Letters - Thursday, June 3, 2021

When I read that those fish and chip shops supplied by our trawler fleet some years ago are now being supplied by Norwegian trawlers, I have to ask myself...how in heaven’s name did we allow this to happen?

And when I read in the same article that good quality fish, caught by our own fisherman, were left rotting on the quayside, almost mirroring fish caught by British fishermen having to be thrown back although dead, but perfectly fit to enter our food chain, I considered both a criminal act, and if they weren’t they should have been.

I suspect very strongly that when the narrow majority voted to leave the EU, the UK’s fishing position was uppermost in their minds.

All we wanted, and still want, is for the UK to say who can fish in our territorial waters, and how much they can catch.

Reciprocal arrangements should then follow.

Those of us who followed the Brexit negotiations, and what would follow, always knew that the French fishermen would try to control the situation, and to date all indications are that they are still doing so.

In this whole area of fishing rights, our politicians have let us all down time and again.

David Craggs

Address supplied

POLITICS

Opportunistic Government

In response to the letter, They’re even worse than I thought (Your Say, May 29), I fear that matters are set to take an even more worrying turn.

This is evident in the views aired by ministers in relation to the Martin Bashir (pictured) interview, where much light is shed on the real thinking of the current Government, once the surface is scratched.

It is important to say that Mr Bashir’s means to justify his “scoop” is to be deplored.

Equally, it is right that any attempt by the BBC to cover or defend Mr Bashir should be treated with the utmost seriousness.

That said, the media reaction and the response of Government ministers to Mr Bashir’s behaviour and the action/ inaction of his employer present is so over-indulgent as to be unconvincing.

The fact that many of the BBC’s competitors and the Government have found a very convenient landing stage on the assassination of the BBC cannot be dismissed.

The Bashir interview is a gift to be milked for all it is worth by a frenzied media and over-excited members of Government, who cannot believe their luck with this story.

In the background of the crazed and hyperactive reporting and condemnation, resides disturbing irony; disturbing indeed for a so-called developed and mature democracy because the very ministers who delight in hammering the nails into the coffin of the BBC are the very people who conspired to bring down the seat of democracy in this country in August 2019 under the Prorogation ordered by the current Prime Minister and his Cabinet.

That action was equivalent to January 6, 2021 in USA.

They are the same people who now seek a Judicial Review, announced in the latest Queen’s Speech, to limit the power of the country’s Judiciary.

The proposed Review is in response to the decision of the Supreme Court who deemed that Prorogation illegal.

Vindictive indeed.

Government ministers appear on television and wax lyrical about the lack of ethics of a particular journalist and his employer but this is an Opportunistic Government and, as such, will not miss an opportunity to smear an independent public broadcasting company in order to replace its independent and impartial journalistic role with that of a mouthpiece of, and for, Government.

The past 10 years has already seen the BBC, under pressure, have to bend worryingly in that direction.

B Kelly

via email

FINANCES

Unbelievable. The stamp costs more

My wife, nearing 80, received two A4 sheets of paper from the Pensions Office saying her pension will increase by 25p per week.

Unbelievable. The cost of this letter far outweighs the rise. When this happened to me seven years ago, I complained to my then local MP and I thought this had stopped.

Ray Marshall

via email

Thanks for reading. If you value what we do and are able to support us, a digital subscription is just £1 for your first month. Try us today by clicking here