This is our big chance to help our fishermen
SOME media outlets (eg, the BBC) have been dismissive of the importance of the UK fishing industry to our EU trade negotiations, as it represents ‘only a small percentage of our economy’.
But we gave most of it away to Europe — that’s why it’s so small!
I am old enough to remember the thriving ports and fishing fleets we operated in our own waters before EEC membership.
The positive view should be that whatever the type of trade agreement we have (or don’t have) with Europe, we can now grow this industry again and, most importantly, can have more responsible management and conservation of our fish stocks.
The EU consumes a lion’s share of our fish catch and the naysayers fret that ‘they won’t buy fish from us, we’ll lose their market’. If the price is right and the quality is good, why won’t they?
JOHN COLLINS, Bourne end, Bucks.
Hooked by a feeling
SOVEREIGNTY seems to be all the Brexiteers can offer now that most of the benefits they promised have evaporated.
As the poet Maya Angelou commented: ‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’
Dominic Cummings inspired people who felt left behind to believe they had some influence on their lives and that felt great.
An intellectual, fact-based argument wasn’t going to win against that strategy. REV DR JOHN CAMERON, ST
andrews, Fife.
A Brit of what you fancy
I BOUGHT my first bottle of English sparkling wine this weekend and it was delicious. So no more Champagne for us.
In addition I won’t be buying any more Chablis or Fleurie and will be seeking New World alternatives.
No more Dolcellata or Brie — British cheeses from now on — and when my top of the range Mercedes-Benz is replaced in the spring, it will be with a British-built Jaguar or Japanese model.
Oh, and holidays — California or Canada, Thailand or Tokyo. The EU — who needs it? IAN WALLACE, Dalgety Bay, Fife.
Harbour resentment
THE Scottish Justice Secretary says that gunboat diplomacy is ‘not welcome’ in Scottish waters.
It seems that the only thing that is welcome in SNP Scotland is the billions of pounds of money from the entire UK tax base.
DAVID BONE, Hamilton Street, Girvan.
Wonderful Santa
CLEARLY, Professor Phil Garnsworthy, of Nottingham University, is mistaken with his estimate of
Santa’s reindeers’ carbon footprint during their annual trip.
Santa sets off from the North Pole j ust after midnight and arrives home in time for breakfast. He has by this time travelled by magic across the entire globe, distributing gifts and presents to millions of children.
Travelling so far so quickly greatly dilutes any flatulence emitted by his reindeer. (By the way, mince pies and sherry are low- calorie foods and, as we all know, it’s clothes that actually shrink at Christmas.)
Therefore, if Santa and his reindeer are invisible, travel at the speed of light and possibly mythical, it follows that they cannot produce any carbon footprint. Long live Santa! JOHN CHURCH, alvaston, Derbys.
The drivel we know
I SHOULD be immune to this kind of thing, but it still rankles. Time and time again I am stunned at some remark made by the leading lights of the SNP, which I believe to be at best mistaken and at worst something else again. But still it goes on.
The latest was the First Minister claiming in Holyrood this week that she was ‘not the office gossip’. How does that possibly equate with her public revelation of the presumably confidential opinion of Kezia Dugdale, then Labour leader, that she wanted to drop her party’s opposition to a second referendum?
This was Isa of Still Game-level gossiping, with no regard for the embarrassment and what it would mean to the object of the gossip.
As has happened so many times with the SNP leaders, what they say and what they do are actually miles apart. How can we trust a word they say?
ALEXANDER MCKAY, edinburgh.
High Street blunder
NICOLA Sturgeon and her cohorts should have realised that when you close shops then allow them to open just before Christmas it would cause crowds to flock to our high streets.
Any rise in Covid infections will be down to them and the measures they have taken.
SUZANNE FOSTER, Moray.
Stress levels
THE Covid numbers are stubbornly not aiding Nicola Sturgeon’s case for moving tier levels.
It is looking like Glasgow ought to have stayed in Level 4 whilst Edinburgh should have been in Level 2.
The courts have backed Miss Sturgeon’s approach but this might not really be to her advantage. She has to decide again on Tuesday where these levels should go.
The howls of protest from Edinburgh are difficult to ignore and the Glasgow figures are not making easy reading. Miss Sturgeon is therefore caught between a rock and a hard place and the Alex
Salmond inquiry is beginning to look very dangerous too. The sharks are circling.
GERALD EDWARDS, Glasgow.
Sort out NHS waste
IF people who had no previous PPE involvement could source this equipment what on earth have NHS managers being doing?
The whole system needs a good shake-up as this isn’t the first time the procurement department within the NHS has come under scrutiny.
Perhaps one day the waste at the NHS will be brought under control but then you need someone who gives a damn to look at it and act to change things.
A FORREST, largs, ayrshire.
Hurly Burley
WELL, talk about the biter bitten! I am so pleased to see interrogator Kay Burley getting a dose of her own medicine.
I stopped watching Sky News in the morning as soon as she landed there. Her attitude towards MPs, especially Conservative ones, is most condescending and I truly hope that she is off air for good. I can then get back to watching Sky News again.
DAVE ASPINALL, Bury, lancs.
Slave drivers?
I DOUBT that child labourers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who are mining cobalt in terrible conditions so that virtuesignalling wealthy people can drive electric cars, are bothered about so-called climate change.
If you have food on the table you have many problems. If you don’t have food on the table you have one problem.
GEOFF MOORE, alness, Sutherland.