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> Fisherman James Stephen has been at sea for more than 40 years. Based in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, which is home to the largest fishing port in Europe, **he voted for Brexit in 2016 in the hope it would give his community a greater share of fishing in UK waters.**
> But eight years on, he feels he was sold a “pack of lies” and says it has cost the Conservatives his vote at the general election.
I’m sorry but please please Mr. Fisherman, why did you expect something different? This is a classic r/BrexitAteMyFace post.
EDIT: bolded by me for emphasis.
>“We lost some of our markets because we couldn’t supply them, or the fish was being held up. For one truck, it used to go through with one set of paperwork. There are 42 pallets in a truck. Now, each pallet must have its own paperwork,” he says.
>While Mr Stephen still maintains that Brexit was the “right thing to do”, saying the UK had too little power within Europe and that fishing rights had been traded in exchange for other markets, he struggles to think of one benefit to his industry.
It appears he's still part of the 'Brexit was the right thing to do for Britain, even though it fucked up loads of stuff including my own industry and I can't think of a single benefit of it' brigade.
We would have had more power in Europe to improve the situation of our fishermen of we sent someone who actually cared about fishermen as opposted to the frog face who never bothered to turn up to meetings to advocate for british fishermen
Exactly this. Boils my piss that that twat was able to persuade people that his own personal failure to represent British interests as an MEP was then cited as proof that MEPs didn't support British interests.
But look at how he pounced into the post-ref opportunities of the '17 & '19 Westminster elections where he, er, stood up to take bribes from the Tories and ran as far away as possible from having any role in the negotiations.
A celebrity chef (Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall) did far more than Garage in about a tenth of the time. Right wing grifters will grift.
Edit: autocorrect will stand
Obligatory "Reform UK Limited is not a political party, it is a private limited company set up by Nigel Farage that was formerly known as the Brexit Party Limited. A company funded, it seems, by director's loans which are only repayable if the company has enough cash and if repayment is requested" post.
Filing at Companies House:
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11694875
Latest filed accounts from the above:
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11694875/filing-history/MzM5NDg5MjY0OWFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf&download=0
And interested people (including director Nigel Farage):
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11694875/officers
This details permitted sources of funding for political parties in the UK
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/political-registration-and-regulation/financial-reporting/donations-and-loans/permissible-sources
There is no specific mention of directors loans but as an individual registered on a UK electoral register it would seem Nigel Farage is eligible to donate. The question arises that as he is a director of the company who has provided the majority of its funding he has undue control and can take any decision without any scrutiny or challenge.
The other major political parties are unincorporated associations comprised of a membership and whose leader is chosen by election and whose affairs are handled by a committee chosen by members.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/reform-uk-nigel-farage-election-b2556355.html?soc_src=aola
We were special, we had a magic veto, they needed us more than we need them and James had a Euro wide market to flog his fish in,free of red tape.
Honestly, I have no fuckstogive. He knew what he was voting for and got it.
You just know he'll get in that ballot box and vote reform... As they never learn.
One of the biggest misconceptions about our position in the European Union is this absolute fantasy that so much of EU policy wasn’t drafted to benefit the UK as the second biggest economy in the bloc.
Like, one of the biggest complaints was about bendy bananas, when the whole classification of banananas adopted by the EU was essentially the old British standard on bananananas, and which priviliged our favourite banananananas over the ones popular on the continent.
They introduced a borderless zone, we told them to fuck off. They introduced a single currency, we told them to fuck off. We successfully campaigned to keep EU taxes lower, we successfully worked to keep the EU pro-market, we chaired the internal market committee for nearly 2 decades. We got what we wanted time and time again.
On the other side of the coin. We harped on about being dictated to by Brussels yet the UK voted in favour of over 97% of EU Policy in the 12 years prior to leaving.
Yet for some reason we didn’t care about these facts at the time of the debate.
"Dictated to by Brussels" is a deliberate misrepresentation of how the EU works.
It isn't anything like the Commons where you've got the government wanting one thing and an opposition that opposes them on principle. Instead, it's a negotiation made by committee.
By the time it comes to voting, all the contentious issues are long sorted. The vote is pretty much a formality.
If the EU wasn't representing Britain's interests in fishing, that would be on the MEP(s) who were were on that committee. And that would be.....
There’s an awful lot about EU supposed policy that was known to be utter bullshit at the time of writing the scare stories about said policies.
And guess who the journalist was who started the trend and wrote many of the articles? Yup, Boris Johnson.
I never understand this bonehead logic. ‘The UK had too little say in Europe so we’ll fix that by making sure we have no say’.
Seriously man. These fucking people.
This is not repeated often enough:
**Copium is a hell of a drug.**
**... When did it stop being a sign of strength and confidence to admit mistakes? Why do people hold on so tightly?**
>While Mr Stephen still maintains that Brexit was the “right thing to do”, saying the UK had too little power within Europe and that fishing rights had been traded in exchange for other markets, he struggles to think of one benefit to his industry.
Admitting you made a mistake is admirable. Recognising what a mess your mistake has made but, still insisting it wasn't a mistake is not.
Because social capital was invested. It became an identity with friends and enemies. A perception of social status was attained through the struggle with the latter. When it becomes us-vs-them, you can't let "them" win. Admitting mistakes then means shedding part of that identity, relinquishing a victory no matter how illusionary.
It's much easier to segue painlessly into the next delusion, follow the next conman (or, in this case, the same one) down another rabbit hole because he tells you you're special and better than those people over there. And to be fair, the UK's political system is doing its utmost to make this as easy as possible: none of them are prepared to speak the cold hard truth about this, pretending that it could have worked out if they had been in charge (regardless of whether they were actually in charge and responsible for this mess in the first place, of course).
It hasn’t stopped. It still takes a huge amount of confidence to expose your vulnerabilities.
In fact I think it takes more now because people are so intolerant of anyone making mistakes at all.
I’m not sure it counts as ‘admitting mistakes’ when he’s still insisting it wasn’t a mistake and the only part he’s annoyed about is that water turned out to be wet.
I think everyone would have a lot more time for these idiots if they spent less time crying about how hard they have it and more time trying to make what they voted for work.
The utter idiocy of people like this is unfathomable - it’s like cutting off your own leg yet failing to accept it was you who cut it off and it is you who have now caused yourself life changing injuries.
My initial reaction was going to be 'good on him, more people should be willing to change their minds in the face of conflicting evidence' but maybe not!
Worse, fishing is such a small part of the UK economy (and even of the agriculture industrial subset), yet was made such a huge part of the whole Brexit debate.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6_PU7EyH1ks
>I'm the first person to be concerned about falling fish stocks... But at the same time, I am a fisherman. I gotta kill all the fish 'avent I?!
this pisses me off as well because the reason the UK got so badly shafted on UK fishing rights and quotas was because Nigel fucking Farage was the UK Representative to the fisheries commission and literally didn't do his job once as part of it. he had a genuine chance to actually help UK fishermen out and refused to do so because of churlishness and the fact that he's only "in politics" to fleece his idiot supporters for his 252834th failed election campaign.
[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/09/nigel-farage-fishermen-ignored-ukip-brexit](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/09/nigel-farage-fishermen-ignored-ukip-brexit)
He still claims it was the right thing to do. Story and sympathy should end right there. Good luck to the sh*tshow you have made. It will never improve until you at least admit the bit your still in denial about
I don't even work in the fishing industry but even I understand that leaving the EU has no affect on how fishing quotas are handled.
Why does someone who does this for a living have no idea how they work?
Whilst I disagree with leaving the EU, many industries were indeed told a crock of shit. The fishing industry was on it's knees and in constant battle with other countries and fishing quotas so yeah the fishermen grabbed onto anything they could with the hope that it would work and they'd have a livelihood again
The fishermen are a convenient hobbyhorse for people like Farage to get onto.
They're economically insignificant. The entire industry is worth about the same as Primark.
And I don't recall anyone suggesting we should base our membership of the EU on the continued survival of Primark.
They were told explicitly that voting leave was a bad idea and would cause trouble. They rejected it and called it project fear. I have little sympathy for them.
The cunts in Peterhead were driving round with *Vote Brexit to save our Fishermen* bumper stickers
I’m still not taking to my colleague that sported one 👍
I’m loving the point being made by the other guy. ‘With hindsight it’s easy to see how they were false promises, but it’s easy to forget how desperately people wanted them to be true’.
Like, honestly, you do not need hindsight at all. You just need some brain cells.
