Double standards usually apply

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It’s probably reasonable to assume that US Vice President Vance didn’t know that he needed a licence to go fishing on the lake at Chevening. Whether he would be so indulgent about a visitor to the US breaking a local law of which (s)he was ignorant is another question, but being fair-minded and reasonable doesn’t depend on reciprocity. Lammy, however, and the staff at Chevening should have known, and he certainly would have known had he been an avid angler.

It's apparently a non-trivial offence: it seems that the fine for fishing without the requisite licence is up to £2,500, even if you’re fishing in your own lake on your own land to which there is no public access, although unless you’re dull enough to invite a photographer to film the crime, you’re unlikely to be caught. It does sound a bit like what politicians normally like to call unnecessary red tape. In Lammy’s defence, inviting a photographer to capture the scene is hardly the action of someone who knows that he is breaking the law. My best guess is that he’s never fished before, and angling is one of those life-long passions which politicians suddenly remember when a good photo-op presents itself. That, though, begs the question – where did the rods come from? It’s possible that they are kept at Chevening for the use of guests (which might make this a case of serial offending) or that some underling was sent out to acquire them. In either case, someone should have known that a permit was required, even if that someone wasn’t Lammy himself.

Lammy has owned up to the problem, paid for a licence and apologised, and that seems to be the end of the matter. I can’t help wondering, though, whether offering to pay for a licence retrospectively would have worked the same magic for those who have been fined for similar offences, or whether double standards are in operation. Lammy has actually handled it rather well – none of the usual bluster about no wrongdoing, just a rapid apology and retrospective purchase of a licence. It does still, though, underline the eternal truth: them what owns or controls the land can get away with more than the rest of us.