. So lots of British firms are going under, others are moving into the EU, costing the UK countless jobs and causing massive damage to our economy. But – you voted for it, right?
February 9, 2021
The UK left the EU over a year ago, so why are the government still so unprepared??? The Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme Victoria Prentis refers to is just a replacement for the previous EU scheme. So how does the new UK scheme work? Who knows? If you search for this the top results are two government documents: one a guidance that was last updated in 2013 (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/funding-for-fruit-and-vegetable-sellers) and the other a guidance from 2018 (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/668582/FVSG1_v8.0_dec_17.pdf). And that’s it. Nothing more recent. Nothing which explains how this works now we have left the EU.
As for the Farming Investment Fund, information on this is equally unavailable. Not surprising, since it hasn’t even got off the ground yet! More than a year after Brexit – what the hell is the government waiting for? When precisely will this scheme start? Nobody knows. How much money will be available? Nobody knows. How will it be distributed? Nobody knows. Has any government ever been more incompetent?
And that sums up this Boris government: Painfully slow and incompetent. We need speed, urgency and agility, but all we get is sloth, indecision and complacency.
Reply I am pressing them to speed it all up. Thats why I keep raising it
February 9, 2021
Yes, Sir John, I know that you understand the problems and the appropriate solutions, and my criticisms are never directed at you. On the contrary, if only you were leader of the party things would be so much better. And that’s the point: we need a change of leader, as I now have ZERO confidence in Boris Johnson’s determination or ability to protect Britain and the British people. As a great man once said: “No change, no chance”. đ
February 9, 2021
Reply t reply – JR do you keep raising it in the terms that London Nick has expressed his views? I very much doubt it.
February 9, 2021
So, “EU have now changed their mind” and are being unreasonable. That is simply the nature of the beast and was always going to happen. Boris should have realised this and not plunged headlong into the WA when WTO rules would have been OK.
Now we have an ongoing mess to deal with.
February 9, 2021
Starting with the UK 1992/SI/3164 (The Food Safety (Live Bivalve Molluscs and Other Shellfish) Regulations 1992) it is not even true that the EU has changed their mind. The EU subsequent regulations EC/853 & 854/2004 practically incorporate conditions very similar to the UKâs ones and this on 29 April 2004.
Regarding live bivalve molluscs these EU regulations (EC/853 & 854 /2004) state âcatches of live bivalve molluscs from non-EU member states can only be imported without treatment if they come from waters of the highest qualityâ and âVessels from non-EU states cannot land live bivalve molluscs in EU portsâ (853 Annex I, Section 2, Live Bivalve Molluscs, and Section VII).
So whatâs the fuss about? The UK is now (a non-EU state) a third country: Could it be that the above regulations had escaped the eagle eyes of Lord Frost/Boris Johnson? Could it be that some MPs so keen on the British fishing industry had (once more) not done their homework properly? The really funny bit in this whole saga is that the EC853/2004 has appeared on the official legislation.gov.uk website as the ânewâ UK regulation as of 22/12/2020 with only the proviso that âChanges may be brought at a future dateâ.
So is Sir Johnâs huffing and puffing an attempt at these âfuture changesâ?
February 9, 2021
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/uk-shellfish-exports-environment-secretarys-commons-statement-8-february-2021
February 10, 2021
So either the EU knows what EU rules are or George Eustice knows more about the EU than the EU. Tough call (not)
February 10, 2021
Also on food.gov.uk âShellfish classificationâ 2 February 2021
a-tracy, thanks for George Eustice MPâs intervention in HoC. To me it is quite clear that the problem is linked to the interpretation of these regulations. The EU has not changed them, it is now applying them to the third country that the UK has become. Unfortunately the Minister or Defra or Lord Frost had never imagined that the UK would have to follow these long published rules. Why? Another case of âbecause we are Britishâ.
Anyway it will be interesting to see how this develops in the coming weeks.
February 9, 2021
Off topic, Matt Hancock is currently addressing the House and I am not hearing a coherent way forward on the virus. Apparently every person who is vaccinated makes us all ‘safer’, though he can’t explain how. When the virus mutates they will modify the vaccines; so if I am just leaving a vaccination centre when a modification is announced, do I turn round and go back in? Is every person in the world (down to what age?) to be vaccinated twice a year for the rest of the span of humanity? There is still no better option than protecting the vulnerable and allowing the rest to develop herd immunity, as we have for most diseases through the ages.
February 9, 2021
It is now agreed that there is no such thing as herd immunity acquired by infection.
Because the virus mutates.
There is no herd immunity against smallpox, TB, nor even the common cold.
It can only be engendered by vaccination.
February 10, 2021
Martin, Of course it is perfectly possible to have herd immunity acquired by infection. As it is possible to have herd immunity with around 70% vaccination. Or via a mix. You still don’t understand what herd immunity is, do you?
February 9, 2021
What is being done to enrich our soil which must be sadly depleted of essential minerals?
February 9, 2021
That’s an important question but don’t expect anyone in government to let you know, even if they do know . There seems no way for the govt. departments to let the public know what is going on – transparency? – don’t make me laugh.
February 10, 2021
At one time we had government research stations which did a good job improving food production.
February 9, 2021
Two essential areas where the government needs to invest heavily and with a sense of urgency to increase our food production (and the quality of our food too) are (i) CRISPR gene editing and (ii) Vertical Farming.
On the first, I believe the government are in favour of this but are draggng their feet (as usual!) with a painfully slow ‘consultation’ process. What’s there to consult? We know we want it so let’s get on with it! We want a buccaneering government – that’s how we can gain a Brexit advantage. And how much is the government planning to invest in CRISPR? Who knows?
As for vertical farming, I wonder if Useless Eustice even knows what this is …?
February 9, 2021
Itâs hardly surprising that the EU are acting the way they are. This has always been the case evidenced by our ÂŁ100bn/YEAR trading deficit with the EU. The difference is that Brexit means that unfair trading rules and non-tariff barriers are being made transparent rather than being shoved under the carpet by supine and pro-EU Parliaments and civil servants.
The answer is firstly for us to behave as other Europeans by buying our own British goods rather than goods from other EU countries wherever possible. This would be good for our economy, reduce our balance of payments and at the same be good for the environment by reducing trucking miles.
I have not bought any French agricultural products since 1990 when CAP supported (with UK taxpayer money) French farmers set fire to one truckload of live British sheep, killing 219 of them as well as poisoning, slitting throats and dousing others with insecticide.
Secondly, the government can help with assistance in setting up the necessary food processing plants, such as depuration facilities for bi valve molluscs and by giving our farmers and fishers help in selling to our own market and then to export to other countries.
February 9, 2021
The BBC, I presume unable to find empty supermarket shelves in the UK, have managed to find empty shelves in a small shop in Belgium which sells UK foods such as Marmite and UK cheese and biscuits and are using this important news as todayâs bad Brexit news on its main news programmes.
I suppose the point of the feature to show that the EUâs restrictions on UK exports are solely affecting UK citizens living in the EU.
February 10, 2021
Yes, that was quite amusing. They’ve had months and months to get ready and then it’s all a big surprise.
February 9, 2021
We are now spending a little extra time on setting up the weekly online shop, to switch to British food, wherever practical.
I know that one voice alone makes no difference but, if many of us did the same, we really could.
February 9, 2021
one voice can quickly become 2 then 4 then 8 then 16 ,32,64,128………….millions .
people power exists today on the internet .
#BuyBritish could sweep through the country in no time if people have the desire
to do it .