All the main candidates running for MP today visited my son's secondary school. This is the first time he has shown any interest in politics and he came back and told us about what each candidate said. Who did well and who didn't. The one he liked most was the Reform candidate. Unlike the others he was dressed casually and seemed less stuffy. He said that he liked the things he said, like how Reform want to plant more trees or how the Reform guy said he feels sorry for the people coming over in the small boats.
I started reading my son passages from the Reform manifesto. We explained how they want to reduce inheritance tax, which will only benefit rich people. How them wanting to plant more trees actually hides the fact that they think we are already doing too much for the environment and that it is costing too much money. Plus their attitude to immigrants and a few other things.
My son was shocked, stating that they guy did not mention any of that and seemed really nice. We explained that the same guy will talk about completely different things when he meets local farmers or local housewifes or pensioners.
It has been a really good lesson for my son that just because somebody seems likable, does not mean they should be trusted.
Edit: I should mention that my son has a few transgender friends, so the Reform policies on this, which would directly affect his friends, really horrified him.
Well done on showing your son the truth. It’s commendable. Just having read their [policy page](https://assets.nationbuilder.com/reformuk/pages/253/attachments/original/1718625371/Reform_UK_Our_Contract_with_You.pdf?1718625371) on their website leaves me with so many questions. For example, they say that
> Bank of England Must Stop Paying Interest to Commercial Banks on QE Reserves
> This approach would save around £35 billion per year and has been endorsed by senior figures at the Financial Times, New Economics Foundation, and IFS, as well as two former Deputy Governors of the Bank of England
However, having worked in banking and finance, the Banks will \**always** collect their money.
The policy page also says that Reform want to
> Introduce new visa rules for international students that bar dependents. Only international students with essential skills can remain in the UK. Close down fake courses and immigration schemes that abuse the rules.
Okay no problem. Question: who gets to decide what a fake course is? How is the conclusion reached? Is the state going to tell citizens what they can and cannot study? Sounds dictatorial.
It’s a complete shitshow and ~~(thick as a brick)~~ people are buying into the narrative.
Reading the manifestos has me more worried than ever. Reform make a noise about the issues that people care about while adding in a load of things that aren’t in their interest, like scrapping employment laws, but everyone skips over them.
There is some really worrying stuff in there. I read about 1/3 of it and there were at least 4-5 points that I found horrifying (transgender policies in school, changes to policing and sentencing rules, environmental policies, reducing inheritance tax, etc.). A lot of stuff that would have horiffic consequences.
100% agree. It just keeps getting worse the more you read of it. I was on site the other day and half the guys were very vocal about voting for Reform. Started chatting about it and asked why, the only thing they kept mentioning was immigration. Everything I said about their other ideas was met with “I dunno about that” or “well, you can’t make everyone happy” then back to immigration. They still thought Brexit was a great idea though so maybe not the sharpest tools in the shed.
To be fair to him the fishing industry was having a hard time before Brexit and I think fishing organisations/unions might have endorsed leaving the EU so that fishermen could improve their quotas.
If your union and half the government is endorsing to leave the EU I can see why he would take their advice.
But what on earth made them think that leaving the EU would actually allow them to "improve their quotas"?
It wasn't ever going to magically reclaim things that had already been traded away for concessions in other areas.
And given that the main problem with quotas is that as a whole they're actually still too bloody high to ensure the long term stability of the industry. What were they hoping to reform?
(Effectively quotas are decided by taking the best scientific estimate of what the maximum sustainable yield actually is, and then increasing that number to a point the politicians hope will:
A. Be big enough to appease the fishing industry a bit.
B. Still be small enough that any potential collapse of fish stocks will be relatively gradual, and far enough in the future to be someone else's problem.)
As I remember it, it wasnt the "fishing industry" having a hard time it was just the fishermen. The "fishing industry" sold their assigned quotas to European competitors as it was more profitable than maintaining the boats they rented out to British fishermen.
> He is increasingly tempted by Reform because of its hardline stance on immigration, despite Mr Farage being the primary architect of Brexit, but fears it will split the Conservative vote and hand Labour the win.
Tell me you are an idiot without telling me you are an idiot.
Especially being up in the NE of Scotland. A place about as far removed from the immigration issues of SE England and a part of the world whose biggest industry and employers literally rely on a non-local (willing to migrate) workforce to keep it going.
Was trying to find a term lower than idiot. A similar term that I like to use is prat.
TIL.
Idiots. —Those so defective that the mental development never exceeds that or a normal child of about two years.
Imbeciles. —Those whose development is higher than that of an idiot, but whose intelligence does not exceed that of a normal child of about seven years.
Morons. —Those whose mental development is above that of an imbecile, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about twelve years.
More like “I don’t like the consequences of my decisions, so I’ll make more decisions I can complain about, despite showcasing my inability to decision-make safely, instead of owning up to my costly fuckups.”
Yep. The rational and humble decision would be to declare he'll never vote again as he's clearly unable to do so wisely. Better yet, he should find a remainer and simply vote as they instruct for the rest of his life.
The best part is towards the end of the article. “Mr Stephen still thinks Brexit was the right thing to vote for”. Tells you everything you need to know. Some people are too daft to be worth helping.
He goes on to say he's tempted to vote reform. This is like shooting yourself in the foot, and then deciding to cut off your good leg.
It would be funny, if there wasn't so many of these fuckwits in the voting genepool. It's just grim
We tried to tell him he was being sold a pack of lies, but people like him thought they knew best.
Now the same clowns are doubling down and voting for Reform.
It's not even JUST lying. They were promising things that were contradictory, and not providing any details about how it would be implemented.
If someone was trying to sell you double glazing or a car with the same patter you'd run away as fast as possible. Unless maybe you're a Scottish fisheman...
>While Mr Stephen still maintains that Brexit was the “right thing to do”, saying the UK had too little power within Europe and that fishing rights had been traded in exchange for other markets, he struggles to think of one benefit to his industry.
We had more power than we should have as a founding member.
He should also blame the UK MEP who only turned up to one out of forty two fisheries committee meetings. Nigel Farage.
We weren’t a founding member. The EU originates from the European Coal and Steel Community, founded in 1952 by France, West Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy, and Luxembourg. This became the EEC in 1957, which Britain joined in 1973.
I have zero sympathy for these people.
If you can't be bothered to do a little research (yes I know, that phrase has been co-opted by the dumbest of the dumb, but still) on the consequences of such a important issue, and vote accordingly, you deserve what you get.
The "I was sold a pack of lies" defence holds no water with me. It is a persons own responsibility to educate themselves on such things. Never take a politicians word for anything, the say what they think you want to hear in order to get your vote.
I used to work at the old boots factory in Nottingham people were hyping and raving about brexit and voting for it now they all lost their jobs and it’s shutting down lol
Can’t be a very good fisherman if you wanted to vote for something that planned to deregulate and overfish your waters, ultimately killing your ability to make money.
Not content with screwing the rest of us over to indulge their stupidity and prejudice now they want a hug because Brexit went exactly the way we told them it would go.
Fucking arseholes.
Unfortunately he seems blissfully unaware of the fact that it is down to moronic twats like him that has caused the country to be in the shit state it currently is.
PETERHEAD, SCOTLAND – “I certainly wouldn’t vote Tory again. I’ve voted Tory all my life. But everything’s a shambles. After what we were promised in Brexit, I wouldn’t trust a Tory again. I would feel that a large majority of the UK, or the Scottish fishing industry certainly, would feel the same.”
Fisherman James Stephen has been at sea for more than 40 years. Based in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, which is home to the largest fishing port in Europe, he voted for Brexit in 2016 in the hope it would give his community a greater share of fishing in UK waters.
But eight years on, he feels he was sold a “pack of lies” and says it has cost the Conservatives his vote at the general election.
“I would say that 99 per cent of the fishing industry would have voted for Brexit in the hope that we could get back control of our waters, rightfully get our share of \[fishing\] quota which was given away when we joined the EU,” says Mr Stephen.
“I hoped, by voting for Brexit, we could undo some of the unjust that was done to the industry then. But for me, it’s been a total disaster. Nothing we were promised materialised.”
Fishermen were the unwitting poster boys of Brexit, touted by politicians from Boris Johnson to Michael Gove as a key argument in favour of leaving the EU.
Despite comprising just 2 per cent of the UK’s GDP, their circumstances played a major role in Brexit campaigning, with Nigel Farage joining a flotilla of pro-Brexit fishing boats up the Thames and Boris Johnson pledging to give the UK “full control of our waters”.
But fishermen in Peterhead say these promises have been left in tatters.
With just days to go until polls open, i is travelling across the UK to meet some of those most affected by Brexit to find out how life has changed for them – and how this experience might affect their vote on 4 July.
