2021 War with France

[tc27]

Rule Britannia

[GogLais]

So if the French are going to war and setting up a blockade. Should we not use the tried and tested method of just sneaking round the side.

Via Belgium? That didn’t work out well the last time somebody tried it.

[Yr Alban]

Is there an election on?

I assume that the usual suspects will be standing, proudly erect, with the Union Jack tied to their flagpole.

The French government decided to threaten to end electricity supplies to a Crown Dependency most people can't find on a map, whilst fishermen threatened to blockade it's port. All this in conjunction with the Tories for the purpose of winning a by-election in Hartlepool, this seat being crucial to a Government with a massive majority, days after most people had already voted via post.

Think we can safely edit the wikipedia article for Occam's Razor - this has absolutely smashed it out the park.

The Hartlepool by-election is irrelevant - but the elections in Wales and Scotland aren’t. Scotland has most of the UK fishing industry, and most of that is in the North-East, which is one of the two places the Tories can realistically win FPTP seats. So it’s not quite as cut and dried as all that.

[Insane_Homer]

Where do I sign up to the French Resistance? (All the movies I've seen, that's where the babes are at).

[laurent]

Cool

Not very useful if the boarded boat has armed people onboard (the French equivalent crossed the channel not long ago and does not tie your hands).

[Mahoney]

I've seen the films, the suit they're wearing is bullet proof and you can shoot stuff out of those things on his hands too.

[Torquemada 1420]

HMS Tamar gets to show off her new dazzle camouflage at least.

Weird since I though all evidence had shown dazzle did nothing 100 years ago and doubt it would confuse a modern anti-ship missile or torpedo.

Probably just as well it's a Fisheries Protection Ship then.

Ahh. So it's designed to hide it from the fish. Wouldn't that be a better strategy for the trawlers themselves rather than their protector ship?

[Openside]

Hard to call if Jersey’s Government, the ultimate jumped up Parish Council, have fucked up or the French fishermen are being typically dramatic. Probably both.

Either way, if the UK Government had threatened to block vaccine supplies and then later in the year threatened to turn off the power to EU citizens we’d be hearing bloody murder about it.

The Fishermen are understandable pissed off at the UK Government breaking its word again, on deal they did allowing them to continue fishing in UK waters.

Fucking hell

[Jock42]

FB_IMG_1620312542500.jpg (21.3 KiB) Viewed 427 times

[tc27]

Jetpacks are not designed for flying soldiers spraying lead from a assault rifle but rather to effect borings on uncontested target - getting a boarding line attached for the actual boarding party following in the RIB.

[JM2K6]

Exactly. How would you even hold the chainsword?

[Paddington Bear]

Is there an election on?

I assume that the usual suspects will be standing, proudly erect, with the Union Jack tied to their flagpole.

The French government decided to threaten to end electricity supplies to a Crown Dependency most people can't find on a map, whilst fishermen threatened to blockade it's port. All this in conjunction with the Tories for the purpose of winning a by-election in Hartlepool, this seat being crucial to a Government with a massive majority, days after most people had already voted via post.

Think we can safely edit the wikipedia article for Occam's Razor - this has absolutely smashed it out the park.

The Hartlepool by-election is irrelevant - but the elections in Wales and Scotland aren’t. Scotland has most of the UK fishing industry, and most of that is in the North-East, which is one of the two places the Tories can realistically win FPTP seats. So it’s not quite as cut and dried as all that.

I guess all that’s missing now in this clear cut case is why the French Government timed this crisis so perfectly and why the Jersey Government created permits for that purpose and why the Norman fishermen haven’t mentioned they’re in on it

[tc27]

Exactly. How would you even hold the chainsword?

In one hand for the +1 attack obviously.

[Blackmac]

So if the French are going to war and setting up a blockade. Should we not use the tried and tested method of just sneaking round the side.

Via Belgium? That didn’t work out well the last time somebody tried it.

What. It worked a bloody treat.

[Calculon]

I expect plenty of gammons won't be happy unless we sink at least a couple of trawlers. Meanwhile no problems for Guernsey where all remains cordial.

Guernsey is further away from France which I assume is why it's less controversial. British islets that are part of Jersey like Les Ecrehous and Les Minquiers are very, very close to France.

I have little interest in this but I did read the bbc article and apparently Guernsey have delayed the introduction of the fishing licences till end of May. I get the impression that the bbc is pretty much blaming the Jersey government who have allegedly added extra demands for receiving said licence which wasn't agreed to in the prior agreement with the EU. I'm guessing Guernsey will be a bit more careful when they start to issue the fishing licences.

Looks like the Jersey government has capitulated.

A ceasefire has been declared in the great Jersey-France whelk war of 2021.

Who has won and who has lost? Nobody so far — but the Jersey government was the first to blink.

The restrictions unilaterally imposed by the Jersey government on Norman and Breton boats have been withdrawn until 1 July. Talks with France and the EU will resume.

The dispute was front-page news in all UK newspapers and the top of radio and TV bulletins last Thursday and Friday. Very little has been reported on the truce.

The last we heard from the UK tabloids was that the Royal Navy (two small patrol boats) had put to flight an invasion fleet of 100 French fishing boats which protested in St Helier harbour last Thursday. The French said, au contraire, that they left when they intended to leave — to go fishing for whelks, scallops and lobsters.

The dispute, over how many French boats can fish within 6 to 12 miles of the Jersey coast post-Brexit, has yet to be resolved. The French government and the European Commission accuse Jersey of breaking the law by acting against the letter and spirit of the post-Brexit fishing deal struck on 24 December. This agreement allowed inshore access for mostly French boats which can prove they have fished in southern English and Channel Islands waters in recent years.

The Jersey government imposed limits which appeared to bear no relation to fishing records — restricting some French boats to a few hours a year. Jersey has now fallen in line with the less confrontational approach of the Guernsey government, which rolled over present rights to July while talks continued.

In return, Jersey boats will be allowed once again to sell their catches in French ports. It was this ban (forcing most Jersey boats to tie up) which brought most pressure on the government in St Helier — not the French invasion fleet.

An ill-considered threat by Paris to switch off the under-water cables from Normandy which supply 90% of Jersey’s electricity may have had some effect. It is doubtful, however, that France would have carried out the threat, which would also have blacked-out France-friendly Guernsey.

French fishermen’s leaders say the Jersey government has fallen under the spell of a group of nationalist-minded politicians who have been seeking for years to torpedo cooperation between France and the island (a British crown possession but not part of the UK).

Jersey politicians say that French fishermen failed properly to fill in forms proving that they had fished off the island recently.

Either way it was scarcely the re-run of the battle of Trafalgar which last week’s headlines suggested.

Could the UK government’s belligerent attitude, sending two patrol vessels to the scene, have had anything to do with the local elections and Hartlepool by-election last Thursday?

Surely not

.

[tabascoboy]

The most tragic thing to come out of the #warwithfrance is the 3rd degree palm burns and the dislocated shoulder Nigel Farage suffered

Gammons going to have to find something else now for their faux outrage du jour

[sturginho]

Where do I sign up to the French Resistance? (All the movies I've seen, that's where the babes are at).

Listen very carefully, I will say this only once....