Fishing turkeys and voting for Brexit Christmas

This morning, I cam across a Twitter thread highlighting the shortsightedness that we suspected happened back in 2016 in the run up to the referendum.

On November 15th, a group of the fishing industry business leaders signed a ltter asking for special treatment in any Brexit deal to protect their industry.

This is despite many of those who signed more more than vocal in their support for leave, one being ndrew Pillar, manager at Interfish Ltd, who donated £25,000 to Vote Leave, and so became their 18th largest doner.

James White, of the Felixstowe Ferry Fisherman's Association actually too part in Farrage and Hoey's fishing flotilla on the Thames.

At least Mark Greet, MD of Falfish Ltd at the time expressed concerns about market access and EU labour still being available.

“It could be the final straw for many businesses”, they all wail. Yes, it probably will, as 80% of the fish we catch, we export, and 80% of the fish we eat, we import. There is estimated to be around just 10 mature cod in the entire North Sea, so our national dish is likely to have to change in the event of no deal.

These fishing business leaders and farmers, 80% of Scottish farmers are now against leaving, supported Leave heavily. If I, a lowly quality specialist could see that putting up barriers and tariffs between us and our biggest market was stupid, then what hope is there for us as a country?

We were promised, by Vote Leave, by those who ran the official leave campaign and are now largly the Government that we would hva a better deal than being a member state. The man or woman on the street might have believed this, but did business?

And why wait so long to voice concerns, there was nearly three years and the WA being signed that the consequence of the WA and PD could be highlighted and the notification withdrawn. But they stayed silent.

I am not laughig at this. I am profoundly sad that so many who lead the country and our industries were taken in by this, or remained silent until it was too late. But it the people who work for these leaders who will suffer the most, losing their jobs in regions already struggling where we will see another era of industrial wastelands and generation abandoned.

This was the high risk of a hard or no deal Brexit, that could have been changed if people, industries, spoke up. We could have had an honest conversation with ourselves, been honest about the risks and conseqences. But our politicians pretended there would be a Brexit bonus, there would be so much money, money for this, for that, no downsides.

No one believes that now, for some, no amount of pain is off the board in order to get the Brexit they want, businesses, sectors laid waste, jobs ruined. And yet mostly the same people wnat the COVID restrictions lifted so that the same industries they are only too happy to see destroyed, is saved. For six weeks.

I can't even begin to describe the madness.

I just can't.