"Outrageous" fishing agreement, low ranking for opportunities, draft climate action plan and more
The Ilkley Journal roundup 🗞️
UK-EU fishing agreement “absolutely outrageous” says local MP
The MP for Keighley and Ilkley has described the new fishing agreement with the European Union, which forms one part of a wider deal that has been agreed with the trading bloc, as “absolutely outrageous”.
Robbie Moore said that Keir Starmer, PM since July 2024, had no political mandate to be making such an agreement, which would be akin to “surrendering access to our British waters to European fishermen”.
“Whose side is he on?” Moore asked. “When Labour negotiates, Britain loses.”
According to the government, the 12-year agreement will protect “Britain’s fishing access, fishing rights and fishing areas”.
Further, it will maintain current fishing quotas, with “no increase in the amount of fish EU vessels can catch in British waters”.
Moreover, the government will also look to invest £360 million into the fishing industry as part of modernising efforts and, via a new SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary checks) agreement, see export costs and red tape slashed.
Former Ilkley councillor Anne Hawkesworth described the deal as “unbelievable” and “deplorable”, adding that a “big benefit from Brexit was fishing rights”.
A survey carried out by the University of Aberdeen ahead of the EU referendum in 2016 reported 90% of fishermen across the UK backed Brexit.
Six years later, a major report by the University of York, the University of Lincoln, ABPmer and the New Economics Foundation stated that Brexit had “failed to deliver government promises on the fishing industry”.
Commenting at the time, Dr Bryce Stewart, lead author of the report and a senior lecturer from the Department of Environment and Geography at the University of York, said the government guarantees on the benefits that Brexit would bring to the fishing industry “were far in excess of what could be delivered”. He continued:
“The industry became an icon of Brexit with claims it would correct past injustices and breathe new life into neglected coastal communities, but our study reveals the stark delivery gap between rhetoric and reality.”
The House of Commons Library describes the UK’s fishing industry as being volatile and an overall low contributor to the UK economy. In 2021, it delivered just 0.03% of the total UK economic output.
As of 2021, the industry employs around 10,724 fishers, a figure that has remained relatively stable since 2009. There were around 21,000 fishers in 1970, with the UK experiencing a 55% decline in the number between 1948 and 1970.
Keighley and Ilkley constituency scores “low” in Opportunity Index Rank
The Sutton Trust Opportunity Index Rank, which examines the opportunities available to disadvantaged young people across England, has scored the constituency of Keighley and Ilkley as “low”.
It found that the levels of disadvantage were just below the average (22.6%), that the percentage of pupils on free school meals achieving passes for English and maths was low (11.6%) and that the percentage of pupils on free school meals ending up in the top 20% of earners at the age of 28 was also low (6.8%).
When it came to the percentage of pupils moving to a different region by the age of 28 and the percentage of pupils completing a degree by 22, Keighley and Ilkley was found to be just above the average.
In contrast, the top 20 constituencies for opportunities for disadvantaged young people were found to be in London, with a clear north/south divide, with the Sutton Trust’s CEO, Nick Harrison, describing it as “painting a startling picture of inequality of opportunity across England”. He added:
“If the government genuinely wants to break down barriers to opportunity, we need serious investment in education and economic opportunities in the ‘left behind’ parts of the UK. Failing to act is damaging the life changes of too many of the next generation.”
Bradford District residents invited to consult on the council’s draft Climate Action Plan
Residents in Ilkley and the wider Bradford District are being encouraged to have their say on the council’s draft Climate Action Plan, which was approved by the executive committee.
This can be done online or in person, with a community drop-in event taking place at the Clarke Foley Community Hub on Friday 6 June, 1pm–4pm. Other events have been scheduled at Bradford City Library, Shipley Library and at the Keighley Airedale Centre.
The overall goal of the plan is to achieve net zero in the region by 2038, a full 12 years ahead of the national target to decarbonise all sectors of the UK economy.
Labour councillor Sarah Ferriby, executive member for healthy people and place on Bradford Council, said:
“We recognise our role in leading and facilitating climate action, working collaboratively with businesses, communities and partner organisations to accelerate our progress towards net zero whilst at the same time attracting investment into new technologies and industries.”
There are eight priority areas that Bradford Council is looking to transform as part of its strategy to get to net zero. They include:
Improving travel and transport
Increasing renewable energy and fuels
Decarbonising industry
Growing a sustainable and inclusive economy
Providing warm and comfortable buildings
Enabling community climate action
Managing land and nature
Reducing consumption and waste
The debate over net zero remains divisive. Despite their being “unequivocal evidence that [planet] earth is warming at an unprecedented rate [with] human activity the principal cause,” as NASA has put it, mainstream politicians mainly on the right of politics have questioned the net zero target.
Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservatives, claims that the 2050 target is “impossible” and that it cannot be achieved “without a serious drop in our living standards or by bankrupting us".
Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, recently described it as “net stupid zero”, with the party claiming in its manifesto, dubbed “Our Contract With You”, that net zero has, in fact, “sent energy costs soaring”.
Adrian Ramsay, co-leader of the Green Party and MP, told the BBC earlier this month that the debate around climate change had been turned into a “political football”, though he does believe there is a "sensible climate majority" at Westminster.
The State of the UK Climate 2023 report by the Met Office, which was published last year, has described the 21st century as being “warmer, wetter and sunnier than the 20th century”.
News in brief
Ilkley gets a water refill station
Ilkley Town Council is very proud to announce that the town now has a brand new water station, which you can find at the South Hawksworth Street car park. “This is a great addition to the town and we hope that people will benefit from easy access to drinking water when out and about,” the council said.
More than triple the trips from Bradford to London
With the opening of a new platform at Forster Square Station, trips to London from Bradford will be offered more regularly, with more than triple the journeys than before. “A major city like Bradford needs to be better connected, not just to the capital, but also to other major cities in the country,” said Bradford Council leader Susan Hinchcliffe.
Average speed cameras cut speeding offences in West Yorkshire
A bunch of new speeding cameras has dramatically cut the number of speeding offences on Stanningley Bypass in Leeds from 4,077 to 911 in over a year. “Through Vision Zero, we want to encourage everyone to do their bit, but for those that will continue to speed, you will be caught, sooner or later,” said Alison Lowe, chair of the West Yorkshire Vision Zero Board and deputy mayor for policing and crime.
Bradford’s Southern Gateway master plan launched
Arup has been tasked with developing a “master plan” for Bradford’s Southern Gateway, which aims to transform a derelict site into a buzzing, new district. “Working with Arup and Bradford Council, we can put more money in people’s pockets, and build a stronger, brighter West Yorkshire that works for all,” said Tracy Brabin, mayor of West Yorkshire.
Letters
So, yet again, we have seen Sir Keir Starmer unpick more of the Tory chaos left behind by the bitter infighting in the last government.
Top of the list this week being Boris Johnson's so-called oven-ready Brexit deal and mass migration experimentation mess he left behind.
Yet the past few days have yet again proved that Labour are not all about just righting Tory wrongs.
Last week, Labour delivered the fastest-growing economy in the G7, introduced legislation enabling £8.3 billion of investment in energy security and good green jobs, announced plans for an extra 14,000 new prison places, and £625 million to train 60,000 young engineers, brickies, electricians, and carpenters.
Thank you Sir Keir Starmer.
Geoffrey Brooking is a 53-year-old Labour activist who has been writing to national and local newspapers for 38 years now.
What we’re reading, watching, listening to
Read | The Vegetarian by Han Kang
One day, Yeong-hye decides to stop eating meat. What sounds simple on paper – there’s nothing necessarily disastrous or controversial about that – is, as the 2016 Man Booker International Prize-winning novel by Han Kang sets out to explore, anything but. A quietly dark and scathing look at the male gaze and the destructive nature of maintaining so-called societal norms and cultural norms.
Watch | The Handmaid’s Tale (Season 6)
The TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 literary masterpiece, The Handmaid's Tale, which is set in the US debuted in 2017, months after Donald Trump was first elected president. Six seasons later and now in its final run, the show continues to impress in its exploration of what happens when a western liberal democracy fails and is replaced by a form of theocratic totalitarianism.
Listen | Origin Story: Partition (Part One, Before Midnight; Part Two, Dividing Lines)
If your knowledge of the unnecessary, disastrous and violent partition of British India (itself a telling descriptor of Britain’s shameful colonisation of the subcontinent) is sketchy at best, this easy listen two-parter by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey, which tells the story of the breakup and its subsequent impact on both Indian and Pakistan, will get you up to speed.
Quote of the week
“Yesterday, minister Smotrich spoke of Israeli forces ‘cleansing’ Gaza, ‘destroying what’s left’, of resident Palestinians ‘being relocated to third countries’. We must call this what it is. It is extremism. It is dangerous. It is repellent. It is monstrous. And I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
In response more immediately to Israel’s latest military escalation in Gaza, foreign secretary David Lammy expressed some of the strongest criticisms levelled at Benjamin Netanyahu’s government since the start of this conflict in October 2023. Israel’s PM has since said, referring directly to Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney (the respective leaders of the UK, France and Canada), that they are on the wrong side of humanity and history.