Brexit, Boris Johnson deploys warships to defend territorial waters – Corriere.it

from our correspondent
LONDON – Boris Johnson deploys the navy to defend British waters after Brexit. The London government is ready to bring in four units of the Royal Navy, armed with cannons and machine guns, to stop foreign fishing boats that dared to venture beyond their territorial limits: the order is to board the boats of other nations and arrest their crews, at the limit with the intervention of the marines from helicopters. This is a dangerous climb – condemned as “irresponsible” even from within the conservative parity – which comes on the eve of the conclusion of the negotiations with Brussels, scheduled for tonight: now everyone is expecting failure and Johnson himself has admitted that a “no agreement”, a no-deal divorce is “very, very likely”.

The fisheries issue is one of the points where the negotiations stalled: Europeans, especially the French, would like to maintain free access to British waters., while London claims the recovery of full sovereignty as an “independent coastal state”. A “no agreement” would mean the refund, as of January 1, of the duties and customs: and these days we are already experiencing a sample of the possible consequences. Both in the Calais area and at the entrance to the port of Dover, kilometers of queues of trucks have formed waiting: the main reason is the pandemic that added to Christmas, but there are also those who have started to stock up in advance. of Brexit. Let’s imagine later.