The Thamesmead Grump

FISHY TALES

Who is the biggest tosser?

Now we'll never know.

Today, two of the UKs most celebrated pro Brexit loonies in the shape of Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nigel Farage joined forces in a demonstration against the latest deal the Government had reached to remain subject to the EU Common Fisheries Policy.

The plan was that they, along with a number of other Tory Brexiteers, would board a fishing trawler in the Thames and toss some fish over the side. As is usually the case with these anti EU stunts, the whole thing went totally tits up when they were refused permission by the Port of London Authority to dock. This meant that Rees-Mogg and others were unable to board the vessel.

In an act of supreme irony, the trawler they chose to lead the procession was the Christine S; the trawler involved in the largest ever fraud involving illegal fishing and now owned by one of a small consortium of major owners of fishing quota allocation which has been responsible for the almost complete destruction of Britain's small fishing fleet.

After realising that the demonstration was descending into farce, Jacob Rees-Mogg jumped ship, as it were and left it to Nigel Farage to carry on regardless. Poor Nigel of course did just that, leaving us with the second great irony of the day.

Nigel Farage was a UK representative on the EU Fisheries Council and could have represented the interests of the British fisheries industry, but only ever attended one meeting out of the 42 that took place in the three years he was on that council. 

One has to wonder how much better the position of our fishermen would have been today if only he had done the job he was so handsomely paid to do instead of taking part in infantile stunts.

Unfortunately, because Jacob Rees-Mogg couldn't get on board with Nigel Farage, we never got to see which one of them was the biggest tosser. Shame. 

You can read more about this idiotic charade and the background to it by reading this excellent piece written for the Describer magazine. A piece of advice, if you do click on the link, you should also go to the Greenpeace article highlighted. Actually, I'll post the link here as well.