Tweet
Miliband wants sea anglers to pay for a licence!
This idea will go down like a lead-free bottom weight! South Shields MP and Environment Secretary David Miliband wants to hook every British sea angler with a new “stealth tax” and charge them for a rod licence in the same way as freshwater fisherman have to pay for their sport. Apparently it’s all part of his plans for a right to roam around Britain’s coastline and the licence fee is designed to help pay for the costs and (wait for it) will help preserve fish stocks!
Ministers are proposing charges to cover beach anglers, boat fishing and charter trips, overturning a British tradition enshrined in common law nearly 800 years ago.
David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, wants to use the licence fee to help manage fish stocks. It would also be used to protect and improve shore access and car parks, provide launch sites for small boats and create artificial reefs. Part of the money would be used to administer the scheme itself.
Now I don’t know how much David has learned about sea angling since becoming the town’s MP, but surely he must be aware that cod and mackerel stocks in the North Sea have been depleted over the years by the intensive factory fishing by Russian fleets rather than by anglers standing on beaches and piers. Besides, a lot of anglers being sportsmen, return many of their meager catches to the sea. A public right to fish dates to the Digest of Justinian, a Byzantine legal codification, in the sixth century AD. The Government has invited comments on its proposals and a new Bill is not expected until 2009.
I’d like to know just how he intends to police such an idea, how many inspectors would be required to march around Britain’s coastline checking on anglers at piers, jetties, beaches, and in small boats to see if they have a rod licence? Hopefully by 2009-10 their will be a different government in Whitehall anyway!
This idea will go down like a lead-free bottom weight! South Shields MP and Environment Secretary David Miliband wants to hook every British sea angler with a new “stealth tax” and charge them for a rod licence in the same way as freshwater fisherman have to pay for their sport. Apparently it’s all part of his plans for a right to roam around Britain’s coastline and the licence fee is designed to help pay for the costs and (wait for it) will help preserve fish stocks!
Ministers are proposing charges to cover beach anglers, boat fishing and charter trips, overturning a British tradition enshrined in common law nearly 800 years ago.
David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, wants to use the licence fee to help manage fish stocks. It would also be used to protect and improve shore access and car parks, provide launch sites for small boats and create artificial reefs. Part of the money would be used to administer the scheme itself.
Now I don’t know how much David has learned about sea angling since becoming the town’s MP, but surely he must be aware that cod and mackerel stocks in the North Sea have been depleted over the years by the intensive factory fishing by Russian fleets rather than by anglers standing on beaches and piers. Besides, a lot of anglers being sportsmen, return many of their meager catches to the sea. A public right to fish dates to the Digest of Justinian, a Byzantine legal codification, in the sixth century AD. The Government has invited comments on its proposals and a new Bill is not expected until 2009.
I’d like to know just how he intends to police such an idea, how many inspectors would be required to march around Britain’s coastline checking on anglers at piers, jetties, beaches, and in small boats to see if they have a rod licence? Hopefully by 2009-10 their will be a different government in Whitehall anyway!
i know what he can do with his licence he can ram it up his ar*e why should we suffer cos this goverment didnt and still dont have the balls to get french russian and spanish trawlers out of british waters what a bunch of w***ers 
Comment