Brexit, Science and Fishing

Like a lot of people, I hadn't really given the EU a great deal of thought prior to the referendum.  I don't think voting to leave was ever a possibility for me.  But I did wonder initially if I would simply stay at home given that what I thought was the inevitable remain victory was going to be used to boost the standing of David Cameron.  But once the opinion polling started showing leave catching up I realised that I had better take the issue seriously.


So some time in March 2016 I sat down with a pencil and paper and did a quick summary of the issues.  It wasn't a detailed analysis.   I just divided the sheet up into 4 labelled - strong reasons to remain, average reasons to remain, strong reasons to leave, average reasons to leave.   Sadly I didn't keep the results, but I do remember that there was only one word in the strong reasons to leave.  Fish.  I come from the south coast and some of my family members have in the past worked in the fishing industry and I know a couple of people who still work in it.  Obviously fishermen would be better off out.  I didn't need to check the details.

The strong reasons to remain was rather better populated, but included the one word Science.  This was much the same as the Fish one.  It was obvious that UK science benefited from our EU membership.  I didn't need to check up on the details.

So three and a half years on, I have finally got around to actually investigating what the implications for the fishing industry of Brexit are.  It turns out that there isn't any particular bonus from leaving the EU after all.  The quotas it turns out were sold in the open market and so can't be reclaimed.  And most of the catch from south coast ports is sent by lorry to Europe anyway.  I wasn't tremendously excited by the thought of more jobs on fishing boats anyway.  It's hard work, often dangerous and very badly paid.  I'd much rather work in a lab than as a fisherman.   My dad switched from fishing to lorry driving because it was more money.  It might be a romantic and historic way to make a living - but you can't put sentiment in the bank.

It would be pleasingly symmetrical if the non-existent advantages of Brexit to fishing were matched by it turning out that science will be just fine.   Unfortunately this doesn't turn out to be the case.  I didn't have any more idea of the details with science than I did with fishing but this time my instinct was correct. This tweet from smart but smarmy Brian Cox shows just how badly it is going.

https://twitter.com/ProfBrianCox/status/1184434170958884874

I know there is a lot of talk about people knowing what they voted for.  I sure as heck didn't.