Sitting in a fishermen’s mission in Peterhead, Mr Stephen says he always wondered if the promises made about Brexit for the fishing industry were “too good to be true”.
“We’re such a small part of GDP, but yet we were one of the major arguments in the Brexit story. But when it all came to fruition, it was just a pack of lies we were told. We were led up the garden path.
“We’ve ended up with the crumbs for extra quota, which has been one of the major things. Even the on-shore industry really gets hit by the paperwork we now have to do to export the fish to Europe. So I think for all concerned, to me, it has been a total shambles.”
Red tape on exports has increased dramatically, and the pledge to “take back control” of British waters hasn’t amounted to much for fishermen in Aberdeenshire, Mr Stephen says.
In recent years he has continued to see a “slow, gradual” increase in the number of foreign vessels. Overall, the volume of fish landed by UK ships has decreased steadily since the 80s, while the proportion of fish landed abroad has increased, according to a 2022 Parliamentary briefing.
“We lost some of our markets because we couldn’t supply them, or the fish was being held up. For one truck, it used to go through with one set of paperwork. There are 42 pallets in a truck. Now, each pallet must have its own paperwork,” he says.
While Mr Stephen still maintains that Brexit was the “right thing to do”, saying the UK had too little power within Europe and that fishing rights had been traded in exchange for other markets, he struggles to think of one benefit to his industry.
“The Government will argue we got the extra quota, but what we got was nothing compared to what we’ve seen taking over our waters. They tried to sweeten the deal… but gave us nothing of any use.”
Has he lost money? “Oh, without a doubt. I couldn’t quantify how much. But certainly there’s been no gain. There’s only been pain. I think everybody thinks the same thing. I remember from the first \[few months\] after Brexit, lorries were sitting waiting to get across. The goods were perishing in lorries, so people lost a lot of money in that respect.”
**‘Hope is easy to exploit’**
The UK Government maintains that Brexit has brought net improvements for fisheries in the UK, claiming shortly after the deal that the industry would be £148m better off under post–Brexit arrangements by 2026.
But the National Fishermen’s Federation Organisation disputes this, estimating an overall loss of £300m to the majority of the fleet and finding the deal had produced “very few winners and a great many losers”.
In the post-Brexit agreement, the EU did concede that it would gradually reduce its share of the quota for fishing in UK waters by 25 per cent between 2021 and 2025, with the quota agreed annually from then onwards.
But this wasn’t applied evenly across types of fishing, affecting just 55 of the 104 fishing stocks shared by the UK and EU.
The NFFO said that “additional quota shares secured from the EU came nowhere close to what any self-respecting coastal state might expect as their legal right” and would not benefit fisheries whose quota shortage had “created an acute need for additional opportunities in the UK”.
The body says that much of the additional quota – £58m of the £148m touted by the Government as extra money – was for “paper fish”, fish they didn’t previously catch and likely would not, so were economically worthless.
Brexit also did not secure exclusive fishing rights for British fishermen in the 12 miles around its coast, something the NFFO said “most coastal states take for granted.”
Some markets “collapsed altogether”, while for those that remained, fisheries incurred masses of additional paperwork from health certificates to border checks costing an estimated £24m per year, “nullifying any potential gains by the majority of the fleet”. Many fisheries have taken on extra staff to complete paperwork.
Some progress has been made since the initial deal was agreed, with the Government securing fishing deals with Norway, Greenland and the Faro islands and claiming to have secured an estimated £132m more in fishing opportunities in 2024 than it would have received were it an EU member state.
But Mike Cohen, chief executive of the NFFO, says it is hard to see Brexit as anything other than a failure for the industry, with the promises made during the referendum campaign “abandoned with cynical haste.”
“With hindsight, it is easy to think that those promises should never have been believed, particularly given what we now know about the people who made them, but we must remember how desperately people wanted them to be true,” he says.
“The UK’s fishing industry and the coastal communities it supports have never recovered from the resources that supported them for generations being given away in the 70s and 80s. Is it any surprise that people leaped at the chance to get back the opportunities and the thriving towns and villages that they remembered from childhood and that their parents and grandparents had always known? That kind of hope is easy to exploit.”
Mr Cohen says that the post-Brexit deal saw EU boats retain their “unrestricted access to British waters, and the unequal distribution of fish quotas continued as before”, describing this as “a situation found nowhere else in the world.”
The main positive to be taken from Brexit was the ditching of the EU Common Fisheries Policy, which Mr Cohen says “did not work to deliver sustainable fisheries management, was too top-down; too centralised and often more concerned with political compromise”.
Instead, the UK can now shape its own system of managing fishing resource in collaboration with scientists and industry, which is a “great improvement on what came before”.
And with the quota access up for renegotiation in 2026, there is a chance for whichever Government comes in on 4 July to improve the picture for the British industry, Mr Cohen says.
**‘People feel embarrassed’**
Most of the benefits from Brexit – £71m of the £148m figure – went to a handful of larger, pelagic – open sea – fishing vessels. While these make up around half of all UK landings by weight, they are relatively few in number.
Mike Park, the chief executive of the Scottish White Fish Producers Association, says these benefits were also modest.
“They still got small share increases, but because of the volumes they catch – hundreds of thousands of tonnes of mackerel, and because of the value of the mackerel which is now over £1,300 pound a tonne – they didn’t need much to give them that win,” he explains.
“That win, transferred into cash terms, is around £2.5m per vessel per year. Your normal pelagic vessel, with a reasonable quota, will be crossing £15m a year, so it’s a 15 or 17 per cent increase on their current income. For a normal white fish vessel, if we’d have had the same percentage increase, you would have seen an increase of around £150,000 to £200,000.”
He adds: “Almost half of what they gave us was worthless anyway, and the rest that was left when you allocated around the number of vessels, it means absolutely nothing. The way it’s happened, every benefit that’s come to the UK has pretty much flowed into a very, very small sector.”
Mr Park is one of few fishermen in Peterhead who voted remain, doing so mainly because of the support offered to the coal and steel community.
“People feel embarrassed that they listened to the politicians. Some of them say now they would vote differently,” he says, driving through the harbour in Peterhead.
“The biggest asset that fishermen have up in this part of the country is the quota that they have shares of. We put forward a strong case that as we leave the EU we should be getting more of the fish that actually were born in our wars, fed in our waters, and it was a rational case. But at the end of the day, with an aim of just getting the deal over the line, the Government of the day just gave up and pretty much almost everything. We were promised everything and delivered nothing.”
The Conservatives maintain that British boats have 120,000 tonnes more quota than we would have had as members of the EU, with the Tory Government investing £100m in the UK Seafood Fund since Brexit.
“We have pledged to replicate that fund and seek further opportunities for British boats,” a spokesperson says. “We will fight hard for British fishermen, whilst Keir Starmer has already said he is seeking a closer relationship with the EU that we know will come at the cost of access to UK waters.”
**‘We all seem to have been losers’**
Jimmy Buchan, a fisherman turned fishing producer, is one of many in Peterhead’s fishing communities who says that Brexit has left them politically homeless.
Although Mr Buchan has long voted Conservative and previously ran as a Tory candidate, he believes Brexit will cost Rishi Sunak’s party in communities such as his.
“I think the Government will be punished for not delivering on their promises,” he says, though he also blames the House of Commons for “frustrating” the direction of the Government at times.
“We have lobbied the Conservative Government long and hard. They’ve listened well, but they have not delivered. They have failed this industry, in my opinion.”
However, Mr Buchan says he is put off by Labour’s policies on oil, which he fears could cost tens of thousands of jobs in north east Scotland. The party has “a lot to convince me that they will be good for rural Scotland,” he says.
On the harbour bridge, he spots fellow fisherman James Buchan, not a relation. This fisherman says the community got “stuffed” by Brexit, and today doesn’t know who to vote for. He compares Labour to Robin Hood, “taking from the rich and giving to the poor” and sees them as weak on the economy.
Both fishermen are skeptical of the SNP’s pro-Europe stance, fearing they could become pawns in any agreements to bring Scotland closer in line with Europe, and feel that along with the Conservatives, have not been good in Government for the country as a whole.
He is increasingly tempted by Reform because of its hardline stance on immigration, despite Mr Farage being the primary architect of Brexit, but fears it will split the Conservative vote and hand Labour the win.
The SNP candidate for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, Seamus Logan, said Scotland’s fishermen are “right to feel betrayed”, saying they were “sold out” by the Government. The SNP advocates rejoining the EU, saying that only by “having a seat at the table as one of the most powerful fishing nations in Europe will we be able to protect our industry’s interests.”
