However, the recent news that the AT has recruited interpreters (at what cost?) in order to explain the culture of British sport-fishing to foreigners smacks heavily of the patronizing and unnecessarily tolerant position adopted by Government on anything and everything that might upset relations between cultures, be it fishing, religion, education…nothing, it would seem, is ever handled robustly for fear of causing ‘offence’.
Only very recently it was revealed that three unregulated (secret) Islamic schools have been closed-down and subsequently found to contain unsavoury brain-washing literature. Good. But there was no mention of punishment and one can safely assume that a mild lecture or an appeasing explanation of British law was delivered to those who knowingly flouted our long-established regulations.
It would now seem that the AT has wittingly or unwittingly taken a leaf from The European Book of Mollification by pulling-on the kid gloves to handle the downright criminal practice of fish-thieving. In this instance the AT is almost certainly behaving contrary to what most of its subscribers and supporters would want i.e. strong words, firm action and prosecutions for the culprits. These people are perfectly aware that their activities are illegal: why else would trapping-nets be set-up during the hours of darkness? Why would dead-line anchors be carefully hidden in the reeds?
The U.S article on this British problem ‘British Anglers Furious at Migrants Poaching Fish’ (FM 10th Dec. 2015) elicited a mere handful of comments but it is – at least – remarkable that those posters were unanimous in their thinking: don’t muck about – crack down hard. Without question, the majority of British anglers – and non-anglers – would take a similar view. Let’s hope the AT’s new interpreters have been briefed to tell their fellow countrymen that to steal our fish will not be tolerated and that being caught red-handed could be very nasty for them.
