Jul 16 – GSD Says Government Appears Not to Countenance Any Criticism
The GSD has said the Federation of Sea Anglers should stop trying to defend the Government, whom they accuse of being more intent on finding out who made the complaints about children being threatened with fines for fishing within the port area, than dealing with Spanish commercial fishermen in Gibraltar's waters.
A spokesman for the GSD said: “The Federation of Sea Anglers should stop trying to defend the indefensible. In particular, they should stop making excuses for the abject failure of the GSLP-Liberal Government to keep to its manifesto commitment that, if elected, the ban on the use of nets in BGTW would enforced.
“More than once now the Federation of Sea Anglers have attempted to protect the Government by shifting the blame onto the RGP and it simply does not wash. There is clear political responsibility here.
“The Government has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on better and faster marine assets, and increases in personnel. There is no excuse for the failure to keep to their election promise unless, of course, Government misled people in 2011 when they said the ban on the use of nets would be enforced to a chorus of approval from some within the Federation of Sea Anglers.
“Children fishing with bread on pontoons are not an environmental problem and we have highlighted concerns expressed to us by parents in good faith. Fishing with nets is an environmental problem and those that draft statements on behalf of the Federation of Sea Anglers ought to see beyond their own narrow political allegiances.”
In addition, the GSD said the Government is more intent on finding out who made the complaints about children fishing with small rods or lines within the port area being threatened with fines than dealing with the issue of Spanish Fishermen habitually fishing with commercial nets in BGTW.
They added: “The nastiness in Government communiques also appears to get worse. Now the allegation is that the person who complained to the GSD is a former GSD executive member.
“The Chief Minister really has to get over the ‘either you are with me or against me’ mentality and his desire to stamp out any criticism. A desire that we have clearly seen recently in the way he threatens those who criticise him on Facebook with legal proceedings.
“The GSD wishes to make it clear that there has been more than one complainant and none of them were from former or current GSD executive members.
“Children with small fishing lines fishing with bread in the port area are hardly an environmental problem. The problem continues to be commercial fishing with nets in BGTW which the Chief Minister promised to eradicate in his manifesto. In that he singularly failed.”
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