15 June (Part 1) - Farage’s Fishing Flotilla
It
was Erith’s Sunday blogger Hugh Neal who first alerted me to Nigel Farage’s
Fishing Flotilla to Westminster but he didn’t know exactly when it was due and
neither did I. It was only yesterday that I got a reasonably firm fix on the time and LBC Radio gave it
a mention as it passed Tilbury this morning. Hoping the time was about right I jumped on a 229
bus at Lesnes Abbey around 07:45 which was standing room only. By the time it got to Belvedere it was
seriously overloaded and ran non-stop to Riverside
Gardens which was good for me but not for the dozens left waiting who were going to be late for work.
My
guess about the time to be in Erith was just about right as the first boat hove into view at 08:20 but
I had in mind a picturesque scene reminiscent of Brixham or Hastings in days gone by. Instead a straggling
line of boats big and small, mainly small, passed by in the space of 20 minutes. Around 40 of them.
Murphy’s Law being what it is, they were hugging the Essex coast with the sun doing its best to put the vessels in shadow.
If you are interested in some less than spectacular boat pictures,
a collection of 13 may be seen here.
The place to be was Tower Bridge to see all the boats together. Reports are that
the millionaire Irishman Sir Bob Geldof hired a boat with the intention of
disrupting proceedings. Rich people telling working people what to do sybolises
the Remain campaign. If there is any justice the fishermen had powerful hoses on board. The
liars Cameron and Osborne deserve utter humiliation too.
