7May 2009 CUMBRIA FARMER
`Mind-numbing legislation': Only the sea birds and seals seem to benefit from the fishing quota system
View from
the trough
with
AUSTEN DAVIES
Opinion
Let me tell you a story of
dead fish, Euro madness
and trawlermen in prison
I
t is likely, good reader,
that you will, at some
time or other, have come
across Eric Bogle's Bal-
lad of Private Willie
McBride or No Man's Land,
as he called it � or The
Green Fields of France as it
is sometimes known � and a
very moving story it is.
Mr Bogle came across
Willie's gravestone during a
pilgrimage to France in 1976
as he was visiting British war
graves. He was "only 19 when
he joined the Great Fallen in
1916" � one of a million young
lives lost and families blight-
ed by the European conflict of
the day.
It's equally likely that �
unless you are a devotee of
the BBC's Trawlermen series
in which he was featured �
you will never have heard of
Charlie McBride, yet he too
has been wiped out by the
Euro-dominatrix that his
namesake and countryman
died fighting against all those
years ago.
In December 2007 Charlie
and his son Charles appeared
in Liverpool Crown Court for
sentencing. Earlier in the
year they had pleaded guilty
to "misidentifying" fish
caught outwith their EU
granted quota.
What they should have
done under the laws imposed
on us by our now masters is
to have thrown back the fish
for which they had no quota.
But this is no `happy
angler' scenario whereby the
noble trout is released back
into his beck to live and fight
another day; this is commer-
cial trawler fishing, and what
gets hauled up is rarely in
any condition to be rehabil-
itated. So the fish that are
returned to the sea are almost
inevitably dead already, or, at
best dying. Seals and sea
birds do very well around our
shores � and they seem to be
the only beneficiaries of this
mind-numbing piece of legis-
lation.
But back to the McBrides...
Rather than simply seeking
a fine in respect of the crim-
inal misdemeanours of the
guilty pair, the Marine Fish-
eries Agency (MFA) � part of
Defra, of course � unleashed
the might of the Serious
Organised Crime Agency � or
SOCA � against them.
SOCA play hardball � they
have to. They are the boys
who were called upon to
replace the inept Asset
Recovery Agency, invoking
the Proceeds of Crime Act
against the likes of drug traf-
fickers, money launderers
and terrorist paymasters �
those who live lavish
lifestyles funded by their
criminal activities.
It would appear that to such
odious company must now be
added sea fishermen; Charlie
and his son were judged to
have lived on the proceeds of
crime for in excess of six
months and thereby liable to
have their goods and chattels
seized.
SOCA sought to freeze the
McBrides' joint and several
assets, including their homes
and fishing vessel, and
declared them to be worth in
excess of �1 million. On this
basis, Judge Nigel Gilmour
imposed fines totalling more
than �350,000 and upheld
SOCA's application for an
asset freeze. Charlie and son
were given six months to pay
or face a long prison sen-
tence.
Even Lewis Carroll after a
plateful of the Mad Hatter's
mushrooms could not have
written the next chapter...
With no other way of rais-
ing the vast amount of money
required to meet the fines, the
McBrides proceeded to re-
mortgage their homes and
presented SOCA with the
�120,000 proceeds.
They requested it be accept-
ed as a down-payment and an
indication of their good inten-
tions.
The agency took the money
and made enquiry as to the
source of the funds; on being
told that they were raised by
way of a re-mortgage of prop-
erties, the two men were told
that as their assets had been
frozen they were to be held in
contempt of court. They
returned to Liverpool Crown
Court where they were
indeed found to be `in con-
tempt'; they were both sent to
prison.
Somewhat ironically, the
loudest voice raised in protest
at this disgraceful travesty
was that of the French fish-
ermen as they blockaded the
port of Calais in protest at the
ludicrous laws that would
feed seagulls; it was they who,
among their own demands,
called for the McBrides'
immediate release from
prison.
I am not angry at the way
these poor men have been
treated by the bully-boys
spawned by a department that
should be supporting our
agriculture and fishing indus-
tries rather than destroying
it; but I do feel totally and
utterly ashamed of it.
D
airy produce gets a pret-
ty bad press these days
despite the fact that
milk, cream and cheese have
been staples since Mrs Ugg
found that if she mixed a bit
of bile with her daily pinta
interesting things began to
happen. (It must remain one
of life's little mysteries as to
why she did it!)
Cheese is so bad for us
(high fat content, you know)
that it has been classed as an
`unhealthy option' and barred
from school meals; burgers on
the other hand are okay.
Dementia generally, and
Alzheimer's disease in partic-
ular, is a dreadful condition,
one of the scourges of the
modern age. It is at epidemic
level in respect of those over
75 � around 150,000 new cases
are being diagnosed each year
in Britain alone.
Are we living so long so
that deterioration of the brain
is just one of the many ail-
ments associated with our
being passed our `sell-by-
dates' � or could changes in
eating habits be a factor?
An established cause of
brain degradation is vitamin
B12 deficiency, and elderly
people with low levels of B12
suffer twice as much brain
`shrinkage' as do those with
higher levels � and vitamin
B12 occurs principally in
meat, but also in fish � and in
dairy products.
Research spearheaded by
Oxford University in conjunc-
tion with Norwegian univer-
sities in Oslo and Bergen,
have also found that, although
meat contains the highest
concentration of B12, it is
poorly absorbed by the body.
Fish, cheese and cream are
far more efficient � but right
at the top for injecting this
vital substance into our being
is... MILK!!
In fact, so good is the old
cow-juice that someone with
marginal levels of B12 will be
jettisoned into the safe zone if
they drink just half a litre of
milk each day, and anyone can
be protected from low levels
by doing likewise.
The Old Boar suggests that
the next time you misplace
your keys, you take a trip to
the fridge and pour yourself a
large glass of the white stuff.
And, you never know, you
might even find your keys in
there!
Now what was I doing?

Page 1Page 2Page 3Page 4Page 5Page 6Page 7Page 8Page 9Page 10Page 11Page 12Page 13Page 14Page 15Page 16Page 17Page 18Page 19Page 20Page 21Page 22Page 23Page 24 Produced by PageSuite