Urgent.Weve written a letter to send to local press. If you would like to add your name as a signatory please comment below. The text of the letter is as follows: UKIP and the fishing industry We look with interest at UKIP’s sudden interest in the fishing industry and their hurriedly-called meeting this Thursday. It’s fair to say that the party doesn’t have a great track record in this area. Nigel Farage was on the Fisheries Committee of the European Parliament for three years. In that time he attended just one out of a possible 42 meetings. When huge cross-party efforts by centre-right, Socialist, Liberal and Green MEPs ensured a historic reform of the CFP, which will end overfishing and safeguard the future of the fishing industry in Europe, Mr Farage was nowhere to be found. He did not even bother to show up to the Fisheries Committee final vote (which was very close) and he disappeared halfway through the plenary vote. The real work in Brussels is done in committee, so by skipping committee meetings UKIP miss the chance to exert any influence and help shape laws that affect their constituents. They claim that there is no point as they would be outvoted every time, which is patently ridiculous when key votes can (and often do) go one way or another with only a vote to spare. Actually the biggest issue affecting our fishing industry is over-fishing by big business. Exactly the sort of sort of big business interests that ex-banker Nigel Farage represents. Is it any wonder he’s not that interested in attending Fisheries Committee meetings? UKIP are now pretending to care about fishing because they know it’s an issue important to the people of Folkestone. We say don’t be fooled by UKIP who are ‘fishing’ for your vote. Their track record on supporting the industry is terrible and to start to pretend to support it now is nothing short of blatant hypocrisy. The people of Folkestone and our local fishing industry deserve better.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 16:24:07 +0000
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