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We don't need our farmers and fishermen

(134 Posts)
Greta Mon 02-Mar-20 16:13:08

What are we to make of this?
One senior government adviser is reported to have said the UK doesn't need its farming or fishing industries. According to him the food sector isn't that important to our economy and agriculture and fisheries certainly aren't.
Dr Leunig is said to be close to Dominic Cummings. Is he one of DC's weirdos?

This is perhaps good news for Priti Patel. She could easily add the redundant farmers and fishermen to the 8.5 million people who are economically inactive. They would all help to alleviate staff shortages under the new immigration system.

janipat Thu 05-Mar-20 21:12:56

I love fish! After googling it seems I like lots of the fish we currently export, so I hope to see a greater variety in the shops. That would be the one and only benefit of Brexit for me. You can keep or export eels though grin

Callistemon Thu 05-Mar-20 22:24:00

They squawk too much when squeezing through the printer SirChenjin.
I don't mind, but the neighbours complained.

M0nica Fri 06-Mar-20 09:15:20

As a village dweller with a large garden, I probably could meet all the requirements to keep a pig.

It was merely a facetious suggestion, not to be taken seriously. - although we could farm guinea pigs - they do not require much space and are considered a delicacy in some parts of the world - that to is a facetious suggestion. DGS has two much loved guinea pigs and Jemima and Clara need never fear that I would do anything to hurt them.

Fennel Fri 06-Mar-20 13:24:19

When we were living in the country we had chickens and ducks. And occasionally turkeys and geese.
We had the eggs from the females, and the cockerels for meat.
The ducks just for interest as we had a pond.. Free range chicken meat is full of flavour but rather tough.
One morning I went to let the chickens out and a cute little stripey animal ran towards me - a baby wild boar! We called our farmer neighbour and he took it home, fattened it up and it fed the family well. Its mother had been killed by the chasse the previous day.
But as M0nica says we probably shouldn't feed them kitchen waste, I think it was banned here after the animal flu epidemic of 2001.

paddyanne Fri 06-Mar-20 14:08:06

with 8% of the population of the "uk" and over a third of the natural resouces I think Scotland could probably manage fine .55% of coastal waters are ours and we'll be running 100% on rewewable energy by the end of this year,we already export more than we import and have since records began .Now THAT is just one reason why WM wants to hold onto us

growstuff Fri 06-Mar-20 14:28:59

Indeed! Scotland accounts for about 60% of the UK's fishing exports, partly due to a few Scots buying up the UK's fishing quotas (along with some others). If the UK does win the right to stop others fishing in British waters, it's going to have pay loads of money in compensation to the foreigners who own the quotas. If Scotland then becomes independent, England is going to have Scottish fishermen fishing in its waters - for fish which nobody in the UK wants to eat anyway.

Fishing accounts for a fraction of a percentage of GDP. It's no wonder that the accountants don't see it as important. We're going to end up in the ludicrous situation of being an independent bell bonging island nation, whose national dish is fish and chips, having to import most of our fish, which won't be very fresh after it's waited in a queue for customs clearance, and having our own fishing fleet go out of business.

You'd better get that printer going, SirChenjin!

SirChenjin Fri 06-Mar-20 14:38:09

we'll be running 100% on rewewable energy by the end of this year

Not quite - the SG target was an equivalent of 100%. Most recent official SG figures from Feb 20 show that it’s on target for 76.2%.

Re exports - that only accounts for goods traded overseas. The rUK makes up the majority of Scottish trade and here we’re running a deficit.

SirChenjin Fri 06-Mar-20 14:39:54

Printer is firing up as I type growstuff!