Fishermen's friends?

It's now just over 4 months until the Scottish parliamentary election. Writing about the Tories, the Edinburgh Evening News states:

Although the Tory leader is now widely seen as damaged goods - lacking in charisma, confused over tax policy and lacklustre in his speeches - party managers in Scotland say a recent visit to the north-east, where he met fishermen ahead of the Brussels decision to cut quotas, was a huge success, with IDS getting across the message that the Tories were the fishermen’s friends.

Indeed so. The Tories "were the fishermen's friends" - until Ted Heath signed up to the European Common Fishing Policy in the 1970s.