[kirklancaster]

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW JUST HOW THE CORRUPT POLICIES OF THE EU HAVE DECIMATED THE LIVES OF OVER A HUNDRED THOUSAND ORDINARY WORKING UK CITIZENS AND THEIR FAMILIES, AND HOW THEY HAVE DESTROYED ONCE HEALTHY INDUSTRIES, THEN READ THESE EXTRACTS FROM;
"How the EU Common Fisheries Policy Permanently Damaged Scotland:*A Warning for Iceland . By Dr James Wilkie, David Thomson and associates."


Fishing has been a key element of the Scottish economy for many centuries, even thousands of years.**During those centuries the Scottish fishing industry harvested the seas while maintaining healthy fish stocks in balance with the rate of exploitation.**

In 1970 this all changed with the advent of control from Brussels, a move that resulted in an economic, environmental, ecological, social and cultural disaster.**

The direct results for Scotland have included almost 100,000 job losses and an annual loss of wealth creation of the order of ₤1,500 million.**

The Start of Control from Brussels

The European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy*(CFP), dating from 1970, basically consists of an agreement between the then six members of the European Economic Community*(EEC)*that fishing vessels belonging to member states would have free and equal access to the waters of all other members*(Directive 2141/70, later replaced by 101/76).

The clear purpose was to gain unrestricted access to the rich fish stocks of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Norway, which together with Denmark had just applied to join the*EEC.

It had nothing to do with management or Conservation.**It was a ruthless political gambit, with no legal basis, to give powerful commercial interests in other member states an entry ticket to the well conserved Norwegian, UK and especially Scottish waters, which they would otherwise have been unable to exploit.**

The excellent 2009 study by The Taxpayers’ Alliance, which reveals that the total annual economic cost to the UK of the EU Common Fisheries Policy is £2,813 million, or £2.8 billion (American billion 109*– European billion 1012*is different).**Of that total, £2,100 million was from the loss of access to home waters.*

Since Scotland has over 66 % of the UK EEZ, then £1,400 million of that loss relates to Scotland.*Adding the other estimates proportionally from the TPA study now make the Scottish fisheries sector loss due to the CFP over £1,500 million every single year.

Dr Lee Rotherham, who carried out the research for The Taxpayers’ Alliance, said:

“For years everyone has known, even in Brussels, that the Common Fisheries Policy has been a disaster. It has trashed the environment, wrecked coastal communities like Hull and Grimsby, and dumped hundreds of thousands of tonnes of dead fish uselessly back into the sea. If any government minister had ordered such actions, he would have been lynched. The time is long overdue to scrap the CFP and manage our territorial seas with the self-interest and self-enlightenment of countries like Norway, Iceland and Canada.”

Costing the Common Fisheries Policy, January 2009

Commenting on the TPA study, the Aberdeen (Scotland)*Press and Journal*in its editorial of 30 January 2009, The Price of Fish, wrote:*“In case any proof were needed that the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy is one of the most damaging political schemes ever to affect a UK industry, some facts about its impact on every single household will help. Pressure group The Taxpayer’s Alliance has calculated that the policy costs every family £111 a year in higher taxes and lost business and puts ₤186 a year on the average food bill.

As the north and northeast of Scotland has witnessed, the impact on jobs has been severe. More than 9,000 directly in fishing and up to 90,000 have been lost from onshore dependent industries. This is before the baffling phenomenon of throwing away tons of dead fish each year has been considered.**The problem with the CFP of course, is that we are pretty much stuck in a world in which the European Union will forever meddle with this vital Scottish industry. …**The CFP is a triumph of pork barrel politics over commonsense and compassion.”***

Summary of Scottish Losses

No calculable benefits to Scotland of EU membership could possibly compensate for this haemorrhage of Scotland’s economic wealth. The appalling figure of lost value creation of ₤1,500 million every single year, and the loss of almost 100,000 jobs from the Scottish employment market, represents nothing less than a national disaster – brought about for no better reason than the crazed ideology of “sharing the common resource” with other EU member countries.

What the figures cannot reveal is the amount of personal tragedy and communal disruption that lie behind them: bankruptcies, the uprooting of individuals and families, the destruction of thriving communities with centuries-old cultural traditions and communal lives. Major harbours, like Lossiemouth, that were the focus of social and economic life twelve months in the year, are now marinas for a handful of yachts. One can imagine the reaction if Brussels had reduced the Spanish or French fishing fleets by almost two thirds simply to make way for incomers. And fishing is by no means as important to those countries as it is to Scotland.

The costs to public funds of unemployment and other social benefits as well as broader economic consequences, including loss of tax income, probably brought the total loss nearer to £900 million every year. This exceeds by a huge margin any economic benefits Scotland receives from the European Union, especially when it is considered that Scotland as a member of the UK is already a substantial net contributor to the EU.

The above calculations were made in 2004, on the basis of the then available information, by Dr James Wilkie, with data and guidance from Japanese economist Kaz Nagao, Fishermen’s Association (FAL) Secretary Roddy McColl, and fishery consultant David Thomson.**

HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DECENT, HARDWORKING, HONEST, ORDINARY PEOPLE IN THE UK HAVE SEEN THEIR LIVES SHATTERED BY THE CORRUPT PRACTICES AND SELF-INTEREST POLICIES OF THE EU

VOTE OUT.OUT.OUT. OUT. OUT.