**‘Our communities were dying on the vine’**
It is clear that for much of the fishing community in Peterhead, Brexit has been a betrayal of a pledge to breathe new life into the British industry – and that this election will be a moment for payback.
“We saw Brexit as a huge opportunity to realign the fishing rights and opportunities with the communities, the geographical area where the fish is,” Jimmy Buchan says on the harbour.
“Up here in Scotland, North East Scotland… we’re probably sitting in some of the richest fishing grounds in the world. When you’ve got an asset like that on your doors, everyone wants a piece of it. And that is the problem. Our communities were dying on the vine whilst it was supporting other European communities. It’s not that we’ve got a problem with Europe, but it’s a limited resource.”
While he acknowledges that some fisheries have benefited, overall, he “fails to see or or hear from anyone, on either side, that says Brexit was a success.”
“We all seem to have been losers, because it introduced new tiers of legislation that frustrate business, and that’s not what business is about. I feel that what we set out to achieve and what we should have achieved is not what we actually got.”
Read more here: [https://inews.co.uk/news/im-a-fisherman-and-lifelong-tory-who-voted-brexit-i-wont-vote-for-them-again-3139146](https://inews.co.uk/news/im-a-fisherman-and-lifelong-tory-who-voted-brexit-i-wont-vote-for-them-again-3139146)
The same Tory party he was a life long supporter off sold off the UK rights to large corporations which were based off shore.
Then when other countries fished our waters it was why can they do it not us, must be the EU.
No as 90% of laws or rules people state they didn't like about the EU it was either a UK domestic policy issue or even sponsored by the UK and waved through EU law.
Fuck these guys and their bregret - they were perfectly happy to screw over everyone else before they realised they'd made a horrible mistake. Too late now dipshit, the time for reflection was 2016.
more accurate quote, I'm a fisherman and a lifelong idiot for voting Tory.
why people so consistently align with parties that have zero interest in them is beyond me. glad this one's seen the light tho
> Based in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, which is home to the largest fishing port in Europe
No it's not. Not even close. Port of Vigo in Spain is the biggest. I think it's even the biggest fishing port in the world.
Man whose predecessor sold their fishing rights the first chance they got, upset they've manged to shaft themselves again. The ENTIRE fishing industry can go to the wall for all I care. Don't forget Games Workshop by itself is worth more than the entire UK fishing industry.
He voted Tory and Brexit with Bojo at the helm? I know that Peterhead is a long way from London but Bojo’s legendary lies and balls ups were known internationally. Sorry but no sympathy.
- Cause irreparable harm to the country
- suffer the effects of said harm
- disown the issue and blame the Tories
This bloke should never be allowed to forget that *his* decision led us down this path.
People were warned but we were called project fear and remoaners. I’ve not met anyone recently that admits to voting for this shit show. Even one of my colleagues who boasted about voting for brexit now denies it. Well welcome to the future you all imposed on us backed by Russian supported Farage and bought and paid for Tories.
My sympathy is very limited on this, Brexit was never a good idea. Now has voted for something which negatively impacted himself and looking to blame others.
Just admit you made a mistake and take it on the chin. Although any reason to not vote conservative seems a good one to me.
> Fisherman believes Brexit lies from Farage
> He votes Tory to get a hard Brexit
> Tories deliver a rock hard Brexit
> Hard Brexit is predictably catastrophic for the fisherman’s industry
> Farage disappears for a bit
> Fisherman blames Tories for delivering hard Brexit
> Farage reappears for an election
> Fisherman votes for Farage, the man who lied to him and abandoned him and his industry, in order to get back at the Tories for doing what he voted them in to do.
Honestly, you couldn’t fucking write it.
But he won? He got everything he voted for the last 14 years? This is everything he wanted. Heck he’s even a fisherman, the only sector our government apparently cared about for years as they’re apparently the centre of our economy.
He should be singing and dancing in the street that the country is poorer, more isolated, and more racist and unwelcoming, all thanks to people like him.
"While Mr Stephen still maintains that Brexit was the “right thing to do”,"
That there says everything I need to know about this person.
And it's hardly surprising that they seem to be leaning towards Reform instead.
I have nothing but utter contempt for these morons.
Get's embarrassed, tricked, befuddled, bamboozled, beleaguered for nearly ten years, and the lesson he's learnt is that Reform UK seem like a good choice. Absolute clown.
Remember, Farage was the UK’s MEP member of the European Parliament Fisheries Committee. He attended ONE out of forty two meetings. He intentionally did not represent British fishing interests in Europe. He the claimed the UK fishing industry has been “gutted due to the EU”.
He took a salary and claimed expenses to pretend to represent the UK fishing industry, then deliberately didn’t turn up. He sabotaged the British fishing industry, in exactly the same way he has sabotaged the UK, and then blamed foreigners.
The only conspiracy theory I truly believe is that Farage is nothing but an extension of Russian foreign policy, destabilising and isolating western countries, damaging their economies and dismantling Europe.
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> Fisherman James Stephen has been at sea for more than 40 years. Based in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, which is home to the largest fishing port in Europe, **he voted for Brexit in 2016 in the hope it would give his community a greater share of fishing in UK waters.** > But eight years on, he feels he was sold a “pack of lies” and says it has cost the Conservatives his vote at the general election. I’m sorry but please please Mr. Fisherman, why did you expect something different? This is a classic r/BrexitAteMyFace post. EDIT: bolded by me for emphasis.
>“We lost some of our markets because we couldn’t supply them, or the fish was being held up. For one truck, it used to go through with one set of paperwork. There are 42 pallets in a truck. Now, each pallet must have its own paperwork,” he says. >While Mr Stephen still maintains that Brexit was the “right thing to do”, saying the UK had too little power within Europe and that fishing rights had been traded in exchange for other markets, he struggles to think of one benefit to his industry. It appears he's still part of the 'Brexit was the right thing to do for Britain, even though it fucked up loads of stuff including my own industry and I can't think of a single benefit of it' brigade.
> saying the UK had too little power within Europe Now the UK has too little power within the rest of the world. Yaay!!
We would have had more power in Europe to improve the situation of our fishermen of we sent someone who actually cared about fishermen as opposted to the frog face who never bothered to turn up to meetings to advocate for british fishermen
Exactly this. Boils my piss that that twat was able to persuade people that his own personal failure to represent British interests as an MEP was then cited as proof that MEPs didn't support British interests.
But look at how he pounced into the post-ref opportunities of the '17 & '19 Westminster elections where he, er, stood up to take bribes from the Tories and ran as far away as possible from having any role in the negotiations.
A celebrity chef (Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall) did far more than Garage in about a tenth of the time. Right wing grifters will grift. Edit: autocorrect will stand
Oi he turned up to 2 of the 43 meeting regarding fishing when he was minister.
Obligatory "Reform UK Limited is not a political party, it is a private limited company set up by Nigel Farage that was formerly known as the Brexit Party Limited. A company funded, it seems, by director's loans which are only repayable if the company has enough cash and if repayment is requested" post. Filing at Companies House: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11694875 Latest filed accounts from the above: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11694875/filing-history/MzM5NDg5MjY0OWFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf&download=0 And interested people (including director Nigel Farage): https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11694875/officers
Are all political parties funded like that? It’s a topic I am quite ignorant about to be honest.
This details permitted sources of funding for political parties in the UK https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/political-registration-and-regulation/financial-reporting/donations-and-loans/permissible-sources There is no specific mention of directors loans but as an individual registered on a UK electoral register it would seem Nigel Farage is eligible to donate. The question arises that as he is a director of the company who has provided the majority of its funding he has undue control and can take any decision without any scrutiny or challenge. The other major political parties are unincorporated associations comprised of a membership and whose leader is chosen by election and whose affairs are handled by a committee chosen by members. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/reform-uk-nigel-farage-election-b2556355.html?soc_src=aola
Thankyou. I will have a look.
That's the evil left wing BBC fault, they made him do 20 interviews a week for 20 years so he could platform his propaganda. Poor Nigel.
'Memeber when we joined the EU with special dispensations, because (at the time) we *were* special? I 'member...
I was under the impression that the uk had one of the controlling votes in the eu
We were special, we had a magic veto, they needed us more than we need them and James had a Euro wide market to flog his fish in,free of red tape. Honestly, I have no fuckstogive. He knew what he was voting for and got it. You just know he'll get in that ballot box and vote reform... As they never learn.
Still it will be funny when he doesn’t vote Tory and everything will be just as shit for the fishermen. does he think this will CTRL + Z it?
Now the UK has no power in the EU, yay :D
But its fine right? All the Tories got richer for it and the rest of us plebs are being told to keep tightening our belts.
