Back on track with the thread… more from Stay European on Fisheries and other issues concerned with Brexit
We’re still not even a month into Brexit, and shellfish firms’ lorries are
driving around Westminster to tell the government that they face collapse because of Brexit red tape. Their seafood is rotting and export firms are on the
brink of bankruptcy.
The fish market at the Scottish port of Peterhead, usually Europe’s biggest, has become a ‘ghost town’, with Scottish fishing vessels landing their catch in Denmark instead.
A boat that catches a tenth of Britain’s cod and haddock has been stuck in port since 5 December. British pork is stuck rotting in the Netherlands. This is just a snapshot: there are a hundred more stories like it.
The government says these are “teething problems” caused by exporters “not filling in the right forms” – but this not true. Being outside the single market was always going to lead here. Meat and fish industries are some of the first hit, but won’t be the only ones.
While it may seem a bit technical, it is these sorts of practical issues that will lead Britain on the road to rejoin. Brexit is rotten – time to throw it out.