boundary pre 1999
post 1999
Captain Ranty has posted about a subject which constantly reminds me of how deceitful politicians can be.
There is much talk about the current Scotland Bill, but I have yet to hear any reference, from the Scottish government, of the return of 6,000 miles of Scottish territorial waters which were secretly stolen by the Blair government.
Labour's Henry McLeish was the man who quietly moved England North Sea fisheries boundary 60 miles north, giving away Scotland's legal rights to 6000 miles of prime fishing waters to England. The carve-up was done under the guise of devolution and the appalling thing about this secret order is that it was not openly discussion in the Commons, although it was passed by the house of Lords then passed by a very select Labour and Liberal committee in the Scottish Office.
As well as some excellent links in Ranty's post, this one gives a good summary of the situation.
Why isn't the Scottish government publicly insisting these waters are returned to their rightful geographical position defined in 1237? This is one fight with Westminster which probably could be easily won if the Scottish government demanded it. The amount of sea involved may not be large in the global sense, but as it involves prime fishing waters having 6000 miles of our waters stolen isn't a drop in any country's ocean - or in Scotland's case the North Sea.
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