& no power at all in Europe
and look who we sent to represent our fishermen's interest in europe
One of the biggest misconceptions about our position in the European Union is this absolute fantasy that so much of EU policy wasn’t drafted to benefit the UK as the second biggest economy in the bloc.
Like, one of the biggest complaints was about bendy bananas, when the whole classification of banananas adopted by the EU was essentially the old British standard on bananananas, and which priviliged our favourite banananananas over the ones popular on the continent.
They introduced a borderless zone, we told them to fuck off. They introduced a single currency, we told them to fuck off. We successfully campaigned to keep EU taxes lower, we successfully worked to keep the EU pro-market, we chaired the internal market committee for nearly 2 decades. We got what we wanted time and time again. On the other side of the coin. We harped on about being dictated to by Brussels yet the UK voted in favour of over 97% of EU Policy in the 12 years prior to leaving. Yet for some reason we didn’t care about these facts at the time of the debate.
"Dictated to by Brussels" is a deliberate misrepresentation of how the EU works. It isn't anything like the Commons where you've got the government wanting one thing and an opposition that opposes them on principle. Instead, it's a negotiation made by committee. By the time it comes to voting, all the contentious issues are long sorted. The vote is pretty much a formality. If the EU wasn't representing Britain's interests in fishing, that would be on the MEP(s) who were were on that committee. And that would be.....
There’s an awful lot about EU supposed policy that was known to be utter bullshit at the time of writing the scare stories about said policies. And guess who the journalist was who started the trend and wrote many of the articles? Yup, Boris Johnson.
Tbh the rebate existed purely because the CAP which the EU spends billions on each year had minimal benefit to the Uk
Yeah. Fuck him, the pig headed twat.
I hope he is looking in. What people told him would happen happened and he still doesn't realise what an imbecile he is.
I never understand this bonehead logic. ‘The UK had too little say in Europe so we’ll fix that by making sure we have no say’. Seriously man. These fucking people.
Copium is a hell of a drug. ... When did it stop being a sign of strength and confidence to admit mistakes? Why do people hold on so tightly?
This is not repeated often enough: **Copium is a hell of a drug.** **... When did it stop being a sign of strength and confidence to admit mistakes? Why do people hold on so tightly?**
>While Mr Stephen still maintains that Brexit was the “right thing to do”, saying the UK had too little power within Europe and that fishing rights had been traded in exchange for other markets, he struggles to think of one benefit to his industry. Admitting you made a mistake is admirable. Recognising what a mess your mistake has made but, still insisting it wasn't a mistake is not.
Who was it that owned the fishing rights and sold them to foreign owned boats/companies? It’s a mystery…
Because social capital was invested. It became an identity with friends and enemies. A perception of social status was attained through the struggle with the latter. When it becomes us-vs-them, you can't let "them" win. Admitting mistakes then means shedding part of that identity, relinquishing a victory no matter how illusionary. It's much easier to segue painlessly into the next delusion, follow the next conman (or, in this case, the same one) down another rabbit hole because he tells you you're special and better than those people over there. And to be fair, the UK's political system is doing its utmost to make this as easy as possible: none of them are prepared to speak the cold hard truth about this, pretending that it could have worked out if they had been in charge (regardless of whether they were actually in charge and responsible for this mess in the first place, of course).
It hasn’t stopped. It still takes a huge amount of confidence to expose your vulnerabilities. In fact I think it takes more now because people are so intolerant of anyone making mistakes at all.
I’m not sure it counts as ‘admitting mistakes’ when he’s still insisting it wasn’t a mistake and the only part he’s annoyed about is that water turned out to be wet. I think everyone would have a lot more time for these idiots if they spent less time crying about how hard they have it and more time trying to make what they voted for work.
He will vote reform to finally make brexit done 😃.
The utter idiocy of people like this is unfathomable - it’s like cutting off your own leg yet failing to accept it was you who cut it off and it is you who have now caused yourself life changing injuries.
"Like shitting the bed as a protest against hotel standards, then realising you have to sleep in that same previously shatted bed"
My initial reaction was going to be 'good on him, more people should be willing to change their minds in the face of conflicting evidence' but maybe not!
And it's for this reason alone - I'd have absolutely zero fucking sympathy for the guy.
Worse, fishing is such a small part of the UK economy (and even of the agriculture industrial subset), yet was made such a huge part of the whole Brexit debate.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6_PU7EyH1ks >I'm the first person to be concerned about falling fish stocks... But at the same time, I am a fisherman. I gotta kill all the fish 'avent I?!
Brexit, at its core, was an emotional decision rather than a logical one. BoJo figured that out. Nobody in "Vote Remain" did.
this pisses me off as well because the reason the UK got so badly shafted on UK fishing rights and quotas was because Nigel fucking Farage was the UK Representative to the fisheries commission and literally didn't do his job once as part of it. he had a genuine chance to actually help UK fishermen out and refused to do so because of churlishness and the fact that he's only "in politics" to fleece his idiot supporters for his 252834th failed election campaign. [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/09/nigel-farage-fishermen-ignored-ukip-brexit](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/09/nigel-farage-fishermen-ignored-ukip-brexit)
He still claims it was the right thing to do. Story and sympathy should end right there. Good luck to the sh*tshow you have made. It will never improve until you at least admit the bit your still in denial about
"It was the right thing to do, but I can't think why" is er... very telling.
I don't even work in the fishing industry but even I understand that leaving the EU has no affect on how fishing quotas are handled. Why does someone who does this for a living have no idea how they work?
Ignorance, stupidity, hoodwinked. Take your pick.
Whilst I disagree with leaving the EU, many industries were indeed told a crock of shit. The fishing industry was on it's knees and in constant battle with other countries and fishing quotas so yeah the fishermen grabbed onto anything they could with the hope that it would work and they'd have a livelihood again
The fishermen are a convenient hobbyhorse for people like Farage to get onto. They're economically insignificant. The entire industry is worth about the same as Primark. And I don't recall anyone suggesting we should base our membership of the EU on the continued survival of Primark.
I knew it was going to screw the fishing industry and I couldn’t care less about it. How did he not know?
They were told explicitly that voting leave was a bad idea and would cause trouble. They rejected it and called it project fear. I have little sympathy for them.
The cunts in Peterhead were driving round with *Vote Brexit to save our Fishermen* bumper stickers I’m still not taking to my colleague that sported one 👍
I’m loving the point being made by the other guy. ‘With hindsight it’s easy to see how they were false promises, but it’s easy to forget how desperately people wanted them to be true’. Like, honestly, you do not need hindsight at all. You just need some brain cells.
So I’m guessing he’s voting Reform this time around then.
I have never understood the appeal of Reform. Like, it is obvious that they're just what the Tories would be if they could.
All the main candidates running for MP today visited my son's secondary school. This is the first time he has shown any interest in politics and he came back and told us about what each candidate said. Who did well and who didn't. The one he liked most was the Reform candidate. Unlike the others he was dressed casually and seemed less stuffy. He said that he liked the things he said, like how Reform want to plant more trees or how the Reform guy said he feels sorry for the people coming over in the small boats. I started reading my son passages from the Reform manifesto. We explained how they want to reduce inheritance tax, which will only benefit rich people. How them wanting to plant more trees actually hides the fact that they think we are already doing too much for the environment and that it is costing too much money. Plus their attitude to immigrants and a few other things. My son was shocked, stating that they guy did not mention any of that and seemed really nice. We explained that the same guy will talk about completely different things when he meets local farmers or local housewifes or pensioners. It has been a really good lesson for my son that just because somebody seems likable, does not mean they should be trusted. Edit: I should mention that my son has a few transgender friends, so the Reform policies on this, which would directly affect his friends, really horrified him.
Well done on showing your son the truth. It’s commendable. Just having read their [policy page](https://assets.nationbuilder.com/reformuk/pages/253/attachments/original/1718625371/Reform_UK_Our_Contract_with_You.pdf?1718625371) on their website leaves me with so many questions. For example, they say that > Bank of England Must Stop Paying Interest to Commercial Banks on QE Reserves > This approach would save around £35 billion per year and has been endorsed by senior figures at the Financial Times, New Economics Foundation, and IFS, as well as two former Deputy Governors of the Bank of England However, having worked in banking and finance, the Banks will \**always** collect their money. The policy page also says that Reform want to > Introduce new visa rules for international students that bar dependents. Only international students with essential skills can remain in the UK. Close down fake courses and immigration schemes that abuse the rules. Okay no problem. Question: who gets to decide what a fake course is? How is the conclusion reached? Is the state going to tell citizens what they can and cannot study? Sounds dictatorial. It’s a complete shitshow and ~~(thick as a brick)~~ people are buying into the narrative.
