Macron’s pointless fish war

During the now virtually forgotten cod wars between Iceland and the United Kingdom from 1958 to 1976, the diminutive foreign office official Sir Donald Maitland invited to King Charles Street for a dressing down the Icelandic Ambassador, a 6’7” Nordic giant. When the ambassador arrived, Sir Donald climbed on to his massive desk, drew himself up to be eye-to-eye with his visitor and declared: ‘I have been instructed to deliver this from the highest level.’

The moral of this story is, if you wish to avoid seeming ridiculous, avoid fish wars. Ultimately, little is at stake. Outcomes are frequently embarrassing. There will inevitably be terrible tabloid jokes about herrings and floundering, et cetera ad infinitum. Britain’s cod war with Iceland lasted 18 years and achieved nothing. Emmanuel Macron seems not to have learnt this lesson.

One might have imagined the French president had calmed down following his hissy fit three weeks ago when he unleashed his prime minister and European minister to threaten the United Kingdom with retaliation (‘rétortion’) for the denial of 75 licenses for French scallop boats off the ChanneI Islands.