Libraries, Fish and Responsible Politics

A bit of a mixed bag from me this week, as there have been a few events that caught my attention.

Firstly it was great to see a group of totally united Town and District councillors at the public meeting regarding the consultation on the future of our library in Shepton. Members of the public and politicians all spoke passionately in defence of our library, and to the full credit of John Osman, Deputy Leader at Somerset County Council, he came along and listened to the contributions, when it would have been much easier to stay away. The professional contributions from the SCC officers in attendance also gave everyone a full picture as to why there is a consultation about possible library closures, and what options are being looked into.

I have made my own representations to the library service, (see last blog), we must now keep up the pressure on the County Council and do everything in our power to ensure the library remains.

One point that was vociferously made by a number of people was that they did not think it fair if the Town Council took over partial funding for the library, and raised taxes locally to pay for it. The general feeling seemed to be that the people of Shepton would be “paying twice” in that scenario and there did not appear to be any support for that form of action.

As I mentioned in my blog last week, there was a pre-emptive attempt to force through an increase in council tax at the town council meeting last week, with a view to funding the library if it is threatened with closure. The Conservative group managed to fend off the proposal, in the light of last night’s meeting that decision seems to have been vindicated.

On a totally different matter, I have been a keen but infrequent sea fisherman for most of my life, I try to get away for a few days each year for a bit of male bonding with rod and line sport added for good measure. I love eating fish and sea food of all sorts, though as it gets increasingly expensive, perhaps not quite as often as in the past.

I have been aware for a number of years, mainly because of the discussions that we have whilst fishing, that trawlers who catch fish that they are not targeting, and have no quota for, are not allowed by law to land them, and must throw them back into the sea. Fish that have been caught in a trawl net are dead before they come on board the ship, so throwing them back into the sea achieves nothing apart from littering the sea bed with dead fish carcases.

This crazy situation is brought about by the regulations laid down in the Common Fisheries Policy, one of those crazy EU directives that the British slavishly follow and the rest of Europe ignores. The policy is designed to protect fish stocks and prevent over fishing, though how throwing dead fish back into the sea does either is beyond my comprehension.

This ridiculous policy was highlighted this week by one of my favourite TV personalities Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on his programme Hugh’s Fish Fight (Thursday Channel 4 9pm).  One of the stats that came out of the programme was that 50% of the fish caught in the North Sea by British trawlers is thrown back, dead, into the sea. Perfectly good Cod, Coal Fish, Pollack and Bass, unavoidably caught when trawling for Haddock or Prawns, is thrown away. The North Sea is a mixed fishery and all of the species live together and hunt each other for food. It is impossible to catch one without catching the other when trawling, making the CFP regulations a complete nonsense.

This has to stop, and I would urge you to log onto www.fishfight.net  and add your name to the 300,000 plus that have already signed up to fight this senseless waste of edible fish. Maybe if enough of us concerned people put pressure on the bureaucrats from Brussels this ridiculous policy will be re-negotiated.

Finally I want to return to the subject of websites and responsible political campaigning. You all know my views regarding the scandalous, website that our local Lib Dems and certain so called “Independent” councillors hide behind. There have been at least two investigations into this site to my knowledge, and it and its authors have been branded “distasteful and un-professional” by the Standards Committee. Last weekend I received a complaint from a member of the public stating that a posting was “racist and anti-Semitic”.  I advised the member of the public to write to the monitoring officer at Mendip and also report it to the police, I’m awaiting developments.

However, the main point I want to make is that as politicians we should act responsibly when publishing material, and it would be even better if we all told the truth. This came to a head in the USA last weekend when Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in Arizona. Miraculously Mrs Giffords has so far survived being shot through the head and is apparently making good progress. Sarah Palin, potential republican presidential candidate at the last election, had some months before published a website with gun sight targets on specific areas of a map where certain politicians should be “targeted” as part of the campaign. Gabrielle Giffords was one of them.

Now I’m sure that Sarah Palin didn’t mean for some nutter to take it literally and go after her opponent with automatic weapons, but that could have been the unintended consequence, an investigation is underway. I suggest that it is not a huge leap from that example to our local Lib Dem website where a prominent local councillor is shown alongside a picture of the Grim Reaper with the headline “I wonder where he will be next year”.

I’ll leave you to draw the conclusion.