Meeting of the Parliament 09 December 2014
I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate and for the range of briefings, which I have found very informative, that I received from various organisations before the debate.
Jamie McGrigor acknowledged the pain that has been felt and the sacrifices that have been made over the decades by people in the industry, as revolution has attached to the industry, and they have reorganised to deal with modern demands. Stewart Stevenson indicated the outcomes from those previous works and the way in which the industry is now fit for purpose, in delivering on behalf of the United Kingdom.
Stewart Stevenson also recorded that our cabinet secretary is the longest-serving fisheries minister in Europe. I am unsure whether to congratulate Mr Lochhead on the honour or to commiserate and wonder where he has gone wrong in his endeavours. It is most unfortunate that the UK Tory-Lib Dem coalition decided to allocate responsibility for the negotiations last month in Brussels to Lord de Mauley to represent UK interests, instead of relying on the evident expertise of our cabinet secretary. I hope that Mr Lochhead will reflect on the fact that the frenetic promotion of nationalism over the past few years has perhaps had some influence on such decisions and that his contribution in the post-referendum era will be more welcome at UK level and more constructively received.