Rupert Lowe

I beg to move, That this House has considered the future of fishing after 2026. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. Britain has some of the richest fishing grounds in the world within our 200-nautical-mile, or 230-mile, coastal limit, within which we own both living and non-living resources. Historically, that gold mine has supported a flourishing fishing industry, as well as an extensive fish-processing industry, to supply valuable, healthy, sustainable food to both domestic and export markets. Iceland, Norway and the Faroe Islands enjoy a profitable and sustainable fishing industry and are the model to which we should aspire. In June 2016, 17.4 million people voted to leave the European Union in an unambiguously worded referendum called by David Cameron. To understand the demise of our fishing industry, which was severely damaged by both world war one and world war two, it is important to understand the history. Britain, Russia and Serbia have always provided the balance of power between the frequent Franco-German wars on the continent. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Europe enjoyed 100 years of peace, free trade, and both fishing and general prosperity. In 1914, a unified Germany precipitated the worst ever European war, which combined improving armament technology and early forms of biological warfare, resulting in massive loss of life. That war was followed 20 years later by another brutal, German-inspired war, which caused widespread death, dislocation and economic misery as Hitler sought to conquer Europe. The British establishment came close to surrender to Mr Hitler, avoided only by the inspirational Winston Churchill. The post-war socialist reconstruction of Europe reflected the continent’s loss of confidence and the need to mutualise the risk of another Franco-German conflict. The British empire began to break up, and the British establishment lost the will to govern a proud sovereign nation as socialism precipitated a visit to the International Monetary Fund and a sterling crisis in the 1970s. We joined the European “Economic” Community in 1973. British fishing was one of the sacrificial industries to pay the price for that membership, as the other member states were free to fish outside a 12-mile coastal band, with some allowed to fish in the 6 to 12-mile zone. It is interesting that the Dutch were active in fishing our waters before we won the fourth Anglo-Dutch war in 1784, with the North sea described as “the principal gold mine” of the Dutch. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, in which Admiral Nelson, a proud—