"We've engaged in a war on fish and we've won, " he said.

BBC: Davos 2013: Iceland slams Europe over fishing policy

So engrained in English culinary culture are fish and chips that they were one of the few foods never rationed during World War II.

BBC: Chipping away at the history of fish and chips

NATO, which has spent half a century preparing for war, how much more true of the European Union, whose culture of horse-trading (my fish quota for your opt-out on social policy) is poorly suited to the sober, decisive thinking needed to run a military campaign.

ECONOMIST: Defending the Union