Barrie Deas: Fishing and Brexit

Fishing will be a sort of litmus test for Brexit. As the UK begins the process of leaving the EU, we have entered a period of extreme uncertainty. The outcome of the exit negotiations, and the kind of trade relations that the UK will have with Europe after it leaves, will be dependent on many complex factors, not least whether an agreement will be possible at all. 

At the end of the negotiations it may still be uncertain how the UK will fare in the world; that may not become clear for some years or decades. But what will immediately be clear is whether UK fishermen still feel that they are shackled into a system that was designed with their disadvantage in mind.