Results 1-20 of 2,811 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Austin Mitchell

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: Clause 117 — Grounds for designation of MCZs (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: I shall not detain the House long, but I am concerned to introduce the principle that the existing social and economic interests of fishing communities be a dominant consideration in deciding on and running MCZs. The embryonic science that could underpin a scientific basis for designation does not exist—we do not know enough about the marine environment and the science is not strong...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: I do not intend to prolong the debate, but I am surprised by the amount of passion against the fishing industry that has been roused in the breasts of Members who represent urban constituencies that are scores of miles from any fishing port in the country. I shall not go on, because there would be a big educational job there, about the £6 billion a year contribution that the fishing...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: One cannot do conservation in itsy-bitsy pieces in minute marine conservation zones—or small marine conservation zones; I am not sure how big they will be—that are not linked up as a network.

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: Will my hon. Friend give way?

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his moving tribute to me, but, as far as I know, we are talking about white herring, not white rhino. It is not true that the fishing industry is opposed to conservation measures; it supports them, but it wants its position to be made clear within them. As my hon. Friend is such a passionate supporter of marine conservation zones, will he tell us whether he...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: rose—

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: I did not say that there were proposals to ban fishing in the marine conservation zones, but what I will say right now is that if that is the proposal, it is unacceptable to the fishing industry; it is a monstrous proposal. We cannot have a patchwork quilt, which is what the MCZs will be. They will not be universal, but they will be no-go zones in which fishermen cannot fish. That is an...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: Will my hon. Friend give way?

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: My point was simply that conservation measures are best handled on a universal basis within our fishing area. My hon. Friend is obviously scarred by the experience of Canada, which he has quoted previously in the House. As he comes from Canada, I can understand that. However, the Canadian depredation of cod stocks was caused not by the absence of conservation zones, but by universal...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: Up the road.

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: And better.

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: I agree with the hon. Gentleman on that last point. The fishing industry and conservation groups have come much closer together, which is why the fishing industry feels a bit let down by the obsession with controlling fishing in marine conservation zones. In response to some of my hon. Friends, I am not saying that fishing is not about marine conservation. Of course it is—it is the...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: rose—

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: The hon. Gentleman has been very patient, although he has provoked many interjections. I rise to disagree with his initial point, which was that the marine conservation zones are a means of preserving fish stocks. They are not; they are a means of preserving the marine environment. Preserving fish stocks is not compatible with that objective, because fish stocks are migratory and that issue...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: I want to help the hon. Gentleman, because he is fishing for flounders at the moment. It is interesting to hear such a staunch defence of the CFP from the Opposition Front Bench, given that we have rightly heard nothing good about it before now. If he does not earn the trust of fishermen, because they have inflicted on them the consequences of accidental damage in MCZs, and if he will not...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: That is absolutely correct. We have already seen the anger that was produced on the east coast when French fishermen came in and disrupted the pots of fishermen from Scarborough, Bridlington and Whitby. I do not want a repetition of that, because it could lead to violence and would certainly lead to anger and disrespect for the law. I hope that the Minister can give us some guarantees on that...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: Yes, but I am not sure what follows from that. If fishing is to be totally excluded from the French conservation zones, I would not want it to be excluded from our conservation zones. I am not sure that there is a quid pro quo there, but both systems have to be treated the same, and fishermen in our areas must be treated the same as European fishermen. The basic principle is clear. I come now...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: I am surprised at my hon. Friend's incredulity, because the interests of commercial fishermen and anglers are much the same.

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: I am defending the interests of fishing as an industry and as a leisure activity—I would have thought that my hon. Friend would have supported that. My assertion is that fishing is an agent of conservation, and one cannot have marine conservation areas, which are intended primarily to conserve the marine environment, by also placing added restrictions on fishing. That defeats the...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: New Clause 8 — MCZs: duty to manage and mitigate impacts upon existing activities (26 Oct 2009) has video

Austin Mitchell: Well, if my hon. Friend wants to tell me that fishing is damaging the environment, he is wrong.