We recommend that future directors of communications have their job descriptions phrased so as to make clear their role is to communicate, and not to take future prime ministers into harm’s way, regardless of electoral considerations. We recommend that Peter Maxwell should not be reinstated in his former role.
We conclude that insufficient attention was given to risk assessment by the project engineers and managers, notwithstanding that such assessments are not required in Yemeni law as they would be under the UK Health & Safety at Work Act. Had such an assessment been carried out, the hydrological event which led to the death of the prime minister and others might have been predicted and appropriate precautions taken. Notwithstanding this conclusion, we are unable to say that any one individual was culpable in this matter.
We conclude that the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence exceeded its mandate in agreeing to act as the primary technical resource for the Yemen salmon project, and we recommend that the centre be disbanded and merged with the Environment Agency.
We conclude that, in policy terms, we cannot endorse the view of the prime minister’s office that an initiative involving the introduction of salmon into the Yemen would sit alongside its other policies in the region, which are mainly focused on military intervention in protection of regional oil resources and associated attempts at introducing the democratic process. We believe the government should choose between salmon and democracy in its regional initiatives. The combination of the two sends a confusing signal to regional players.
Nevertheless we have detected a benign outcome from the tragic death of the late James Vent PM. The perception in the region that UK policy can also focus on non-military, non-oil-related subjects, such as fly-fishing, has not been entirely negative. On the contrary, we understand that a statue of the late prime minister and Sheikh Muhammad ibn Zaidi bani Tihama is being subscribed for, showing both of them in chest waders and carrying fishing rods, as they were when last seen alive. This will be erected in the centre of Sana’a, if planning permission can be obtained.
Glossary of terms used in the extracts
alevin: the earliest stage of the salmon after hatch, a translucent creature with an umbilical sac
Allahu akhbar: God is great anadromous: able to tolerate both freshwater and saline environments
Bedu: nomadic desert tribesman inhabiting the Arabian peninsula
broodstock: hen fish from which eggs are stripped for rearing in a hatchery
caddis fly: invertebrate insect resident of freshwater streams (Limnephilus genus)
DEFRA: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
dissolved oxygen: The level of dissolved oxygen in a river is an indicator of how well migratory fish are likely to survive in it. The lower the level, the more they are at risk.
diwan: room set aside for the use of gentlemen wishing to chew khat (see below)
diyah: blood money
Environment Agency: department of DEFRA with responsibility for the management of rivers, the rural environment, flood management, and the enforcement of anti-pollution legislation
falaj: ancient system of irrigation used in and regious consisting of stone tunnels or conduits taking water from aquifers in the mountains to farmers and others in more low-lying areas
FCO: Foreign & Commonwealth Office
fry: Once the baby alevin has absorbed the contents of its yolk sac it becomes a fry.
genetic integrity: idea, dear to fisheries scientists, that the genetic purity of salmon from a particular river should be preserved and not diluted by the presence of fish from other rivers-illegal when applied to humans
gillie: man or boy employed on many Scottish salmon rivers to stand at your elbow and explain why you are unlikely to catch a fish with your present technique
glide: when the current in a river is enough to turn a salmon fly but not fast enough to be a riffle (see below)
Hansard: official record of proceedings of the British Houses of Parliament
imam: someone who leads prayers in a mosque, a person of authority in the community
invertebrate: creature with no spine
jambia: curved dagger much favoured by Yemenis
jazr: Yemeni term for worker in an unclean trade, such as a butcher
jebel: general Arabic word for mountains
jihadi: person who devotes his or her life to the religious struggle, sometimes inaccurately conflated with a suicide bomber or assassin
khat: mildly narcotic leaf which is chewed
NCFE: National Centre for Fisheries Excellence, one of a number of scientific organisations researching into fishery management, now abolished
parr: next stage of development of a salmon after a fry, similar in appearance to a baby brown trout, about the size of a finger with brown markings
riffle: when the surface of the river water is slightly broken, and the current is moving faster than a glide (see above)
Salaam alaikum: traditional Arab greeting (May God be with you)
salmonid: migratory fish including salmon and sea trout
sayyid: ruling class in the Yemen, a title given to tribal or religious leaders who claim descent from the Prophet Muhammad
sebkha: white encrustation of salt on the surface of the desert usually indicating the presence of moisture, a sign of quicksand
selta: vegetable broth very popular in the highlands of the Yemen
sharia: law as practised and observed by the Prophet Muhammad in his lifetime, in force in certain countries in the Muslim world
sitara: colourful shawl worn by women in the highlands of the Yemen
smolt: The juvenile salmon, at some point between sixteen months and two years after achieving parr form, starts to change physiologically. It develops salt-excreting cells, and it takes on a silvery appearance. Once fully silvered it becomes known as a smolt, a fish about six inches long. In this form it makes its way downriver to the saltwater estuary. From there, by degrees, it makes it way in the company of other smolts and salmon to the feeding grounds in the North Atlantic where it may remain from one to four years.
Spey cast: an elaborate double-looped cast much beloved by Highland gillies which has the merit that the fisherman never gets his line tangled up in the bank or the trees behind (as in an overhead cast) because the loop of the Spey cast is always in front
thobe: a robe worn in the highlands of the Yemen and in Saudi Arabia
wadi: a riverbed dry except in the rainy season (when it is a river)
Paul Torday
