Politics

A ‘peak Brexit’ moment as man fires musket at French ships in Jersey fishing row

A ‘peak Brexit’ moment as man fires musket at French ships in Jersey fishing row

Despite leaving the EU at the start of the year, the UK still keeps finding fresh ways to embarrass itself when it comes to Brexit, the most recent of which is the row that has erupted off the coast of Jersey.

Dozens of French ships and boats are currently blocking the main St Helier port on the island in protest to new post-Brexit fishing restrictions that were introduced in Jersey last week that they claim will severely affect their livelihoods.

In addition to the blockade, France has also threatened to cut Jersey’s electricity off, a threat that the British government has called “unacceptable.” Although Jersey isn’t part of the UK, it is recognised as a self-governing British crown dependency.

As tensions rise, Boris Johnson has deployed two Royal Navy vessels to ‘monitor the situation.’

That being said, the Jersey foreign minister, Ian Gorst said that they are “absolutely not going to war with France” and that the boats were staging a legitimate and peaceful protest and that they are trying to find “diplomatic solutions to the issues that we’re facing.”

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However, if it does all kick-off we know that there will be at least one man fighting our corner: this bloke from the Jersey Militia reenactment group firing a musket blank at the boats in the St Helier port.

We’re not sure if we’ve ever seen a more Brexity moment than this as a lone man with a primitive firearm attempts to scare off a small armada of boats who are upset about fishing regulations.

The clip, shared by ITV News, has already been viewed more than 24,000 times at the time of writing and it’s safe to say that people are pretty embarrassed.

At the moment we’re not really sure how this incident will pan out but it’s safe to say that it has all gone a bit Monty Python.

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