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Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04 Account - 12266421 Name - JOHN ROBERTSON
From Scottish Sea Fisheries Statistics 2024 published yesterday:
The Scottish fishing industry value in 2024 was £734 million. This is the highest value (adjusted to 2024 prices) of the last ten years. Scottish fishing vessels landed 532 thousand tonnes of sea fish and shellfish, the greatest tonnage of the last ten years. A summary of the headline numbers are:
Scottish vessels landed 532 thousand tonnes of sea fish and shellfish in 2024. An increase of eight per cent compared to 2023 and an increase of 33 per cent compared to 2020.
Scottish vessels landed £734 million of sea fish and shellfish in 2024. Adjusted to 2024 prices, this is an increase of three per cent compared to 2023, and of 27 percent compared to 2020.
Scottish vessels landed 191 thousand tonnes of sea fish and shellfish worth £189 million abroad in 2024. Landings abroad make up 36 per cent of tonnage and 26 per cent by value.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-sea-fisheries-statistics-2024/
The last point is concerning in that it creates dependency on other countries’ infrastructure and acceptance of lower landing prices.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-sea-fisheries-statistics-2024
Could an independent Scotland do something about this?
What an independent Scotland could do:
- Pursue policies to shift more pelagic catch toward higher-value markets, such as investing in onshore processing upgrades (e.g., filleting, smoking, or ready-meal production) to capture added value domestically rather than exporting raw bulk.
- Use fiscal levers (e.g., subsidies, tax incentives, or grants) to encourage fleet investments in value-adding tech or direct-to-market sales.
- Negotiate better trade terms or access to premium markets independently (e.g., tariff-free deals with the EU, Asia, or US for processed pelagic products).
- Adjust licensing conditions to incentivize landing higher-value portions or species mixes domestically.
Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotland
Click on the above.
Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04 Account - 12266421 Name - JOHN ROBERTSONPlease Support Talking-up Scotland at:
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Click on the above.
Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04 Account - 12266421 Name - JOHN ROBERTSON
Talking-up Scotland 
Reported in October 2025.
“The UK government has been told that its decision to give less than 8% of a £360m fishing fund to Scotland is “ocean-going madness”.
“Certain MPs, the Scottish government and industry bodies have criticised the plans and called for Labour ministers to rethink the investment”
(“industry bodies” – you mean, The Scottish Fishing Federation who backed Brexit, some within that organisation even backed the Tory party….they were warned about Brexit Tory betrayal, which they chose to ignore, so what right have they to now “criticise any plans” by this new Labour government- who also BTW support Brexit)…….
#JustSayin
“Scotland has been allocated £28m from the £360m Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund – Scottish vessels typically land more than half of the UK’s catch“.“.
“England will get more than £300m“.
“Shetland alone accounted for about 9% of the UK catch, but that Scotland as a whole would receive less than 8% of the fund”.
“Under the previous EU funding allocation to the UK, Scotland was given at least 46% of the investment according to Scottish Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon”.
She also stated in a letter to the Labour Environment Minister, Angela Eagle, that “It also disproportionately benefits your own fishing sector in England – for whom you have retained over £300m, despite landing significantly smaller catches than Scotland.”.
Then to add even more insult to injury one of the, checks bloody notes, ‘Scottish’ lackeys who was elected in 2024, that is Kirsty McNeil, who is now also the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State against Scotland, said that:
The fund, which is expected to be delivered next year, would help “deliver a bright, sustainable future for the fishing industry”.
What a Crock of ****………..I think we all know that her remit is one that obviously seeks to only ‘deliver for England’….Scotland , not so much.
Kirsty McNeil, is another one of the 37 useless Labour MP’s , who since being elected in 2024 by some people in Scotland , then expects those same people, and also others in Scotland , to just “eat yir porridge” in respect to all of the many bad and unfair (to Scotland) decisions being made by her Labour HQ bosses.
NB. on the UK government’s website under:
“Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund” they wrote this:
“The Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund (FCGF) will invest £360 million into fishing and seafood businesses and coastal communities across the UK. This funding includes £56 million which will go to support Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish fishing industries” .
(Note how in the opening paragraph how sneaky they , Labour, were in lumping together the funding of Scotland, Wales & NI to make it appear bigger….but they also, in that opening paragraph failed to note what England was specifically getting, as an amount of money, via that same fund).
Also NB. Brian Leishman, as one of the 37, is not a Labour rebel , he is however a Labour MP that was elected in Scotland in 2024, who now knows only too well that his seat at WM is very likely on a shoogly peg…..come the next GE.
BTW I also heard that Keir Starmer, like the other former Tory PM Rishi Sunak, is now also using the term “extremists” against his opponents….
As he , Starmer, has referred to the Green party as being “Extremists” .
I suspect then, with the people of Gorton & Denton now electing a candidate from the Green party to represent them in WM, then Starmer must also see them , as voters, as being “Extremists” too.
Unfortunately for Labour MP’s who were elected in Scotland in 2024 and also for Anas Sarwar………
This latest Labour UK government will , in the future, now ‘Cast a long shadow’ and so Labour , as a party, should then not be let off the hook in the future…..
As we should keep dragging up all of their Labour scandals, individual ones and party ones, as well as their far too many bad and unfair policies and decisions….. just to prove that Labour really are far far worse than some of those other political parties that they, Labour, attack. Also Labour assume , that they themselves , are far better than those that they attack politically………..they are clearly not.
(All –fishing- puns intended)
Liz S
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In a letter to his MPs after the defeat, Sir Keir accused the Greens of embracing a “divisive, sectarian” form of politics, adding they had demonstrated they were “not the harmless environmentalists they pretend to be”.
Hmm…………who else accused the Greens of being “divisive & sectarian” ?
That would be Nigel Farage…….
Also it’s a bit rich of him to refer to pretence as “environmentalists” when clearly his GB Energy company is the biggest pretend policy that came out of his party’s manifesto ……especially for Scotland.
Where it’s , GB Energy company, has it’s so called HQ in Scotland , minus it’s Chairman, so seemingly it is nowt more than a nameplate exercise …….
So Keir Starmer, having lost an election on Thursday to the Green party, still considers it to be a good strategy for him to keep emulating Reform UK policies and also their rhetoric as being the best political strategy for his party……….that is going forward………or rather backwards.
Clearly Starmer is not someone who is ‘Fishing’ for compliments with him being the latest in a long line of awful Labour PM’s.
(See this is still on topic -though I will concede it is a tenuous link- as I have at least added the word “Fishing” , in another sense , onto the end of my comment)…..Ha Ha
Liz S
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I’m on a O/T roll….sorry
So I saw this online today……..
“Breaking: The Board of Peace launches it’s first war”
Ha Ha good one.
That’s in reference to Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ but where now we witness that Trump, together with Netanyahu, have launched an attack upon Iran.
So Trump’s America and Netanyahu’s Israel , both regimes, have launched an attack upon those that they both declare to be , checks bloody notes, a regime…….got it.
Note also that Tony Blair (who also, like Keir Starmer, is a ‘Sir‘), now a former Labour leader and a former Labour PM, is a member of Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ , that then further proves irrefutably that he, Blair himself, is still what one could call a massive “weapon” of “mass destruction” himself……both in the world and also in his UK State.
Signing off now…..
Liz S
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