Archive, 1975: Iceland opens fire on British vessel
After the second world war Iceland began to gradually extend the fishing zone around its coastline.The first cod war began in 1958 when it proclaimed a 12-mile fishing zone, followed by the second cod war in 1972, which extended the limit to 50 miles.In October 1975 Reykjavik decided to further increase its protected waters to a 200-mile zone, effectively cutting off British and German fishers from their best catch.This led to the third cod war which saw violent clashes and rammings.The dispute ended in June 1976 when Britain recognised the 200-mile limit.
By David Fairhall, Patrick Keatley, and Mark Arnold-Forster in Brussels 12 December 1975The cod war turned to violence yesterday when the Icelandic gunboat Thor opened fire on British fishery support vessels and was herself badly damaged in collision with the ocean-going tug Lloydsman.The clash began with an apparent attempt by the Thor to arrest the support vessel Star Aquarius as she sheltered from a force 9 gale off Seydisfjord.An obviously stage-managed incident, British diplomatic sources suggested, timed to coincide with the Nato Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Brussels – where Iceland evidently hopes to exploit fears, particularly among the Americans, of losing the vital allied airbase at Keflavik.But Icelandic diplomats in Brussels promptly retorted that the clash was more likely to have been stage-managed from London than Reykjavik.According to the Royal Navy, the Thor emerged from the fjord intent on arresting the Star Aquarius as she wanted to take on water and supplies from the support tug Lloydsman.
The Icelandic coastguard vessel ranged alongside, signalling the British ship to stop, or she would shoot,In the process she struck the Star Aquarius a glancing blow – or was struck a glancing blow – which is not surprising with two ships rearing and plunging in a severe gale,As the Thor broke clear, the powerful Lloydsman surged in between the other two to protect the Star Aquarius from arrest,The Thor emerged from the subsequent clashes with her deck crane and funnel badly buckled, and it was while the tug’s bows were grinding against her side that she opened fire,Continue reading.
12 December 1975The third cod war saw its first shots fired yesterday – and witnessed more collisions,Both sides had been stepping up the dispatch of protection vessels and lunatic derring-do displays of seamanship, so that these incidents, the most dangerous so far, had become, sadly, almost inevitable,The appallingly heavy seas, and a limited visibility of the Arctic murk, make dishing out blame unprofitable,Perhaps it was no accident that the shots and collisions coincided with Nato meetings in Brussels,Nevertheless, they are vivid illustrations of the fact that lives are at risk, and that the current tactics being used on the seas (and around the negotiating tables) are at best myopic.
Sign up to Headlines EuropeA digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week dayafter newsletter promotionAnd for the moment, deadlock looks the continuing prospect even though Mr Callaghan was openly conciliatory in Brussels yesterday.Iceland is enjoying the role of Naval David to the British Goliath.Its tactics are based on riding out the ocean battle until the next Law of the Sea Conference, scheduled for the spring, turns consensus about 200-mile economic offshore zones into law.Simultaneously, Mr [Einar] Agustsson, the foreign minister of a broadly conservative government, claims that concessions to Britain would lead to its immediate exit from power and replacement by a tougher left-wing administration.This may be exaggeration, but what has indeed happened is that the longer the government has played for time the more difficult a concession without electoral disaster has become.
Iceland is a single, united fishing constituency.The reduced levels which Britain has offered (110,000 tons of cod a year) could be lowered without affecting drastically the catch per boat of Hull, Grimsby and Fleetwood; and these are three, hardly united constituencies.But softer offers now are harder to accept: harder as the first guns boom.The real room for compromise nestles among the longer term issues.It is possible to challenge Iceland’s 200-mile limit in law.
But this zone has now become generally acceptable, and underlines painfully where Britain’s case is weakest,Britain is not only intending to follow suit before long, but has already shown itself as fiercely protective on the international scene about oil as Iceland is about fish,Thus the argument rests on the frail, if not hypocritical, bases,There are Nato considerations, too (although Iceland’s importance is diminishing, and alternative arrangements to the reconnaissance facilities of Keflavik could be made, but at a cost),Even so, it is hardly worth adding stress to Nato’s northern flank whilst the southern one – because of Greek and Turkey – lies in such a parlous state.
Fish are for preserving as well as catching, and here Britain and Iceland can cooperate, not compete.A change in the British subgastronomic obsession with all catching levels, and the future of Iceland’s economy could be assured.The difference between the last open catch offers from Iceland and Britain is less than 45,000 tons.The slap and slosh of obdurate gumboot-diplomacy, plus the dangers of high-seas naval bravado, are simply not worth a fish finger mountain.By Simon Hoggart, parliamentary correspondent 13 December 1975The House of Commons, in tune with its modern no-nonsense image, went in for a spot of non-gunboat diplomacy yesterday, when it discussed the cod war with Iceland.
In the last century, when small nations dared to get stroppy with us, we sent a gunboat along to sort them out,But the problem is vastly worse when the small nation is brandishing the gunboat at us,Admittedly it seems to be a rather accident-prone gunboat, conducting a naval engagement like a car chase with dodgems, but it does begin to look as if in the long run it will be as successful in its purpose as those British vessels which used to steam into Far Eastern ports and African rivers,So the House was slightly schizophrenic yesterday, with more than a hint from some members that we might do better to jack the whole thing in and admit defeat,The only fresh news came from Mr Hattersley, the foreign secretary’s deputy, who revealed that the government was considering bringing in an independent mediator.
This, it emerged later in the day, would probably be Herr Hans-Jurgen Wischnewski, who is a friend of Mr Hattersley and his opposite number in the West German Foreign Office.The mind boggles agreeably at the thought at a Germanic Hattersley, a spritely soul taking care not to spill his Claret when he clicks his heels.The problem is, of course, that the Icelanders are not likely to want a mediator since they are likely to win when the International Law of the Sea conference extends their limits to 200 miles.Nevertheless, Mr Callaghan said in Brussels yesterday that the Icelanders had not totally ruled the idea out.They didn’t want it just yet, but might consider it in future.