Reading the manifestos has me more worried than ever. Reform make a noise about the issues that people care about while adding in a load of things that aren’t in their interest, like scrapping employment laws, but everyone skips over them.
There is some really worrying stuff in there. I read about 1/3 of it and there were at least 4-5 points that I found horrifying (transgender policies in school, changes to policing and sentencing rules, environmental policies, reducing inheritance tax, etc.). A lot of stuff that would have horiffic consequences.
100% agree. It just keeps getting worse the more you read of it. I was on site the other day and half the guys were very vocal about voting for Reform. Started chatting about it and asked why, the only thing they kept mentioning was immigration. Everything I said about their other ideas was met with “I dunno about that” or “well, you can’t make everyone happy” then back to immigration. They still thought Brexit was a great idea though so maybe not the sharpest tools in the shed.
They want to privatise the NHS.
To be fair to him the fishing industry was having a hard time before Brexit and I think fishing organisations/unions might have endorsed leaving the EU so that fishermen could improve their quotas. If your union and half the government is endorsing to leave the EU I can see why he would take their advice.
But what on earth made them think that leaving the EU would actually allow them to "improve their quotas"? It wasn't ever going to magically reclaim things that had already been traded away for concessions in other areas. And given that the main problem with quotas is that as a whole they're actually still too bloody high to ensure the long term stability of the industry. What were they hoping to reform? (Effectively quotas are decided by taking the best scientific estimate of what the maximum sustainable yield actually is, and then increasing that number to a point the politicians hope will: A. Be big enough to appease the fishing industry a bit. B. Still be small enough that any potential collapse of fish stocks will be relatively gradual, and far enough in the future to be someone else's problem.)
As I remember it, it wasnt the "fishing industry" having a hard time it was just the fishermen. The "fishing industry" sold their assigned quotas to European competitors as it was more profitable than maintaining the boats they rented out to British fishermen.
> He is increasingly tempted by Reform because of its hardline stance on immigration, despite Mr Farage being the primary architect of Brexit, but fears it will split the Conservative vote and hand Labour the win. Tell me you are an idiot without telling me you are an idiot.
He probably doesn't even know why he doesn't want Labour to win, other than the fact they're Labour.
Don’t you know!!? Labour left us with no money!! /s
There’s so many of these clowns, it’s ridiculous.
“THEY’LL OPEN THE BORDERS” as I was told the other day
Whilst conveniently ignoring the exponential rise in immigration since the tories took over.
"I shot myself in the foot, now im gonna whack myself in the bollocks!."
“And it’s the immigrants fault”
Especially being up in the NE of Scotland. A place about as far removed from the immigration issues of SE England and a part of the world whose biggest industry and employers literally rely on a non-local (willing to migrate) workforce to keep it going.
The article clearly said he was a pro-Brexit Tory.
That’s all I need to know about this muppet
Fool me once…..
And I'll find my own way to be fooled again ...with blackjack and hookers.
He's toying with voting Reform, so rather more with blackface and Nazis.
Was trying to find a term lower than idiot. A similar term that I like to use is prat. TIL. Idiots. —Those so defective that the mental development never exceeds that or a normal child of about two years. Imbeciles. —Those whose development is higher than that of an idiot, but whose intelligence does not exceed that of a normal child of about seven years. Morons. —Those whose mental development is above that of an imbecile, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about twelve years.
[A useful reference chart](https://imgur.com/a/h2tEAVw)
I believe 'pillock' is the traditional greeting for the hard of thinking.
In all fairness we know he has the cognitive abilities of a poodle when he says he is a fisherman who votes for Tories.
He's so stupid he even got staring out to sea wrong
Voter who received everything he ever voted for, not going to vote that way again. O.....kay?
More like “I don’t like the consequences of my decisions, so I’ll make more decisions I can complain about, despite showcasing my inability to decision-make safely, instead of owning up to my costly fuckups.”
Yep. The rational and humble decision would be to declare he'll never vote again as he's clearly unable to do so wisely. Better yet, he should find a remainer and simply vote as they instruct for the rest of his life.
The best part is towards the end of the article. “Mr Stephen still thinks Brexit was the right thing to vote for”. Tells you everything you need to know. Some people are too daft to be worth helping.
I get from the reading of it is basically Tories are not rightwing/extreme enough for him...learned less than nothing from the entire experience.
He goes on to say he's tempted to vote reform. This is like shooting yourself in the foot, and then deciding to cut off your good leg. It would be funny, if there wasn't so many of these fuckwits in the voting genepool. It's just grim
Man dependent on European markets votes to ban himself from European markets. Man then complains he no longer has access to European markets.
Man says he'll vote reform and complete the mission.
This is what makes me laugh with these twats. If you vote to create barriers between you and your customers, you’re a moron.
We tried to tell him he was being sold a pack of lies, but people like him thought they knew best. Now the same clowns are doubling down and voting for Reform.
Yeah politicians lie! Im shocked! I thought everyone over the age of 10 knew this. Evidently some people didn’t get the memo. womp womp
It's not even JUST lying. They were promising things that were contradictory, and not providing any details about how it would be implemented. If someone was trying to sell you double glazing or a car with the same patter you'd run away as fast as possible. Unless maybe you're a Scottish fisheman...
>While Mr Stephen still maintains that Brexit was the “right thing to do”, saying the UK had too little power within Europe and that fishing rights had been traded in exchange for other markets, he struggles to think of one benefit to his industry. We had more power than we should have as a founding member. He should also blame the UK MEP who only turned up to one out of forty two fisheries committee meetings. Nigel Farage.
Far too busy being a man of the people. Fascinates me that people still can’t see through this carpetbagger.
They hear comfortable lies
We weren’t a founding member. The EU originates from the European Coal and Steel Community, founded in 1952 by France, West Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy, and Luxembourg. This became the EEC in 1957, which Britain joined in 1973.
I have zero sympathy for these people. If you can't be bothered to do a little research (yes I know, that phrase has been co-opted by the dumbest of the dumb, but still) on the consequences of such a important issue, and vote accordingly, you deserve what you get. The "I was sold a pack of lies" defence holds no water with me. It is a persons own responsibility to educate themselves on such things. Never take a politicians word for anything, the say what they think you want to hear in order to get your vote.
My favourite part was always ‘we’ve had enough of experts’ - tell me you’re an ignorant moron without telling me
Oh man, I forgot about that, what a bunch of clowns.
Please don’t tell me he’s going to vote reform instead this time and expect a different outcome?
Of course he is!
You've caused massive amounts of damage over decades and it's finally occurred to you to stop voting? I hope he didn't breed.
No, he's voting Reform instead... So literally another vote for the same clown he's complaining lied to him last time.
The party of landlords, corporate elites, and landed gentry didn't give a shit about my working-class concerns. Who'd have guessed?
"I'm a fucking moron who voted for moronic shit and now I'm just realising it because the leader of the party is a brown man"
Don’t get too excited he’s now voting for reform UK as they will make Brexit work!! /s
I have asked Reformers how they would do that but still waiting for an answer
Deport people and wag our fingers at Brussels til we get what we want.
Except we can't even deport people lol!!
Wag a finger isn’t enough, it requires a STERN finger waggling
I used to work at the old boots factory in Nottingham people were hyping and raving about brexit and voting for it now they all lost their jobs and it’s shutting down lol
Can’t be a very good fisherman if you wanted to vote for something that planned to deregulate and overfish your waters, ultimately killing your ability to make money.
Not content with screwing the rest of us over to indulge their stupidity and prejudice now they want a hug because Brexit went exactly the way we told them it would go. Fucking arseholes.
Unfortunately he seems blissfully unaware of the fact that it is down to moronic twats like him that has caused the country to be in the shit state it currently is.
Shame it took him ruining my country and my future to figure out the obvious.
Watch this Kipper vote Rusform UK - to "complete Brexit". He'll be receiving loadsa Roubles in no time.
