IT is comforting to note that I am not alone in identifying the SNP Government in Scotland of being long on rhetoric but coming up short on action when it concerns many aspects of marine conservation. And Richard Lochhead, the fisheries minister stands accused again of being out of touch with reality in the latest newsletter of COAST, the Arran-based sea conservation organisation.
It takes Lochhead to task in no uncertain terms for refusing to legislate against Clyde scallop dredging and calls his comments on the subject: “breathtakingly wrong.”
The newsletter, which always delivers a thoughtful view, notes: “Soon after it became clear that the Scottish National Party had secured a historic majority in Holyrood, Alex Salmond announced that he would rule for ‘all the people who imagine we can live in a better land.’ It is a worthy vision, but for now it seems the First Minister rules primarily for those with short-term commercial interests when it comes to scallop fisheries regulation. Mr Salmond would be well-advised to look further than the mobile scallop fishing fleet for people with imagination”
Read the newsletter, here.