The transition agreement has been greeted with slight of relief from the vested interests and a revival of hope from the Remoaners who see it as another stage in the long wearing down process they’re embarked on. Brexiteers mustn’t be content that we live to fight again another day. In fact it’s a trap, luring the UK into a cage from which we can’t escape when we come to the real deal. Nowhere is this clearer than in fishing, one of our strongest cards, which we’re throwing away by accepting that the Common Fisheries Policy will apply during the transition. Even the strongest Euro-enthusiasts admit that the CFP is a disaster, a political programme for doling out our fish stocks, not a conservation programme for making fishing sustainable. Unable to defend it, they argue that if we escape it duties will be applied to our fish and our processing industry will move to Europe, neither of which is true. Yet instead of calling this bluff and insisting on controlling our own waters, we’re taking the first step to treating fishing as expendable, just as Ted Heath did to get into the then Common Market. We mustn’t do the same to get out. The legal position is clear: fishing isn’t part of either the Single Market or the Customs union, though the trade in fish products is. The Common Fisheries Policy is based on EU laws and regulations, all of which lapse immediately when we leave. When they go, British law takes over in the shape of the Fishery Limits Act of 1976 which extended British waters to 200 miles or the median, as sanctioned by the UN Law of the Sea. The 1976 act provided for an exemption for EU vessels, as we had to do for the CFP. That lapses when we’re no longer an EU member. We could of course continue the exemption but to do that we’d have to pass new legislation, and there’s no reason for doing that to perpetuate the European access which is looting our waters. Nor is there any reason for doing it in the law of the sea, where we can treat the customary rights of others with the same courtesy as Iceland treated ours in 1976, or Norway treats the EU’s now. We can of course come to swap arrangements, but they would have to be with countries which can offer a catch in return, like Norway. Without control of our own waters, it will be impossible to rebuild our fishing industry. Investment requires certainty. There can be none if extensive rights are given to other nations which don’t have the same interest in sustainable fishing that the nation state has. Every other fishing nation has built up its industry in its own waters. We can only do that if we stop doling out our fish to keep the EU happy, and we need to start the rebuilding now, not postpone it to the Ides of Barnier, or beyond. Abandon that principle and we’re on the slippery slope which has so damaged fishing since Ted Heath gave our waters away. Every fishing minister has claimed to “fight for fishing” only to see their every claim for a fairer deal abandoned in the hope of gains (which we haven’t made) on other fronts. That’s what happens when you negotiate from weakness. It’s time for it to stop.