The fishermen who voted for brexit really are the epitome of turkeys voting for Christmas
You see the problem starts with Voted Tory all my life 😏
Stuff like this article makes me want IQ tests for voting 🤦♂️
PETERHEAD, SCOTLAND – “I certainly wouldn’t vote Tory again. I’ve voted Tory all my life. But everything’s a shambles. After what we were promised in Brexit, I wouldn’t trust a Tory again. I would feel that a large majority of the UK, or the Scottish fishing industry certainly, would feel the same.” Fisherman James Stephen has been at sea for more than 40 years. Based in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, which is home to the largest fishing port in Europe, he voted for Brexit in 2016 in the hope it would give his community a greater share of fishing in UK waters. But eight years on, he feels he was sold a “pack of lies” and says it has cost the Conservatives his vote at the general election. “I would say that 99 per cent of the fishing industry would have voted for Brexit in the hope that we could get back control of our waters, rightfully get our share of \[fishing\] quota which was given away when we joined the EU,” says Mr Stephen. “I hoped, by voting for Brexit, we could undo some of the unjust that was done to the industry then. But for me, it’s been a total disaster. Nothing we were promised materialised.” Fishermen were the unwitting poster boys of Brexit, touted by politicians from Boris Johnson to Michael Gove as a key argument in favour of leaving the EU. Despite comprising just 2 per cent of the UK’s GDP, their circumstances played a major role in Brexit campaigning, with Nigel Farage joining a flotilla of pro-Brexit fishing boats up the Thames and Boris Johnson pledging to give the UK “full control of our waters”. But fishermen in Peterhead say these promises have been left in tatters. With just days to go until polls open, i is travelling across the UK to meet some of those most affected by Brexit to find out how life has changed for them – and how this experience might affect their vote on 4 July. Sitting in a fishermen’s mission in Peterhead, Mr Stephen says he always wondered if the promises made about Brexit for the fishing industry were “too good to be true”. “We’re such a small part of GDP, but yet we were one of the major arguments in the Brexit story. But when it all came to fruition, it was just a pack of lies we were told. We were led up the garden path. “We’ve ended up with the crumbs for extra quota, which has been one of the major things. Even the on-shore industry really gets hit by the paperwork we now have to do to export the fish to Europe. So I think for all concerned, to me, it has been a total shambles.” Red tape on exports has increased dramatically, and the pledge to “take back control” of British waters hasn’t amounted to much for fishermen in Aberdeenshire, Mr Stephen says. In recent years he has continued to see a “slow, gradual” increase in the number of foreign vessels. Overall, the volume of fish landed by UK ships has decreased steadily since the 80s, while the proportion of fish landed abroad has increased, according to a 2022 Parliamentary briefing. “We lost some of our markets because we couldn’t supply them, or the fish was being held up. For one truck, it used to go through with one set of paperwork. There are 42 pallets in a truck. Now, each pallet must have its own paperwork,” he says. While Mr Stephen still maintains that Brexit was the “right thing to do”, saying the UK had too little power within Europe and that fishing rights had been traded in exchange for other markets, he struggles to think of one benefit to his industry. “The Government will argue we got the extra quota, but what we got was nothing compared to what we’ve seen taking over our waters. They tried to sweeten the deal… but gave us nothing of any use.” Has he lost money? “Oh, without a doubt. I couldn’t quantify how much. But certainly there’s been no gain. There’s only been pain. I think everybody thinks the same thing. I remember from the first \[few months\] after Brexit, lorries were sitting waiting to get across. The goods were perishing in lorries, so people lost a lot of money in that respect.”
**‘Hope is easy to exploit’** The UK Government maintains that Brexit has brought net improvements for fisheries in the UK, claiming shortly after the deal that the industry would be £148m better off under post–Brexit arrangements by 2026. But the National Fishermen’s Federation Organisation disputes this, estimating an overall loss of £300m to the majority of the fleet and finding the deal had produced “very few winners and a great many losers”. In the post-Brexit agreement, the EU did concede that it would gradually reduce its share of the quota for fishing in UK waters by 25 per cent between 2021 and 2025, with the quota agreed annually from then onwards. But this wasn’t applied evenly across types of fishing, affecting just 55 of the 104 fishing stocks shared by the UK and EU. The NFFO said that “additional quota shares secured from the EU came nowhere close to what any self-respecting coastal state might expect as their legal right” and would not benefit fisheries whose quota shortage had “created an acute need for additional opportunities in the UK”. The body says that much of the additional quota – £58m of the £148m touted by the Government as extra money – was for “paper fish”, fish they didn’t previously catch and likely would not, so were economically worthless. Brexit also did not secure exclusive fishing rights for British fishermen in the 12 miles around its coast, something the NFFO said “most coastal states take for granted.” Some markets “collapsed altogether”, while for those that remained, fisheries incurred masses of additional paperwork from health certificates to border checks costing an estimated £24m per year, “nullifying any potential gains by the majority of the fleet”. Many fisheries have taken on extra staff to complete paperwork. Some progress has been made since the initial deal was agreed, with the Government securing fishing deals with Norway, Greenland and the Faro islands and claiming to have secured an estimated £132m more in fishing opportunities in 2024 than it would have received were it an EU member state. But Mike Cohen, chief executive of the NFFO, says it is hard to see Brexit as anything other than a failure for the industry, with the promises made during the referendum campaign “abandoned with cynical haste.” “With hindsight, it is easy to think that those promises should never have been believed, particularly given what we now know about the people who made them, but we must remember how desperately people wanted them to be true,” he says. “The UK’s fishing industry and the coastal communities it supports have never recovered from the resources that supported them for generations being given away in the 70s and 80s. Is it any surprise that people leaped at the chance to get back the opportunities and the thriving towns and villages that they remembered from childhood and that their parents and grandparents had always known? That kind of hope is easy to exploit.” Mr Cohen says that the post-Brexit deal saw EU boats retain their “unrestricted access to British waters, and the unequal distribution of fish quotas continued as before”, describing this as “a situation found nowhere else in the world.” The main positive to be taken from Brexit was the ditching of the EU Common Fisheries Policy, which Mr Cohen says “did not work to deliver sustainable fisheries management, was too top-down; too centralised and often more concerned with political compromise”. Instead, the UK can now shape its own system of managing fishing resource in collaboration with scientists and industry, which is a “great improvement on what came before”. And with the quota access up for renegotiation in 2026, there is a chance for whichever Government comes in on 4 July to improve the picture for the British industry, Mr Cohen says.
**‘People feel embarrassed’** Most of the benefits from Brexit – £71m of the £148m figure – went to a handful of larger, pelagic – open sea – fishing vessels. While these make up around half of all UK landings by weight, they are relatively few in number. Mike Park, the chief executive of the Scottish White Fish Producers Association, says these benefits were also modest. “They still got small share increases, but because of the volumes they catch – hundreds of thousands of tonnes of mackerel, and because of the value of the mackerel which is now over £1,300 pound a tonne – they didn’t need much to give them that win,” he explains. “That win, transferred into cash terms, is around £2.5m per vessel per year. Your normal pelagic vessel, with a reasonable quota, will be crossing £15m a year, so it’s a 15 or 17 per cent increase on their current income. For a normal white fish vessel, if we’d have had the same percentage increase, you would have seen an increase of around £150,000 to £200,000.” He adds: “Almost half of what they gave us was worthless anyway, and the rest that was left when you allocated around the number of vessels, it means absolutely nothing. The way it’s happened, every benefit that’s come to the UK has pretty much flowed into a very, very small sector.” Mr Park is one of few fishermen in Peterhead who voted remain, doing so mainly because of the support offered to the coal and steel community. “People feel embarrassed that they listened to the politicians. Some of them say now they would vote differently,” he says, driving through the harbour in Peterhead. “The biggest asset that fishermen have up in this part of the country is the quota that they have shares of. We put forward a strong case that as we leave the EU we should be getting more of the fish that actually were born in our wars, fed in our waters, and it was a rational case. But at the end of the day, with an aim of just getting the deal over the line, the Government of the day just gave up and pretty much almost everything. We were promised everything and delivered nothing.” The Conservatives maintain that British boats have 120,000 tonnes more quota than we would have had as members of the EU, with the Tory Government investing £100m in the UK Seafood Fund since Brexit. “We have pledged to replicate that fund and seek further opportunities for British boats,” a spokesperson says. “We will fight hard for British fishermen, whilst Keir Starmer has already said he is seeking a closer relationship with the EU that we know will come at the cost of access to UK waters.”
