LONDON (Labour Buzz) - Remember this time last year when Boris told us he was getting Brexit done? Turns out that wasn’t quite true. A year later the ‘easiest trade deal in history’ looks like it needs to call in VAR. But fear not, because Dominic Raab has been doing the rounds and he says we’re getting close…. definitely.
What’s the hold-up?
According to Raab, the biggest sticking point is fisheries. “We're down to really two basic issues, but only one of which he seems to be interested in: fish. “I do think this is a very significant week,” he told Andrew Marr, “the last real major week, subject to any further postponement of the goalposts in terms of the timing.”
He said that the EU would have to accept on a point of principle that the UK would have control over its fishing grounds after the transition.
Raab, of course, is the former Brexit secretary who was once surprised by the news that ferries move from Calais to Dover. Nobody has yet told him about the existence of aeroplanes for fear it might blow his mind.
It comes as no surprise, then, that he also appears somewhat confused by the issue of fishing. Because while it sounds simple to say Britain should control who fishes in its waters, the truth is very different. One of the countries most to blame for that is the UK.
Back in the 70s, we were instrumental in helping to create the fishing quota system. EU waters are regarded as one big fishing zone with every country given quotas based on their levels of fishing during the seventies.
Fishermen get a portion of that quota. Boats have been fishing in British waters for years and UK boats have also been fishing elsewhere.
Things got more complicated in the 90s when some fishing quotas changed, lost value or were sold to foreign businesses. Indeed, English fishermen were particularly keen to sell off their rights to fish in their own waters to the highest bidder. Those quotas gained in value and, according to the BBC by 2019 over half of the British fishing quotas were controlled by boats in foreign ownership.
Because of this system, which the UK helped create, European boats have been free to operate in British waters for many years. It supports a way of life and, for many, the inability to fish in British waters would put them out of business. European leaders, especially Emanuel Macron, say they are not willing to let that happen.
Equally, many of the fish caught in UK waters do not have a market in the UK. Take the humble herring, for example. Pretty popular around Europe but not here in blighty. The choice for the UK is simple, say the EU: let foreign boats catch British herring and sell them in Europe, or develop a real taste for herring, and lots of it.
Deal in sight
Such details escape Raab, and the UK continue to bang on about fish. However, according to Robert Peston and his much used, anonymous sources, it isn’t fishing which is holding things up from the EU side, so much as the level playing field and state aid.
“That fishing looks sortable whereas the gap on the level playing field/state aid/enforcement is still yawning,” he wrote.
While it seems the two sides are somewhat confused about one another’s positions, it does suggest both are willing to move on the areas where the others are digging in their heels.
The short answer, though, is still that nobody knows, not even the people in the room handling the decisions. The only good news is that the world is so busy digesting the existing uncertainties surrounding COVID 19 that the background horror show that is Brexit slips by barely noticed.
(Written by Tom Cropper, Edited by Klaudia Fior)