ASDA adopts Conservative fishing policy (as Tories abandon it)

Earlier today I posted on how the TaxPayers' Alliance might be needed to fill the vacuum created by the Tories' reluctance to advocate economy-boosting cuts in taxation.

It seems we might also have to rely upon the supermarket ASDA to make the case for the end of the EU's environmentally-disastrous Common Fisheries Policy.  ASDA wants the North Sea to be declared a Marine Conversation Zone - only open to local fishermen "who depend on it for their sole income and who use recognised sustainable fishing practices".  Gordon Maddan, regulatory affairs manager at ASDA has issued a press release stating the following:

"We want all the fish we sell to be sustainable. It's very clear however that the Common Fisheries Policy has failed to deliver this so we are now supporting calls for a radical change in approach." 

It was disappointing to hear a Scottish Tory MEP - Struan Stevenson - appear on this morning's Today programme to distance himself from the ASDA statement.

What is not a bad thing, however, is if conservative or/ and anti-establishment causes are taken up by groups outside of the Tory Party.  It is probably true that small 'c' 'conservatives' have long expected the big 'C' Conservative Party to do far too much of the 'persuading work'.  We are all more likely to achieve a long-term change in British public attitudes if the 'persuading work' is shared amongst a number of grassroots groups who have a long-term mission and are unconstrained by the short-term need to win the next election.  The TPA, MigrationWatch, Business for Sterling are just some of the more successful campaigning organisations I have in mind.  It will be good if they are occasionally joined by enlightened businesses like ASDA on specific campaigns.  They can help to shift public opinion... and clear the way for a more conservative Conservative Party...

Related link: EU Referendum blog discusses the ASDA statement and Ten point briefing on Britain's conservative movement.

Comments

[Kristian Shanks]

I think it's one of the more unheralded developments in 21st century British politics actually. Whereas turnout in elections is in decline, single issue campaigning organisations have really energised people. Those you mentioned have done a great job, but if you look broadly across the political spectrum you can see groups like Liberty, the Stop the War coalition, the Countryside Alliance, a number of the environmental groups, even Oxfam with their Make Poverty History campaign.

Indeed, I don't know how political parties can latch onto the successes of these organisations without dragging them down, because so many people are fed up with Labour and the Tories. Nonetheless, if either party can successfully harness organisations like these then that could be a real bonus. In the US, ostensibly non-politically aligned groups do a terrific job raising money and getting the vote out for candidates they endorse, so maybe a similar situation could emerge here.

[DavidTBreaker]

Maybe we should create a campaign called something like Positive Alternative to campaign on leaving the EU. Either that or all vote ASDA? I don't know why on Earth the party has dropped CFP withdrawal, it was a good vote winner in coastal seats and environmentally friendly. It's madness.

[Ted]

The Common Fisheries Policy has been a complete failure & shambles. It shows where the EU should not have any competence and David Cameron needs quickly to begin reversing his policy.

The CFP has failed to protect the environment, to conserve, to protect national fishing fleets - so its not Green, its not Blue. It has been used by the Eurocrats to buy Spanish support (the death knell came with decision that Spanish vessels could rightfully access national quotas of other countries).

It doesn't mean leaving the EU it just needs the guts to say that in say 12 months the UK will take back its soveriegn rights over its continental shelf as regards fisheries & management. The UK would be willing to start talks on transitional timetable with its partners but in view of the major environmental damage caused by the CFP it had no alternative.

I oppose EU withdrawal but CFP must be broken and Ted Heath's last minute signing away of these roghts reversed.

[deborah]

Well said, ASDA

[StephanShakespeare]

Our seas are being depleted: it's a near-disaster. Failing to do something about it because we don't want to upset the EU, even in its maddest schemes, is neither green nor blue.

So now we find one of the 'big businesses'(so often attacked by Cameron on 'CSR' grounds) showing a lot more green awareness and social responsibility than the the man trying to rebrand the Conservative Party as environmentally-friendly. It suggests that real change will only come from non-party politics.

[Mike Broadbridge]

I oppose EU withdrawal

Why?

It's done nothing for this country other than to drag us down and impose tyranny on a once-free nation.

The sooner the Tories make the final switch to an EU pullout position the better.

[Richard North]

I think what really gets up my nose on this is that Cameron, having ditched a policy which was endorsed by his three predecessors has never had the guts to make a clear, unequivocal statement to that effect.

Stevenson's statement today is the first formal indication that the Party has adopted a "renegotiate" position, a stance so unrealistic that even Sarah Montague dismissed it as unrealistic.

