There are few sadder symbols of post-Brexit Britain, or of its deliberate assault upon nature, than the national dish, fish and chips, and the fate of one of its principal ingredients, the cod. Cod are tasty creatures but they are severely overfished in UK waters, a fact masked by plentiful supplies reaching fish and chip shops until recently from Iceland, Norway, and – ah yes – Russia.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has given us one of two reasons why we urgently need to save our favourite fish from 40 years of mismanagement. The first is to protect our own future food security. Just when the price of cod and other materials has rocketed, leading our fish and chip shops to call for more cod from our own waters, stocks are around their worst levels on record. These national assets – which, under British law, belong to the king on behalf of the people – have declined precipitously in the past four decades.
