My thoughts are on fish – as it happens I’m off for a fish and chip supper with a friend this evening – to understand their importance in our grand national debate you need only consider the number of politicians who just happen to be named after them: Sturgeon, Salmond, Rudd and Crabb for example.  I’ve yet to hear of any called Cockle, Winkle or Croaker, but who knows?    The day may come.

One thing every fisherman knows about is temptation: bait.  “Use a sprat to catch a mackerel,” as they say.

Now we all know – it’s one of those “inescapable facts of life” that Piggling’s father was a fisherman.  And he lost his business.  I’m very sorry about it.  I am sure we all are.   But that is no reason to flounder into negotiations with the EU with the determination to trade off access to British waters against the right to market financial services in Europe.

It’s bonkers.  The one accounts for a tenth of 1% of the UK’s economy, the other about 7%.

This morning on the radio I heard a politician (presumably not a member of the government or he would not be “allowed” to appear on a public service news programme) explaining that fishing is vital to outlying communities in Cornwall and Skye.  I dare say it is, but then so are the roads, the police, the health service, schools, ferries … I could go on – funded by the taxes paid by financial services and those who work in them.  Not by fishermen.