Worse still, Stevenson toured Scotland during the Euro-elections on a platform of CFP repatriation. Now that he is safely back on the gravy train, he has reversed his position.

The Party has no idea what damage this will do in Scotland - trust in the Tories was already low. This will ensure that any prospect of revitalisation will be still-born.

[Councillor Harry Phibbs]

I agree. This has been crucial in the past. There were forces outside the Conservative Party promoting the case for free enterprise. Builders vans in the 1970s would have stickers in the back windscreen opposing nationalisation of the building industry. Earlier, there would be advertisements with Mr Cube opposing sugar industry nationalisation. We had groups like Aims of Industry. There was Ernest Benn and his pamphlets which had a huge distribution.
I would like to see groups like Reform and the Taxpayers Alliance do more in terms of grassroots campaigning in the way that Eurosceptic groups and the Countryside Alliance have done. Freshers Fayres. Letters to the local press. Stalls at shopping centres on Saturday mornings.
But I also think we have a huge opportunity as a Party to prove our tax cutting credentials by achieving dramatic Council Tax cuts in the Councils we control. As I have said on this site before that would hugely increase our credibility as tax cutters and it is in our power to get on and do it across the country.

[tapestry]

It falls to purveyors of soap powder and other grocery products to propose new political strategies for the nation. Politics is now a franchise business. Once all policies were sold exclusively by one giant corporation, or party. Now the corporation contracts out policy development and cuts back to the core business of appearing good in the media.

This is bound to create a free-for-all, and rapidly increase the efficency and speed of policy development.

[NigelC]

Should we have polling stations in ASDA to increase turnout?

[Tam Large]

If ASDA put up candidates I'll vote for them.

Sadly the Cameron Party are now as unfit-for purpose as the EU they support blindly through the EPP. Shame on them.

[tapestry]

Tam, Roger Helmer announced today that he will be standing for reelection as a Conservative MEP for the East Midlands in 2009.

If Hague still tries to have Roger deselected, would ASDA like to sponsor him? Hague's created an impossible position for himself.

[Simon Richards]

DavidTBreaker suggests "Maybe we should create a campaign called something like Positive Alternative to campaign on leaving the EU." There already is such a campaign - it's called BETTER OFF OUT. Incidentally, one of the campaign's leading supporters, Philip Davies MP, worked for ASDA!

[Mike Broadbridge]

Councillor Phibbs is right to say that our local councillors can and should act as standard-bearers for a dynamic cost-cutting Torying.

And Simon Richards is correct to say that we as a party must work together with groups such as BOO.

The keynote for all Conservativs has to be a total commitment to FREEDOM.

That's why Im currently disappointed by the whimpering noises coming from our leadership. Failure to support our friends in Israel is one of the most crushing recent letdowns.

The trumpet is indeed sounding an uncertain note.

[michael mcgough]

Where others lead the Tories do the reverse.

[George Hinton]

What we need to remind ourselves regarding the Common Fisheries Programme is that it was foisted upon us, as an eleventh hour dictat by the EEC when the Heath/Wilson acession talks were pretty much finalised.
It shows the cheek and opportunism that the Brussels based apparatchiks have always held against this country.
It is not British fisherfolk who have ruined the North Sea, it is the big commercial boats from the continent. One major problem has been the Danish fleet dredging for sand eels, at the base of the foodchain, that has caused so many of the problems now experienced with low fish stocks.
The response of the EU to the problem has been to restrict British boats from their traditional waters and to force us to allow foreign registered boats to take our quotas.
The CFP has been an unmitigated disaster from the start, but there is very little anyone can do against the commissars in Brussels/Strasbourg who control and ruin our lives and livihoods.
The obvious answer is to get out of Europe and use the CFP as an example of the bad that membership has bestowed on this country.

[Sean Fear]

"Indeed, I don't know how political parties can latch onto the successes of these organisations without dragging them down, because so many people are fed up with Labour and the Tories. "

We don't need to latch onto them. We can however, work with them in loose alliances. The US Republicans have been very successful at doing this.

[anon]

Errr, What conservative fishing policy was that? Do you mean this fishing policy:

http://www.ukip.org/ukip_news/gen12.php?t=1&id=2512

Or this one?

http://www.ukip.org/index.php?menu=manifesto2005&page=manifesto2005agricultureandfisheries

[deborah]

Why not write up the ASDA policy for the 100 policies series so we can vote for it?

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