Those of us who have, over the years, spent much of the time when we could have been fishing, trying to protect, promote and improve angling and the environment upon which it depends could be forgiven for getting a little weary with the constant sniping from the dear old ‘keyboard warriors’.
Here at the Angling Trust we are regularly unsurprised when our most trenchant critics invariably turn out to be people who are not members, were never members of the old pollution busting ACA and who have never put a single thing back into the sport save for slagging off those who do. Now Mark Barrett clearly doesn’t fall into that category, which is why it was disappointing to read his personally abusive and ill-informed attack on myself and the Angling Trust the other day. (If you have not read Mark’s feature, part of his regular FishingMagic diary series, it may be viewed HERE)
From his subsequent comments I think Mark knows he went too far with his personal attacks, which actually weaken his arguments. I’m more than happy to set out what I did, what I tried to do and what I got stopped from happening for the benefit of angling during my time in parliament. For example, getting fish and fishing excluded from animal welfare legislation was something you didn’t read much about at the time but which was crucial in avoiding handing the antis a huge legal stick with which to beat us. Then there was attempt to ban livebaiting in the response that followed the 2001 Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Review which ‘magically’ never saw the light of day.
We got the government to sign up to the EU Water Framework Directive which still remains perhaps the most important measure to drive up water quality and improve habitat for fish. Then there was the liberalisation of cormorant licensing which, while not going far enough it terms of numbers of birds, at least enabled angling clubs to be able to apply for a licence to shoot the things BEFORE they had wiped out a fishery rather than afterwards. We got some welcome restrictions on destructive pairs trawling and came within a whisker of bringing in a new sensible minimum landing size for bass – a subject that the Angling Trust has now returned to at my instigation.
Personally I was delighted that we were able to change the outdated, confusing and illogical system of regional by-laws that made it absolutely legal for people take, catch and in some cases actually barbeque on the bank, specimen pike, carp, bream and other highly valued coarse fish because they were over a certain size limit. The new rules might not please everyone but change was necessary and long overdue.
I could go on a fair bit more but I won’t, save to say that perhaps the two things I’m most proud of were setting up the All Party Angling Group which continues to this day and gives our sport a ready and willing bunch of advocates in the corridors of power and helps to bring all of the disparate and often fractious angling bodies together to form a unified voice for angling which is now formally recognised by the government in the shape of the Angling Trust.
Now nothing and no-one is perfect or above criticism but if Mark Barrett can tell me the name of an MP who has done more for angling from the backbenches of the House of Commons I’d be interested to know who that was and I’ll by him or her a beer. You see the job of representing 70,000 people and the host of issues and problems that they throw at you is pretty intense and time consuming. It leaves precious little space in the parliamentary week to raise other individual passions like angling. Whilst I got plenty of votes from grateful fisherman in Reading West there were always a few folk ready to accuse me of mis-using my position to pursue my own leisure interests. Such are the joys of public life!
However, what I do think is downright daft is when Mark writes me off as being of no value to angling or the Angling Trust because, in common with 75% of the population and a clear majority of anglers, I opposed hunting wild animals with dogs for sport. Particularly so when I am a Vice President of BASC and when the Countryside Alliance, the biggest pro-hunting lobby in the UK, buried the hatchet long ago and works pro-actively with me and the Angling Trust on the host of issues where we agree and can make common cause. It’s what grown-ups do.
As it happens, and I’ve written about this before, I really do think it would have been a terrible mistake for angling to have jumped into bed with the hunting lobby who only really wanted us for our numbers rather than out of any concern for angling. We belong firmly within the environmental movement and that’s where we should nail our colours. The great strength of having a national body like the Angling Trust and Fish Legal is that we are able through both words and deeds to demonstrate the positive contribution that anglers make to taking on the polluters and campaigning for a better environment.
I’m not quite sure what Mark meant by ‘binman turned politician’. It is true, I was a binman once, but what’s the problem with that? I’ve never been fitter, in fact it was a great job for losing weight and gave plenty of time to go fishing. I can think of many anglers who would benefit from a stint on the bins, although nowadays physical fitness is not quite so necessary with the advent of those ‘girly’ wheelie-bins!
And how brave it was to see the Angling Trust attacked from behind a keyboard for not actually shooting ‘Keith the seal’ the moment it entered the Severn. I was wondering how long it would take for someone to dive into print accusing the Trust of not being tough enough. I suppose it made a change from the attacks we got from the other end of the spectrum who accused us of going too far in applying for a licence to shoot it if it could not be moved. One of those no win situations except we did get that all important deal with British Divers Marine Life Rescue guys to get it back out to sea. Nothing would have happened without our intervention I’m sure.
I want to make it clear that I have never met Mark, have no axe to grind with him and would be happy to listen to his concerns face to face. I’ll be up that way in April and would welcome a chat with the man.
Finally, in the best traditions of the famous Monty Python sketch, lets address the perennial question about what does the Angling Trust do and what has it achieved.
We’ve knocked together a few bullet points to save reproducing reams of text. Check it out and if you feel like putting something back into the sport we all love go to the Angling Trust website and join us today.
Angling Trust & Fish Legal: Fighting for Fish and Fishing
• Improving and protecting fish stocks
• Providing a strong and unified voice for angling
• Promoting the benefits of angling for all
• Standing up for the environment
• Making polluters pay
• Supporting excellence in angling
What have we achieved?
• Won an injunction to stop a major hydropower scheme on the River Trent that was licensed to kill over 100 fish a day.
• Won a judicial review of the government’s river basin management plans in 2011 and secured £100m of new funding for improving rivers.
• Won significant new government funding to get more people fishing.
• Consulted 30,000 anglers and 780 organisations in bringing forward the first ever National Angling Strategy.
• Reduced poaching by educating Eastern European anglers about how to fish legally.
• Recruited 100 volunteer bailiffs in a pilot scheme that will be rolled out nationally.
• Won review by DEFRA of cormorant licensing and the bass minimum landing size.
• Fought off accusations by the MMO that recreational sea anglers sell their catch.
• Managed and delivered over 200 major competitions and supported our England teams to win 6 gold, 5 silver and 10 bronze medals at world championships and home internationals in 2012.
• Beat off angling bans and restrictions and fought against the sell-off of CEMEX lakes and other waters to non-angling interests.
• Trained 1,300 coaches and helped introduce approximately 100,000 people to angling in the past four years.
• Set up 35 County Angling Action Groups to organise projects to get more people fishing more often.
• Helped 91 clubs get Clubmark accreditation to help them get funding for angling participation work.
• Lobbied for a ban of the sale of invasive plants such as floating pennywort.
• Provided free legal advice to 220 Fish Legal member clubs and fisheries in the last twelve months and continued to fight 50 separate legal cases.
• Introduced new benefits and discounts for members.
