European Union (Amendment) Bill

I am certainly no expert on fishing, but during the time that I have been involved in the issue of Britain’s membership of the European Union—originally, the Common Market—I have received a lot of letters and representations from the fishing industry. Certainly those who go out and catch the fish have found their livelihoods reduced time and time again. The large fishing industry that we had before 1973 is now a shadow of its old self, yet we are apparently giving even more power to the European Union to decide not only where and what we should fish but to whom we should give the fish. I understand—I may be wrong and I have no doubt that I will be corrected—that fish and other biological beings in the seas surrounding the EU are allocated to those who are not surrounded by sea. That seems to be an unfair distribution of a resource which this country used to own absolutely and which, generally speaking, it fished well. We had conservation measures in hand and I think that they were largely supported by the fishermen. That is why the industry maintained quite a large presence, whereas it now has a very small presence. The European Union’s policies on fishing are, to put it mildly and kindly, rather crazy. As the noble Duke, the Duke of Montrose, pointed out, this country has 70 per cent of the good fishing in the European Union, yet we have seen foreign fishermen allocated quotas within British waters. They have been allowed to fish when our own fishermen have been told to stay at home. As I know, because I have been down there and talked to them, fishermen in the south-west are sitting in their houses having been banned from fishing. They see Spanish fishermen catch the fish that they used to be able to catch but can no longer because of some bureaucratic decision made in Brussels. What sort of policy is that? However, we now want to give the EU more power. Since 1973, we have had no opportunity to protect our fishermen. We tried to protect them. We said to the Scottish fishermen, ““You are being unfairly treated. The Spanish are coming in and are catching fish that you should be catching but are barred from doing so to a certain extent””. The House of Commons and this House enacted a Bill to protect the livings of Scottish fishermen, which was the right thing to do, but what happened? There was an appeal to the European Court, and the Court said, ““You can’t do that; they are no longer your waters. They’re EU waters and the Spanish have every right to fish there””.