Tag Archives: Fishing Policy

August 4, 2017 · 20:07

Brexit Unravels Due To Lack Of Planning

Hello

Theresa May suddenly realised the scope and the detail of Brexit when she attended the G20 Summit on 7-8 July 2017 in Hamburg, Germany.  Up until then, she seems to have thought that she could manage it all by herself.  Her sacked Aides were known for their arrogance.  Has it masked ignorance?

In an effort to delegate policy of how to leave Europe she asked Chancellor Phillip Hammond and Brexit Secretary David Davis.  However they argued over the detail, in public. Mr Hammond wanted a gradual exit to cushion the economy and Mr Davis stated also in public that the UK would leave the EU and Customs Union in March 2019.  She must have wanted to wring their necks.

Now the Gove, that elusive but confused chameleon has made the fundamental mistake of a Company Director out of his depth.  In February we all lauded settling of the EU Fishing Policy where we would have a 200-mile band around our coastline for us to fish alone.  (That does beg the question of our 22-mile barrier with France and does that mean we can fish 200 miles inland on their lakes?)

Of course a 200-mile barrier is daft in the North Sea but M. Gove told the Danes that they could fish in UK waters.  His office said it was about how near the British coast can they fish?  M.Gove sees this as a freedom.  When we all thought the fisheries policy was mainly settled, why must he muddy the waters?  The translation of the Danish meeting was made by a Scottish MP.

The tragedy for other policies is that during the 14 months after the UK voted to leave the EU, there was no plan made.  Theresa May’s boorish aides stamped down on discussion and were known for their arrogance.

Where are the female MP’s?  Women are just as good at arguing as their male counterparts and could spell triumph instead of the disaster we seem to be rumbling towards.

And whose stupid idea is it to leave the Customs Union? I remember 25 years ago in France, outside any Customs Union, having to stand up for the British government who refused to accept French lamb in retaliation for the French ban on our beef.   Please, we do not need repetitions of this childish apolitical behaviour.

We need a plan for each Department of Government and sharpish.  Is anyone listening?

LucyLou

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July 10, 2017 · 00:24

Ronald Reagan’s Jellybeans & The US/UK Special Relationship

 

It would easy to criticize the way that President Ronald Reagan, USA,  did things, but now seventeen years after he left Office, his legacy of charm with fair-mindedness prevails.

For instance, every journalist of the twenty or so foreign newspapers lined up to see him, be asked to take a jellybean.  If you ate it you would have been in a pickle.  He used them as a way of being fair to everyone and not giving one person favouritism over another.

I will see the person with the yellow jelltybean.”

I remember thinking that was daft, but it is actually very fair.

One day he made these tough, global journalists laugh.  He said that he had written John Major, Prime Minister at the time (1990 – 1997) a ‘Dear John’ letter.  The British people present fell about laughing!  Okay, I can see that some of you will be bewildered, so let me explain.  Before the advent of email, if a girl sent a gentleman a letter, starting ‘Dear John’, it meant she wanted to dump him, excise him from her life.  Ronald Reagan was appalled and ever the fair-minded gentleman that he was, he uttered those seemingly immortal words:

“No, no.  The US and the UK have a special relationship.”

So it has been for 27 years.

Enter Theresa May who was captured on camera by the BBC, wondering where she should stand for the G20 members’ photograph.  She was alone; no-one else was there.  Why wasn’t she talking with anybody?  Angela Merkel and Francois Marcon were seen talking to her earlier in the G20 Summit.  (Fishing policy is the first policy to change, so that was good news before the Summit.  I am almost dreading her view on the G20 Summit.)

Enter Donald Trump, whose paltry excuse for not coming to see us during his world tour, was that he did not want to be booed.   He certainly got his comeuppance from anti-establishment demonstrators in Hamburg.  It seems that he has no political sympathisers old enough to remind him about the special relationship with the UK and he obviously sees us as a bit-player on the world stage.  He is mature enough to possibly blame the Scots who refused to take down a windfarm out at sea, as it destroyed the view from the golf course he wanted to build.

He should be reminded that the special relationship revolved around the American bases parked in our country, as part of their refuelling and firing strategy between the US and Russia. I never was keen on being the first country to be hit, should Mr Trump decide to press the red nuclear button.

Personally I think we should join the Trans-Pacific Alliance as soon as possible.  Let us consolidate our relationships within Europe, yet take other relationships  elsewhere.  Canada and Australia have both issued invitations.  I hope that we accept with grace.  The person who somehow thought it politic to mention Norway’s deal with the EU should be put in the stocks.

LucyLou

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