Mr Hattersley said that there would be no sudden change in British policy.While Thursday’s incident would make a negotiated settlement harder to find, the government would go on looking for compromise.We would be defending ourselves at the UN by pointing out the legality of our position and our duty to protect our fishermen.Then another, Mr John Prescott (Lab, Hull East), said that we should clear out and stop the whole “pirouette” before someone was killed.One death was worth more than 30,000 tons of fish, particularly as we were going to lose the whole battle at the sea conference next year.
Mr Hattersley said that this was the equivalent of telling the Hull fishermen to go home and get on to the dole because the Icelandic government just didn’t happen to like what they were doing.
Fed cuts interest rates by a quarter point amid apparent split over US economy
The US Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it was cutting interest rates by a quarter point for the third time this year, as the embattled central bank appeared split over how best to manage the US economy.The Fed chair, Jerome Powell, has emphasized unity within the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the board of Fed leaders that sets interest rates. But the nine-to-three vote to lower rates to a range of 3.5% to 3.75% was divisive among the committee that tends to vote in unanimity
Leon to cut jobs and close fast food restaurants
Fast food chain Leon is planning to close restaurants and cut jobs, less than two months after it was bought back from Asda by its co-founder John Vincent.The chain said on Wednesday that it had appointed administrators to lead a restructuring programme, and it was considering how many of its 54 restaurants would need to shut. It did not say how many roles could be affected.Vincent, who founded Leon in 2004 with Henry Dimbleby, who later became a government food tsar, and chef Allegra McEvedy, bought the business back in October, four years after he sold it to the billionaire Issa brothers’ EG Group petrol forecourts business in a £100m deal.The chain has now hired advisers from Quantuma after applying for an administration order, and aims to put the business into administration as soon as possible, a process which will help it to manage debt payments as it attempts to secure its long-term future
Musk calls Doge only ‘somewhat successful’ and says he would not do it again
Elon Musk has said the aggressive federal job-cutting program he headed early in Donald Trump’s second term, known as the “department of government efficiency” (Doge), was only “a little bit successful” and he would not lead the project again.Musk said he wouldn’t want to repeat the exercise, talking on the podcast hosted by Katie Miller, a rightwing personality with a rising profile who was a Doge adviser and who is married to Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s hardline anti-immigration deputy chief of staff.Asked whether Doge had achieved what he’d hoped, Musk said: “We were a little bit successful. We were somewhat successful.”Doge created chaos and distress in the government machine in Washington DC, and by May more than 200,000 federal workers had been laid off and roughly 75,000 had accepted buyouts as a result of purges by Musk’s external team of often-young zealots
ICE is using smartwatches to track pregnant women, even during labor: ‘She was so afraid they would take her baby’
Pregnant immigrants in ICE monitoring programs are avoiding care, fearing detention during labour and deliveryIn early September, a woman, nine months pregnant, walked into the emergency obstetrics unit of a Colorado hospital. Though the labor and delivery staff caring for her expected her to have a smooth delivery, her case presented complications almost immediately.The woman, who was born in central Asia, checked into the hospital with a smart watch on her wrist, said two hospital workers who cared for her during her labor, and whom the Guardian is not identifying to avoid exposing their hospital or patients to retaliation.The device was not an ordinary smart watch made by Apple or Samsung, but a special type that US Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) had mandated the woman wear at all times, allowing the agency to track her. The device was beeping when she entered the hospital, indicating she needed to charge it, and she worried that if the battery died, ICE agents would think she was trying to disappear, the hospital workers recalled
‘Dadgummit, let’s freaking go’: 44-year-old grandfather Rivers could start for Colts
The Indianapolis Colts have not ruled out starting Philip Rivers at quarterback after luring the grandfather out of retirement amid an injury crisis.The Colts lost starter Daniel Jones for the season after he tore his achilles on Sunday, while their first-round pick in 2023, Anthony Richardson, is out with a broken orbital bone he suffered in October. With backup Riley Leonard dealing with a knee injury, the Colts turned to the 44-year-old Rivers, who retired at the end of the 2020 season. Rivers, who has been a high school coach since his retirement and recently welcomed his first grandchild, played for the Colts in his final season after a long stint with the Chargers.Colts head coach Shane Steichen is close friends with Rivers and approached him about returning to the NFL
NHL warns top players will not show up for Winter Olympics if venue is unsafe
The NHL says it is “disappointing” that the main ice hockey venue for the Winter Olympics will not be ready until the new year – and warned that its top players will not show up unless the ice is shown to be safe.The men’s and women’s tournaments are expected to be among the highlights of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games with the NHL stars showing up for the first time since 2014.However, the buildup continues to be marred by construction delays and questions over why the rink at the Santagiulia Arena in Milan is smaller and wider than in the NHL, as well as concerns over the quality of the ice. And while the International Olympic Committee (IOC) insisted on Tuesday that everything would be ready on time, the NHL commissioner, Gary Bettman, made it clear he was not entirely happy.“The fact that the building at this point still isn’t completed is – and I won’t use any other adjectives – disappointing,” Bettman said
One in five women in England say their concerns were ignored during childbirth, survey finds
Scotland’s looser rules on assisted dying could lead to ‘death tourism’, say senior politicians
Should people wear a mask in public if they feel unwell with flu?
Half of people recently arrested by Met police may have undiagnosed ADHD, study finds
‘Highlight of my week’: how community choirs have changed people’s lives
People in the UK: how do you feel about wearing a face covering to help prevent spreading a virus?