For some years now UK fishermen have been living with strict fishing quotas that have them throwing back dead fish into the sea as it is illegal for them to come ashore with more fish than they are allowed to catch.
One of the problems is that they are given different quotas for each species. But their nets that trawl our coastlines cannot determine which species of fish they will catch as they hoist them from the sea. Hence, if they have already caught their quota of one fish, say cod, but to make the fishing trip commercially viable continue to drop their nets for other species that swim in the same waters, then they are legally forced to throw any cod over and above the quota back into the water. But by the time the catch is sorted, the fish are dead.
As part of the Channel 4 Fish Season, top TV chefs have joined forces in the Big Fish Fight championing sustainable seafood. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingshall’s three-part special this week has made for very disturbing and frustrating viewing. While scientists continue to say certain fish stocks such as cod need protecting, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingshall finds a different perspective from fishermen from Scotland and the Kent coast.
The fishermen see large stocks of cod as they are catching them in their trawler only to be forced not to bring them ashore but throw them back into the sea. Over half the fish caught in the North Sea are, Fearnley-Whittingshall has learnt, thrown back overboard, dead. The fishermen say the scientists and politicians are not up to date with their findings. Moreover, the EU laws that have fishermen strangled by quotas are not doing anything to help fish stocks increase, only creating waste.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingshall is campaigning to stop this madness and in doing so has set up the Big Fish Fight website and a Facebook Big Fish Fight lobby which over 86,000 people have already signed.
You can watch the Big Fish Fight programmes on the Channel 4 website.
Once described by Peter Mandelson of all people, as ‘the unacceptable face of banking’, Barclays boss Bob Diamond steadfastly refused to apologise to the UK tax payers when interviewed by the Treasury Select Committee, broadcast on Newsnight last night.
Coming across as smarmy and despicable as the former RBS Chairman Fred Goodwin, when asked to apologise to the British Public, Diamond just repeated the same sentence about the time for remorse being over.
He may well have said get over it, we are still here earning big bucks and that’s the end of it.
In fairness to Diamond, Barclays never profited directly from government intervention with tax payers money, but their business has benefited from it since, with the Bank of England’s quantitative easing programme and extremely cheap borrowing.
Whether the coalition does big itself up and stands by its manifesto to hit bankers hard with some sort of tax levy remains to be seen, but I believe they realise they will be shooting themselves in the foot to do so.
Half of the bonuses paid in the UK will find itself back in the Treasury through taxation and it is fair to assume that the vast majority of the remainder will be spent in the UK, fuelling our economy. So what exactly is the point?
Well, an apology from someone somewhere down the line would have been nice considering the mess that the financial crisis has caused the general public and I think we are entitled to that.
Burglars broke into the home of pensioners David Ward and Ann Woodland in Essex, handcuffed the pair together and strapped an iron to the back of Ward, turning it on for 30 minutes to burn through the pensioners skin, fat and muscle leaving him needing extensive plastic surgery.
Throughout the torture the man refused to scream out for fear of waking Miss Woodland’s three year old granddaughter who was sleeping in another room.
The two sadistic burglars had first strapped the iron to the back of the woman but had not turned it on, they then strapped it to the mans back and started the torture.
They also boiled a kettle of water which they threatened to pour over the granddaughter unless the couple told them where the safe was. The couple do not even have a safe.
The thieves then ransacked the house and collected together around £200,000 worth of valuables including gold rings, Rolex and Patek Phillipe watches and Mr Wards collection of cuff links that the owner was hoping to pass on to his grandson.
Essex police said that the attack was so sickening that it has even outraged the criminal fraternity. The couple have put up a reward of £10,000 for information leading to the arrest of the evil, sadistic robbers.
DC Pudney added: ‘In my career I’ve never seen anyone do something like this before, with this scale of violence. Threatening to use an iron is one thing, using it is quite another. We are investigating other crimes across the country where irons have been used or threatened. It’s very rare, there are only about ten cases. It may be linked to other crimes, it might not, we are still investigating. Many people on the wrong side of the law feel there is a line and these offenders have crossed that line.’
The case of the student Roshonara Choudhry, who stabbed MP Steven Timms in a deliberate and pre-meditated attempt to assassinate, ended with the accused being sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 15 years in court toady.
Despite being educated in Britain Choudhry had not attended the trial as she refused to accept the jurisdiction of the court.
After the sentence was passed, a group of men began shouting in the public gallery ‘Allahu akbar’ (‘God is great’), ‘British go to hell’ and ‘Curse the judge’. A demonstration was also taking place outside the court.
While I am all for free speech why do we allow these despicable racially motivated anti British yobs any freedom at all when they clearly hate everything about our country.
It is these very same people that are responsible for the hate that has built up in some parts of the UK toward Muslims over the last decade.
The court heard that a draft letter to her mother found on Choudhry’s computer said she hated living in Britain and did not want to spend the rest of her life in a non-Muslim country.
She said she could not live under the British Government, which she described as an ‘enemy of Islam’, and that she could not pay taxes to it or work as a teacher in its education system.
Which begs the simple question, why the hell did she not leave?
It makes you wonder our us adults ever managed to get through childhood at all. Experts are giving some timely advice in today’s UK press over the hazards of taking part in activities such as apple bobbing, something that kids have enjoyed for god knows how long.
Do we really need this ridiculous advice from experts such as consultant ophthalmologist Parwez Hossain, from Southampton General Hospital, Hampshire, who said dunking your head into a bowl of water to bite an apple was fraught with danger.
He goes on to back up his claim by saying that last year the hospital admitted three children with apple bobbing injuries.
He also suggests that children are at risk of contracting serious diseases from bowls that may contain a residual of dirty water if they haven’t been cleaned properly.
Children should wear goggles to participate in the Halloween game of apple bobbing, he goes on, and remove the stalks from the apples. He then suggests that children should be allowed to use their hands to get the apples and using bottled water rather than tap water which may contain water-borne organisms that may lead to infection.
I am sure he has the children’s welfare at heart, but for Gods sake wouldn’t we be better advised to keep our children in a locked room so that they are not able to come into contact with such evils as the dreaded injury inducing, possibly deadly ancient game of apple bobbing.