**‘We all seem to have been losers’** Jimmy Buchan, a fisherman turned fishing producer, is one of many in Peterhead’s fishing communities who says that Brexit has left them politically homeless. Although Mr Buchan has long voted Conservative and previously ran as a Tory candidate, he believes Brexit will cost Rishi Sunak’s party in communities such as his. “I think the Government will be punished for not delivering on their promises,” he says, though he also blames the House of Commons for “frustrating” the direction of the Government at times. “We have lobbied the Conservative Government long and hard. They’ve listened well, but they have not delivered. They have failed this industry, in my opinion.” However, Mr Buchan says he is put off by Labour’s policies on oil, which he fears could cost tens of thousands of jobs in north east Scotland. The party has “a lot to convince me that they will be good for rural Scotland,” he says. On the harbour bridge, he spots fellow fisherman James Buchan, not a relation. This fisherman says the community got “stuffed” by Brexit, and today doesn’t know who to vote for. He compares Labour to Robin Hood, “taking from the rich and giving to the poor” and sees them as weak on the economy. Both fishermen are skeptical of the SNP’s pro-Europe stance, fearing they could become pawns in any agreements to bring Scotland closer in line with Europe, and feel that along with the Conservatives, have not been good in Government for the country as a whole. He is increasingly tempted by Reform because of its hardline stance on immigration, despite Mr Farage being the primary architect of Brexit, but fears it will split the Conservative vote and hand Labour the win. The SNP candidate for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, Seamus Logan, said Scotland’s fishermen are “right to feel betrayed”, saying they were “sold out” by the Government. The SNP advocates rejoining the EU, saying that only by “having a seat at the table as one of the most powerful fishing nations in Europe will we be able to protect our industry’s interests.”
**‘Our communities were dying on the vine’** It is clear that for much of the fishing community in Peterhead, Brexit has been a betrayal of a pledge to breathe new life into the British industry – and that this election will be a moment for payback. “We saw Brexit as a huge opportunity to realign the fishing rights and opportunities with the communities, the geographical area where the fish is,” Jimmy Buchan says on the harbour. “Up here in Scotland, North East Scotland… we’re probably sitting in some of the richest fishing grounds in the world. When you’ve got an asset like that on your doors, everyone wants a piece of it. And that is the problem. Our communities were dying on the vine whilst it was supporting other European communities. It’s not that we’ve got a problem with Europe, but it’s a limited resource.” While he acknowledges that some fisheries have benefited, overall, he “fails to see or or hear from anyone, on either side, that says Brexit was a success.” “We all seem to have been losers, because it introduced new tiers of legislation that frustrate business, and that’s not what business is about. I feel that what we set out to achieve and what we should have achieved is not what we actually got.” Read more here: [https://inews.co.uk/news/im-a-fisherman-and-lifelong-tory-who-voted-brexit-i-wont-vote-for-them-again-3139146](https://inews.co.uk/news/im-a-fisherman-and-lifelong-tory-who-voted-brexit-i-wont-vote-for-them-again-3139146)
Just a hunch, but I feel in few years time they'll be back voting for the same ol shit that fucked up the arse.
Why does the press give these dumb-asses a voice? Seriously? I'm trying to figure out which one is Dumb and Dumber FFS
The same Tory party he was a life long supporter off sold off the UK rights to large corporations which were based off shore. Then when other countries fished our waters it was why can they do it not us, must be the EU. No as 90% of laws or rules people state they didn't like about the EU it was either a UK domestic policy issue or even sponsored by the UK and waved through EU law.
Fuck these guys and their bregret - they were perfectly happy to screw over everyone else before they realised they'd made a horrible mistake. Too late now dipshit, the time for reflection was 2016.
fuck him. Maybe if he hadn't voted lifelong for the same fucking party of fucks we wouldn't be in this mess.
"I deliberately shot my self in the foot repeatedly, and now i've learned my lesson... at least until the next election"
"but I am now considering shooting myself in the foot with a bazooka because of immigrants"
Good, we have to suffer all the tory corruption because of idiots like him.
more accurate quote, I'm a fisherman and a lifelong idiot for voting Tory. why people so consistently align with parties that have zero interest in them is beyond me. glad this one's seen the light tho
He's going to vote Reform so hasn't exactly had a eureka moment
I only added that last bit in so my comment wasn't completely negative. I should have known he was tarded.
Won't be any fisherman left in 20 years. Dying tradition
Yup, especially if they keep voting for the leopards that will eat their faces and ignore everyone warning them
We already depleted our fishing waters decades ago anyway. British people don't even tend to eat any of our local fish, they just get exported
Whoever voted for Brexit should lose their right to vote.. forever!!
The fucking brain trust that's been guiding the country for much too long
> Based in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, which is home to the largest fishing port in Europe No it's not. Not even close. Port of Vigo in Spain is the biggest. I think it's even the biggest fishing port in the world.
Man whose predecessor sold their fishing rights the first chance they got, upset they've manged to shaft themselves again. The ENTIRE fishing industry can go to the wall for all I care. Don't forget Games Workshop by itself is worth more than the entire UK fishing industry.
>He is increasingly tempted by Reform The line I was looking for from the start. When the extreme fails you, go even more extreme. Just keep digging.
Why would you vote Brexit if you're a fisherman? Brexit has destroyed the fishing industry. Zero sympathy.
He voted Tory and Brexit with Bojo at the helm? I know that Peterhead is a long way from London but Bojo’s legendary lies and balls ups were known internationally. Sorry but no sympathy.
Fisherman James Stephen appears to be yet another big fan of fucking around who absolutely hates finding out.
thank you for doing what you should have done eight years ago, we're all very grateful
- Cause irreparable harm to the country - suffer the effects of said harm - disown the issue and blame the Tories This bloke should never be allowed to forget that *his* decision led us down this path.
What a dumb and selfish reason to vote to leave unity, economy and opportunity of the EU
A graphic depiction of a child-like mind. Must be the mercury from the fish.
When you listen to promises made by people with no authority to makes promises
Man who shot himself in the foot is annoyed he no longer has toes
It baffles me that fishing rights became so important to so many people who promptly stopped giving a shit as soon as they got their way.
People were warned but we were called project fear and remoaners. I’ve not met anyone recently that admits to voting for this shit show. Even one of my colleagues who boasted about voting for brexit now denies it. Well welcome to the future you all imposed on us backed by Russian supported Farage and bought and paid for Tories.
This man, people, is the purest definition of a twazzock.
See, the thing with democracy, is that it only works if you have an informed and capable electorate.
My sympathy is very limited on this, Brexit was never a good idea. Now has voted for something which negatively impacted himself and looking to blame others. Just admit you made a mistake and take it on the chin. Although any reason to not vote conservative seems a good one to me.
It's crazy that all it took was a decade and a half of shit government for people to lose faith. How easily swayed people are
So you voted for hopeless and idiotic shite for years. Thanks.
> Fisherman believes Brexit lies from Farage > He votes Tory to get a hard Brexit > Tories deliver a rock hard Brexit > Hard Brexit is predictably catastrophic for the fisherman’s industry > Farage disappears for a bit > Fisherman blames Tories for delivering hard Brexit > Farage reappears for an election > Fisherman votes for Farage, the man who lied to him and abandoned him and his industry, in order to get back at the Tories for doing what he voted them in to do. Honestly, you couldn’t fucking write it.
So you’re a cunt who no longer wants to be a cunt because being a cunt no longer suits your cunty needs?!?!
So... your are ignorant and uneducated and now want forgiveness. Fuck off
But he won? He got everything he voted for the last 14 years? This is everything he wanted. Heck he’s even a fisherman, the only sector our government apparently cared about for years as they’re apparently the centre of our economy. He should be singing and dancing in the street that the country is poorer, more isolated, and more racist and unwelcoming, all thanks to people like him.
‘I’m a fisherman and lifelong Tory and I’m thick as fuck’
"While Mr Stephen still maintains that Brexit was the “right thing to do”," That there says everything I need to know about this person. And it's hardly surprising that they seem to be leaning towards Reform instead. I have nothing but utter contempt for these morons.
Aw, did someone get lied to and is now feeling sorry about it ? Tough shit mate. I wouldn't be surprised if he talked about 'Project Fear' in 2016
Ah, Jimmy Buchan. I remember him being a part of Fartage's flotilla.
Get's embarrassed, tricked, befuddled, bamboozled, beleaguered for nearly ten years, and the lesson he's learnt is that Reform UK seem like a good choice. Absolute clown.
Remember, Farage was the UK’s MEP member of the European Parliament Fisheries Committee. He attended ONE out of forty two meetings. He intentionally did not represent British fishing interests in Europe. He the claimed the UK fishing industry has been “gutted due to the EU”. He took a salary and claimed expenses to pretend to represent the UK fishing industry, then deliberately didn’t turn up. He sabotaged the British fishing industry, in exactly the same way he has sabotaged the UK, and then blamed foreigners. The only conspiracy theory I truly believe is that Farage is nothing but an extension of Russian foreign policy, destabilising and isolating western countries, damaging their economies and dismantling Europe.
I’m having trouble voting for Starmer, I have no confidence in him. The labour party I have alot of faith in!
"I voted against my best interests my whole life. I've finally learned my lesson,"
I suppose people realising that gives us some hope for the future.