{"id":140995,"date":"2021-10-06T21:52:57","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T21:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=140995"},"modified":"2021-10-06T21:52:57","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T21:52:57","slug":"fishermen-threaten-to-go-on-the-attack-to-cut-off-christmas-supplies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/fishermen-threaten-to-go-on-the-attack-to-cut-off-christmas-supplies\/","title":{"rendered":"Fishermen threaten to 'go on the attack' to cut off Christmas supplies"},"content":{"rendered":"
French fishing barons have given Britain two weeks to grant them more access to its waters or face being cut off from crucial Christmas supplies.<\/p>\n
They handed down the ultimatum a day after skippers vowed to block the port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel unless their demands were met.<\/p>\n
\u2018The British have got two weeks to react and then we will go on the attack,\u2019 said Olivier Lepretre, the chairman of the northern France fisheries committee.<\/p>\n
The fisherman raised the prospect of the possible revenge move after the British government refused to issue permits for 35 small trawlers to fish between six and 12 miles off the UK coast.<\/p>\n
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French fishing barons have given Britain two weeks to grant them more access to its waters or face being cut off from crucial Christmas supplies (file image)<\/p>\n
French boats were free to fish in the six-to-12 mile zone when the UK was in the EU, but now have to prove that they previously did so. France says they should keep the same level of access, accusing Britain of breaching the Brexit trade deal.<\/p>\n
Christophe Lomel, a Boulogne skipper, said: \u2018It\u2019s illogical \u2013 licences have been given to boats which hardly ever go to British waters. I\u2019ve been going there for 35 years and have not been given a licence.\u2019 But Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab yesterday dismissed those claims, telling Paris that the changes were a result of Brexit.<\/p>\n
\u2018What the French need to adjust to is the new reality as we have left the EU,\u2019 he told TalkRadio. \u2018They can\u2019t expect to have the kind of quotas they had previously (with) unlimited access.\u2019<\/p>\n
In Brussels, Eurocrats refused to be drawn on whether Britain had failed to live up to the agreement it signed with the EU last year. A European Commission spokesman said only that it was \u2018a top priority for the bloc to achieve \u2018continuity\u2019 for EU skippers.<\/p>\n
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They handed down the ultimatum a day after skippers vowed to block the port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel unless their demands were met (file image)<\/p>\n
But one senior EU diplomat claimed France was \u2018overplaying\u2019 the row ahead of next year\u2019s presidential election. The source said: \u2018It looks good for President Macron right now to be tough on the British.\u2019<\/p>\n
The Brexit trade agreement, signed by both sides last year, reduces the catch for EU trawlers in British waters by 25 per cent over five-years. After that expires, access will be negotiated on an annual basis.<\/p>\n
The French government wants other EU members to support their push for Britain to be brought before an arbitration panel set up to thrash out post-Brexit disputes.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s maritime ministry said yesterday that French ministers would unveil retaliatory measures \u2018in the second half of October\u2019. Annick Giradin, the French maritime minister, has raised the possibility of cutting electricity supplies to Channel Islands Jersey and Guernsey.<\/p>\n
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Senior Tory MP David Jones urged Mr Macron (pictured) to \u2018dial down the rhetoric\u2019 adding: \u2018Resorting to gangsterism, which is what this effectively is, can never be justified\u2019<\/p>\n
Britain and France have already clashed in recent months over an Australian submarine deal, the EU\u2019s bid to block life-saving jabs arriving in the UK, and the Northern Ireland protocol.<\/p>\n
Former Cabinet minister Theresa Villiers said: \u2018This is an unacceptable attempt at bullying. Ministers should stand firm.\u2019<\/p>\n
Senior Tory MP David Jones urged Mr Macron to \u2018dial down the rhetoric\u2019 adding: \u2018Resorting to gangsterism, which is what this effectively is, can never be justified\u2019.<\/p>\n
France\u2019s foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said differences with Britain were getting bigger and it was up to London to offer ideas to improve relations. \u2018The ball is in their court,\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n
NABILA RAMDANI: These threats from ‘Admiral Macron’ shame my country\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n By\u00a0<\/span>Nabila <\/span>Ramdani for the Daily Mail<\/span><\/p>\n Angry French workers often burn barricades and launch savage attacks on the police during demonstrations. The republic was built by citizens who would stop at nothing \u2013 including liberal use of the guillotine \u2013 to get what they want.<\/p>\n The latest target is the British Christmas. Yesterday the Daily Mail revealed how French fishermen, angry at the delay in receiving licences to tap into British waters, have threatened to blockade food from France, creating more headaches for families already under pressure to stock up on frozen turkeys and chocolate.<\/p>\n This outrageous action comes hot on the heels of threats to cut power to Jersey \u2013 potentially affecting schools and hospitals in the coldest months of the year \u2013 and the news that France allegedly \u2018stole\u2019 five million Covid vaccines destined for Britain at the beginning of this year.<\/p>\n \u2018Unless Boris backs down, the Brits will not have so many nice things to eat this Christmas,\u2019 Olivier Lepretre, head of the northern France fisheries committee, said earlier this week. \u2018I hope it doesn\u2019t come to that.