Navy called upon to defend UK fishing boats against French

[Clairetree1]

so what next?

the French call upon their navy to defend French fishing boats against the British navy?

French and British warships pointing guns at each other?

who would have expected that possibility to be seriously discussed on the news, even as little as 3 days ago?

British fishing boats who feel that Brexit releases them from the "gentlemans agreement" not to fish when the French are leaving scallops to breed.

French fishing boats retaliating with rocks and bottles, ramming, firing flares into British ships, "smoke bombs" ( which some are claiming were actual fire bombs) This is piracy undoubtably

British captains recommending carrying arms, to protect their crews.

Navy called on to provide protection.

The UK government needs to step in and order British ships out of these waters.

The French government needs to investigate the incidents and bring charges, with heavy prison sentences for anyone convicted.

This is ridiculous, and it needs sorting now, before things escalate.

Only a couple of hundred days and British boats won't be allowed in these waters on pain of arrest and seizing of their boats.

I think they should be ordered out of those waters now. On pain of arrest by British police, and charges of behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace!

But I don't know if British police have jurisdiction?

I don't suppose the French can legally arrest them yet either?

So who is in control?

or is this just like everything else Brexity, no one has actual control over anything, and the legal situation is totally obscure.

The French fishermen are not happy at following their rules which allow the scallops to grow properly (a closed season) but they have accepted it. To have much bigger and more invasive English ships which damage the breeding grounds is totally unacceptable.
The French have a 'bit of a reputation' for striking so if this does not get suppressed very quickly it is not unreasonable to see major 'headaches' when it comes to supplies going to England in the future. If not actual strikes but a 'work to rule' or a 'go slow' will hurt the UK.
Most of the ferries are I believe French owned.

I agree the British ships going there is totally unacceptable, Brexit or no Brexit.

They need to be brought under control.

The French responses was criminal

they also need to be held accountable.

You can't be allowed to get away with surrounding and ramming another ship and firing flares into it, they could have killed someone.

The UK needs a 'deal' of some sort to survive, literally as it is not sufficient in food for a start. Deliberately antagonising the people you really DO need to deal with is particularly stupid.
The French and other European governments can officially state they are cooperating, but at the end of the day it is the workers at ports and customs who actually enable speedy and smooth transit of goods, piss them off at your peril!

The british ships have the legal right to fish those waters. They have done nothing wrong, the french fisherman need to take it up with their own government as to why they have heavier restrictions on fishing for these same scallops.

The French got all our fishing grounds when we joined the EU. Fishing communities along our northern coast were decimated because they weren’t allowed to fish in British waters. So I have no sympathy for the French getting a taste of their own medicine I’m afraid.

Who could of predicted anything like this happening?

I am with the French. Waters are overfished anyway.

Well said BigBlue!

What the British is doing wrong is using massively invasive techniques to fish on an industrial scale that kills off the breeding grounds.
Plus the fact they are doing it all year which again impacts the scallops they want. The French had reluctantly allowed a 'closed season' to enable young scallops to grow properly. Kill off the breeding stock and everyone loses.
The Europeans 'gaining' northern fishing grounds was due to incompetence of the UK government. In the Thatcher era when it was realised that EVERYONE was over fishing, a plan was created to reduce the number of fishermen and there was a 'scrappage' scheme.
If a European boat was 'scrapped' the men got a pay out and walked away. Due to UK 'rules' each registered fishing boat had a fishing rights allocation related to it. By failing to appreciate this implication I believe European fishermen would buy up boats thus the fishing allocation too.
READ THE FINE PRINT and think!

I think Brexit is wholly irrelevant to this.

Then again, I'm old enough to remember the Cod Wars

Wasn't Farage the MEP responsible for UK fishing discussions ?

Maybe he should tell us how much work he put into that job, and what the position is, as an expert in the field.

“READ THE FINE PRINT and think!”

Hmmm, the LEGAL fine print says it’s ok, that is all that’s relevant here. Surely it is down to the French Government and the EU to figure out a better deal for the french fishermen. The French Fisherman may be understandably frustrated (as are many of our own fishing communities due to poorly thought out laws such as this) however, that does not give them the right, or sanction to deliberately risk the lives and livelihoods of our fisherman by the nature of their ‘resistance’. Any sympathy I may have had for their plight immediately vapourised upon witnessing that terrible behaviour.

Well, Farage is a dick, so I wouldn’t hold my breath DG.

I think you have a point @Meditrina, it isn't specifically 'Brexit' related however it may be an indication that some people in Europe are unhappy at having their lives disrupted and made more expensive by the UK being a complete arse.

It's considerably more complex than it's being presented. BigBlue is right, and the codwars are fresh in my memory.

How is the UK being “a complete arse”? By following the letter of the law? I dont get this constant self flagellation, we are not always automatically in the wrong, just by nature of being “the UK”.

Well, Farage is a dick, so I wouldn’t hold my breath DG.

I was being mischievous .... I damn well know Farage has done fuck all for the UK as an MEP, except increase the sales of booze'n'fags in the Brussells duty-free. If we had a decent media, then at least one journalist would doorstepped him, and got his views as the UK representative involved in EU fishing discussions ... using the word "involved" quite wrongly.

The actions of the British are affecting the livelihoods of ALL fishermen by deliberately using invasive fishing techniques to over fish AND trash the seabed.

So we can now expect weeks of tabloid attention as there always is surrounding Norwegian or French fishing interactions.

Yet the number of incursions by Russia into both air and sea space is rarely mentioned. It occasionally gets a mention in a couple of pages on page 12 of a newspaper. What very rarely gets mentioned is the fact that the French and Belgians have regularly helped us monitor these Russian incursions and on some occasions escorted the Russian vessels away.

I never understand why anything negative involving fishing gets such press attention and yet positive cooperation over Russian sea events are ignored. Whilst fishing is important, Britain's fishing industry accounts for only a tiny part of the UK economy, contributing less than half a per cent to annual GDP.

henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Foxall-Russia-Military-Incursions_FINAL1.pdf

If you are talking about dredgers Leclerc, then you are not wrong, but last I looked, dredgers are not used soley by the uk, so that in and of itself is an entirely seperate issue that needs addressing more globally.

The letter of the EU 'law' state the rules for EU membership. It appears that the UK are having difficulty reading and understanding this, despite being written in 27 languages and are still whining about it.
If that isn't being a 'bit of an arse' then what is it?

If the British boats are doing nothing illegal at this point in time.
Then I'm afraid it is the French boats who are wrong and quite right that our Navy should protect them.