COMMENT: Dismiss the ‘let’s ban it’ mindset

By Daniel Lawson

Sadly, we live in censorious times, when tolerance for differing viewpoints, activities, words even, is sometimes non-existent.

You can be ostracised, cancelled, or subject to a raid by several police officers at the crack of dawn, depending on what you’ve done or said.

Now I’m not suggesting for a moment that the Scottish government ever thought of an early-morning swoop by Scotland’s finest on the offices of Shetland Fishermen’s Association.

But the recent revelation that, prior to a meeting with us and our members, First Minister John Swinney was told by his minders to avoid using the phrase “spatial squeeze” demonstrates that the “let’s ban it” mindset swirls around the corridors of St Andrew’s House like a miasma on a cold, still Edinburgh night.

Do they compare notes with the anti-fishing environmental lobbyists?

Let’s be clear, the spatial squeeze is very real and consists of a concerted attempt by ministers to build scores of barely viable offshore windfarms to help Scotland meet a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2045 that will exclude trawlers from 50 per cent of our waters by 2050. And, as if that wasn’t enough, it will increasingly restrict fishing in so-called conservation areas.

All this at a time when the commercial world and the governments of the world’s largest carbon-emitting countries are gaily re-carbonising. (This is not meant as a criticism of Scotland’s attempts to reduce carbon emissions, rather to highlight that they will make absolutely no difference to what is a global problem.)

Other elements contribute to the spatial squeeze locally, as highlighted by the paper produced by UHI Shetland this week.

It warned about the threat to juvenile fish habitats in inshore areas around the islands from the consolidation of salmon farms and existing and proposed cabling for onshore windfarms and energy projects. This is all inducing a palpable anger and despair among our members, whose livelihoods are under threat from what seems like all sides.

We have a hugely successful fishing sector in Shetland. But it is being ridden over roughshod. Time and again local skippers and crew have shown their great character and resilience in the face of challenges from government, society and the environment. But they need relief from the constant pressure.

Despite his careful management of vocabulary, the first minister does at least recognise the issue here, or says he does.

But for every censored word or phrase there is a corresponding must-use word or phrase, and the threat from climate change is always top of the list.

Our population needs to eat, and wild fisheries catching is among the lowest carbon producing forms of food production.

So continuing to squeeze the industry out of existence is not only wrong at a basic level but counter-productive, since lost catches will have to be replaced by alternative forms of food production that are inherently more carbon-intensive.

Instead of censoring and briefing against well-evidenced, real-world concerns, damaging the faith of our members in government processes and harming relationships, ministers should be listening to and acting on their concerns, thereby preserving jobs and ways of life in small, fragile island communities. 

• Daniel Lawson is executive officer for the Shetland Fishermen’s Association.