How two-faced SNP have short-changed Northern Isles fishermen for years
The SNP are in uproar over Scotland’s low share of UK funding for fishermen, despite treating Shetland’s industry in much the same way
Is it “unjustified and nothing short of insulting” to short-change our most valuable fishing communities in Scotland? Those were the words of Cabinet Secretary Mairi Gougeon last week.
For the SNP, however, it seems it depends on who is being short-changed. The nationalists are rightly up in arms – as any supporter of our fishing fleet should be – about the UK Government giving just 8 per cent of the £360 million Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund to Scotland, despite our ports landing around 60 per cent of UK fish by value.
Their criticism might seem fair – until you learn that the Scottish Government has been doing the exact same thing to Shetland fishermen for years, giving us a far lesser share of funding than the value we land on the quayside. If you wanted an illustration of SNP hypocrisy on fishing you could not ask for much better than this.
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SNP’s high-handed disdain
Analysis by the Shetland Times found that the SNP government has allocated just 5 per cent of its Marine Fund to Shetland organisations and businesses since 2020, despite Shetland producing well over 20 per cent of Scottish seafood during that period.
Little wonder, then, that Northern Isles fishermen are increasingly furious at being short-changed by the two-faced SNP. If it’s unfair to short-change Scotland on the national level then it surely follows that it’s unfair to do the same to my Shetland constituents.
This is all par for the course, however, from a party which has always seen fishing communities – and those in Shetland in particular – as a political prop at best. We are wheeled out when a photo opportunity is needed (or perhaps when there is an election on the horizon) and treated with high-handed disdain at all other times.
Window dressing for Brand Scotland
It was the SNP, after all, in partnership with the Scottish Greens, which tried to cripple our fishing communities using top-down, highly protected marine areas (HPMAs) a few years ago. The diktat from Bute House was only defeated through a hard-fought campaign by local communities who refused to accept such an imposition. We know that given half a chance the SNP will be back for a second bite.
Whether through HPMAs or this latest revelation of hypocrisy on funding support, the pattern remains the same. All that fishing and island communities like Shetland are good for in SNP eyes is to be window dressing for Brand Scotland – just as long as we keep schtum and let the big folk in the Central Belt do the talking on the issues.
Our economic needs and our right to a fair share – let alone our right to take back powers centralised by the nationalists – can go hang. They do not understand our communities and they have contempt for our priorities.
One way or another the hypocrisy has to stop. Either the SNP believe in fair funding for our fishermen or they do not.
If the SNP really believe in proportionate funding for the fishing communities that bring in the greatest value to our country, they should put their money where their mouth is – and give a fair share to Shetland.
Anything less would truly be unjustified and nothing short of insulting – but no more than islanders have come to expect.
Alistair Carmichael is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland
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