PAGES eight and nine of Friday’s National demonstrate very clearly why our fishing industry, and in particular our seafood sector, has been – as predicted by almost everyone except the Tory government – seriously incapacitated by Brexit (“Tory minister shows ‘total contempt’ over Brexit chaos” and “Rees-Mogg claims fish ‘are happier now because they’re British’”, January 15).

Though the Westminster government will doubtless attempt to appease the general public and the industry by announcing compensation of some kind and the defence of “red tape teething problems”, the real reason for the continuation of the economic woes the industry will suffer can be found in the reactions of the Tory ministers involved.

Scottish Tory minister David Duguid shamelessly exhibits an apathetic disdain for the future of the seafood industry that can only be described as ignorant, arrogant and delusional. Westminster fisheries minister Victoria Prentis admitted she had not bothered to read the Brexit deal, a stunningly brainless statement, even by the shallow standards of Tory ministers in general. Perhaps she believed that because her leader has made a career out of ignoring the perusal of documents, she should follow suit.

Worst of all, however, is the contemptuous and xenophobic reaction of the Leader of the House of Commons to the immediate existential difficulties of Scottish fishermen. Mr Rees-Mogg, the conceited and contemptuous MP for North East Somerset, cemented his reputation as a man of limited empathy or compassion by claiming patriotic feelings and rights for fish. This was no doubt intended to appeal to the little Englander he and Mr Johnson pander to, but was deeply offensive and also sadly predictable given his track record in the sensitivity stakes.

The response of these ministers and the Conservative government to any tribulation suffered by the people of Scotland mirrors Trumpian standards of care and fellow feeling. The sooner we leave them and their amoral government behind the better.

Owen Kelly
Stirling