Joe Borg is a Maltese; a rather dim, little, failed politician from that charming island and, as such, a Commissioner within the European Union’s unelected (natch) governing body. He is in charge of the Common Fisheries policy.

Recently, he received a report on the status of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean. The scientists were adamant. The bluefin tuna is on the verge of extinction. The cause: horrendous overfishing, often using illegally small net-mesh, by the French and Spanish fleets.

Borg decreed a fishing ban until stocks could recover. Then he was taken into a room with a French and a Spanish official and the door closed.

He has just issued new “guidelines”. Bluefin taking will be authorised up to a tonnage level exactly double the figure the scientists guarantee will wipe out of the genus in those waters.

What was said was something like this. “Look, Joe, you come from a small and pretty impoverished member of the EU, a place where EU subsidies are very popular. We are two of the giants. We allocate the subsidies to the lower fry. You can either antagonise France and Spain or you can continue to receive those subsidies.”

– Frederick Forsyth in The Daily Express of 22 June.