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Comment by personomas | Hacker News Reader

outrageous. how could things devolve to this from just a few years ago. UK is on a terrible course.

What's outrageous? A french minister threatening to cut power to the island, french trawlermen blocking the landing of fish caught by british fishermen and to blockade the island of Jersey or two fisheries protection boats being dispatched to make sure the island's ports remain open?

The cause? Asking seventeen (17!) french fishing vessels for evidence they've fished those fisheries in the last 5 years.

I don't think I'm finding outrage in the same thing as you are.

UK signed a deal for the Brexit. Now UK doesn't want to honor its part of the deal, aka give european (and french) fishermen the authorization required by the deal...

Moreover, Jersey limited the parts of the fishing zone to be less than what the Brexit deal was negociated...

So... how do you deal with a country that signed a treaty 5 month ago and doesn't want to respect it ???? Jersey is just "another brick in the wall"

You use the dispute mechanism built into the treaty. You don't blockade an island economy.

Blockin the electricy is exactly that

Turns out that systematic brinkmanship against your neighbours will generate ill-will. Who would have thought…?

Sadly, this is what “the people” want. A steady diet of tabloid nationalism for decades is finally bearing fruit. Things will get uglier before they get better.

this is no different to the usual French pettiness over fish/beef/scallops/whatever

It's pettiness on both sides. The sort of thing we used to solve around a table in Bruxelles, now we have to send in naval ships. Naval ships, btw, that are often joint-built with them so we can actually afford them, with all that it entails...

How is protecting your borders petty?

The UK decided to leave the EU, this seems like an entirely expected consequence.

In that case aren't the Jersey authorities also protecting their borders?

The British asked 17(!) ships for evidence they fished in British waters over the last five years, and the french have responded by threatening to deprive the islands of electricity while french vessels are blockading. If that’s not petty, I don’t know what is.

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