Peter Hill

AHUGE fuss is being made over the “betrayal” of Britain’s fishing industry with foreign boats allowed to continue harvesting our waters for 21 months after we leave the EU. But it turns out that foreign firms already own a big slice of British fishing rights and will continue to do so permanently.

Why? Because British companies sold their quotas. Spanish firms own 88 per cent of Welsh fishing rights and most of the quota from the Bristol Channel to the Scottish border. Dutch and Icelandic firms control most of our East Coast fishing.

European seas are split into sectors and governments hand out quotas specifying how much of each type of fish can be caught. Unlike in other countries the Environment Department allows any or all of its quotas to be sold to foreign trawler firms. “England and Wales have mismanaged their fishing quota and Brexit will do nothing to put it right,” says law lecturer Tom Appleby.

The fishing industry has largely gone the way of so much of British business, manufacturing and utilities that have been sold off to Chinese, American and other foreign investors with the approval of successive governments. No use moaning about it now because the family silver has long gone in return for a quick but one-off profit. q THE passport shambles is another example of our Government’s political naivety. Falling over backwards to show the EU that we will still welcome their business we have handed the contract to make our new blue passports to a Franco-Dutch printing company.

The deal will save £120million over nine years but it will be a sick joke having to tender passports saying “Made in the EU”. No other major country would allow such a fiasco. Worse, thousands of jobs will be lost at British printer De La Rue. The Tories are just throwing votes at Labour. q COMEDY actor Robin Williams used to grope his Mork & Mindy co-star Pam Dawber, repeatedly grabbing her breasts and bottom and flashing naked in front of her, she reveals, but she didn’t find it offensive because he was “really playful, like a puppy”. Isn’t the truth that “madcap” Williams’s gross behaviour was as funny as his film performances: about as amusing as a tax demand? He has to be the most unfunny funnyman in history, with the possible exception of Norman Wisdom. q THERE is “concern” that five million over-70s hold driving licences, including 265 aged over 100, but why should anyone be worried? Older drivers are involved in proportionately fewer accidents than younger people and have to declare their fitness to drive every three years to renew their licences. But that’s not enough for those who seek to blame and humiliate the old at every opportunity. They say the over-70s should be made to retake the driving test at frequent intervals. As an older driver who has never had an accident other than the odd scratch I’ll just say this: any government that orders me to take another test will lose my vote. q NOT that there’s going to be much chance of a life-threatening shunt in the future because congestion is getting so bad that traffic will be slower than the average cycling speed. However cyclists have nothing to celebrate: there are so many potholes they risk life and limb every time they venture out. Apparently we can afford to blow £56billion (and rising) on the HS2 high-speed rail vanity project but leave many of our roads like pre-Roman cart tracks. q I NOTICED a young man wearing shoes without socks on the train and wondered if he knew what an idiot he looked. The rest of him was warmly dressed on this chilly day but his ankles must have been freezing. The fashion is so widespread that top London clubs now insist that men must wear socks. The rule also applies to Lord’s cricket pavilion and Royal Ascot.

What is the attraction of going bare-booted? Even in winter your feet will be cold and clammy and in summer positively liquid. The feet sweat up to half a pint a day so it won’t be long before your shoes are unspeakable. I once had the misfortune to be on a small yacht with a bloke whose feet stank like the town dump and I still retch at the memory.

This disgusting, antisocial fad should be banned in public places. q WE should be shocked but it comes as no surprise to read that old people suffered neglect or ill-treatment at 91 out of 92 care homes surveyed. Abuse either deliberate or thoughtless is endemic in the system. There are not enough carers and the pay is pitiful, although that does not excuse cruelty.

I believe the decline of religion is linked to the increasing lack of respect and dignity afforded the old. In the past families felt they had a duty to care for granny and grandad even if at times they didn’t love them. Callousness or neglect would have been embarrassing in communities centred on church or chapel.

But there is no going back. We are godless and self-centred, fixated on pleasure and retail therapy. The old are inconvenient nuisances to be hidden away and kept quiet with tranquillisers. Sad. q SPEAKING for myself I resent the common misapprehension that men are useless at housework. I’m proud to report that my 19-year-old son has finally been trained to take his dirty plates to the dishwasher, though he has yet to learn actually to put them in it. Give him time.