On the other hand…

It’s good business and it would have been pretty stupid to alienate our customer base TOM GARDINER

Much has been said about our agreement with the EU on fishing rights and quotas in UK waters with some people saying the deal is a betrayal of our fishing communities.

But I disagree, because not only is the government going to pump in £100m to help modernise our fishing fleet and processing plants, our fishermen can now catch more fish in our waters which we now control going up from roughly half to two-thirds after five years. This is particularly beneficial because we sell most of our catch to continental Europe anyway, so it’s good business and it would have been pretty stupid to alienate our customer base.

Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP’s position is now looks completely ridiculous and untenable for she claims the deal is a betrayal of Scottish fishermen. This is breath taking hypocrisy from a woman and a party that wants to remain in the EU but those same fishermen can see right through her leftwing, anti-English politicking and I know first hand through family connections that the Scottish fishing communities by-and-large don’t support or vote for the SNP. Although I was a Brexiteer I like most was never on the extreme side of the debate and it would have been completely unreasonable and very harsh of the UK to exclude the French, Dutch and Spanish fishermen from fishing in our waters overnight.

I supported Brexit but I was never in the game of ruining the livelihoods of ordinary hard working people across The Channel, and despite our disagreements in some areas I’m sure they feel the same way about us.

Tom Gardiner Gosport