\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Emmanuel Macron\u2019s high-handed attitude to the Brexit negotiations made every step more difficult. Even the French media are now comparing our head of state to Napoleon Bonaparte, suggesting that \u2018Napo-Macron\u2019 wants to use sea blockades to \u2018starve the English\u2019 into compliance<\/p>\n As a French woman, I can only feel ashamed. This sense of rowdy entitlement is not just about angry workers; it extends from bottom to top, as the British know all too well.<\/p>\n Emmanuel Macron\u2019s high-handed attitude to the Brexit negotiations made every step more difficult. Even the French media are now comparing our head of state to Napoleon Bonaparte, suggesting that \u2018Napo-Macron\u2019 wants to use sea blockades to \u2018starve the English\u2019 into compliance.<\/p>\n The EU Commission should pull France into line and stop this bickering before it gets out of hand. The alternative is calling on the Royal Navy, which could have serious consequences.<\/p>\n Responsible politicians should be outraged by such guerrilla tactics, but not in France, where there has been no attempt to condemn the fishermen\u2019s unlawful reprisals whatsoever.<\/p>\n On the contrary, senior Macron lieutenants have made it clear they want to add to the sabotage by preventing British fishermen delivering fish to France.<\/p>\n They would also like to toughen up customs and veterinary checks on all vehicles arriving from the UK, causing increased delays.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As a French woman, I can only feel ashamed. This sense of rowdy entitlement is not just about angry workers; it extends from bottom to top, as the British know all too well<\/p>\n Most shameful, however, is the threat to cut power to British sovereign territory as part of the fishing row. Clement Beaune, Mr Macron\u2019s Europe minister, has implied that electricity supplies to the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey, which are provided by two undersea cables from France, could be interrupted within days.<\/p>\n \u2018We defend our interests,\u2019 Mr Beaune fumed. \u2018We do it nicely and diplomatically, but when that doesn\u2019t work, we take measures. The Channel Islands, the UK, are dependent on us for their energy supply. They think they can live on their own and badmouth Europe as well. And because it doesn\u2019t work, they indulge in one-upmanship, and in an aggressive way.\u2019<\/p>\n If all this suggests that the Macron government is still extremely bitter about Britain\u2019s historic decision to leave the EU, then it\u2019s because it still is.<\/p>\n Indeed, it would be fair to say the latest salvo in the so-called \u2018Scallop War\u2019 is simply another battle in France\u2019s never-ending hostility towards Brexit.<\/p>\n The influential Paris investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaine (The Chained Duck) summed up the situation in its latest edition, saying: \u2018France has called for a common European front against the UK.\u2019<\/p>\n This means \u2018Admiral Macron\u2019 \u2013 as he is dubbed \u2013 using sea blockades, in the style of the Napoleonic Wars. \u2018So he wants to starve the English?\u2019 the magazine asks, as it compares him to Napoleon, the dictator who was constantly at war with the British. \u2018Napo-Macron will establish a new continental blockade, like his illustrious predecessor.\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Clement Beaune (pictured), Mr Macron\u2019s Europe minister, has implied that electricity supplies to the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey, which are provided by two undersea cables from France, could be interrupted within days<\/p>\n The Napoleonic parallels were clear last May when two Royal Navy gunships steamed to Jersey after dozens of French boats blockaded the island\u2019s harbour.<\/p>\n Mr Macron originally described Brexit as a \u2018crime\u2019 and has done all he can to undermine Anglo-French relations since.<\/p>\n Last year, he caused outrage by suggesting the UK\u2019s Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was \u2018quasi-ineffective\u2019 among the over-65s, and that the over-60s should \u2018not be encouraged\u2019 by its results.<\/p>\n Now it has emerged that Mr Macron allegedly plotted with EU bigwigs to halt exports of the jabs, in what has been described by one British Government source as \u2018an act of war\u2019. President Macron has also been accused of stirring up violence by insisting that the post-Brexit UK must stick to the Northern Ireland Protocol, despite the threat this poses to peace and stability in the region.<\/p>\n His ministers have also taken up hardline positions in the never-ending dispute over thousands of unregistered migrants travelling from northern France to the coast of England in small boats.<\/p>\n Few have failed to note the irony in the French enabling desperate migrants to enter the UK with ease, while blockading goods.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mr Macron is determined to win a second five-year term and establish himself as the de facto EU leader after the retirement of German Chancellor Angela Merkel (pictured)<\/p>\n Mr Macron is also angry with Britain over its alliance with Australia and the US, which has resulted in a \u00a350billion-plus French contract to build submarines for Australia being scrapped.<\/p>\n Mr Beaune said dismissively that far from becoming Global Britain, the Aukus alliance was \u2018a return into the American lap and a form of accepted vassalisation\u2019.<\/p>\n A common thread in these face-offs is the fact that Mr Macron and his cronies are preparing for a presidential election in April. Mr Macron is determined to win a second five-year term and establish himself as the de facto EU leader after the retirement of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.<\/p>\n As France moves further to the Right, Mr Macron knows he has to attract extreme nationalist voters to defeat rivals such as Marine Le Pen of the National Rally party.<\/p>\n An obvious way of doing this is for \u2018Napo-Macron\u2019 to take on his country\u2019s historic enemy at every opportunity, so prepare for Britain to be blamed for every French ill in the coming months. He might not win every battle, but if Mr Macron finds himself back inside the Elysee Palace, his aggression will have served him well \u2013 whatever it does for Britain\u2019s relations with one of its closest neighbours.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n