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Reverse the order to 6,000 sq miles of Scottish Sea, English

Only a vote for the SNP will stop the Tories slashing more Scottish budgets etc.

In 1999 Westminster moved Scotland's Marine Boundaries from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Carnoustie. Illegally making 6000 miles of Scotland's waters English.

When you play golf at St Andrews and look out to sea, you are looking at English Waters according to the treacherous Westminster powers that be.

Read the official order
Read the revised Government web pages showing the official 1999 order


There is a shocking fact that few people in Scotland or elsewhere know which is just as disgraceful as the 30 year Westminster administration and deceit over Scotland’s oil. This is the as-yet unexplained and secret action by Westminster Order in 1999 to move Scotland’s marine boundary from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Carnoustie. To this day this lost Scotland 6,000 square miles of the North Sea, nodded through at the time by the feckless and treacherous Lib/Lab arm of Westminster based in Holyrood.

The shocking thing about this secret order is that it was not openly discussed in the Commons, passed by the house of Lords and then passed by a very select Labour and Liberal committee in the Scottish Office.

One wonders if, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the First of Scotland, knew how undemocratic this order was before she signed it ??


Sign our e-petiton to revoke the 1999 order that made 6,000 sq miles of Scottish sea and sea bed English. Alternatively support our facebook cause.



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Below are articles published by the Herald Newspaper


Herald Article : Revealed: McLeish behind North Sea boundary shift

Pub Date  Sun 23-May-1999
Byline  By Nic Outterside
Supp/Series  News
Pub  SH
Edition  2
Page  2
Word Count  574
back

HENRY McLEISH has been revealed as the man who ''quietly moved'' England's North Sea fisheries boundary 60 miles north.

The SNP and Liberal Democrats last night joined fishing leaders in calling on First Minister Donald Dewar to explain why McLeish gave away Scotland's legal rights to 6000 square miles of prime fishing waters to the English.

Gordon Wilson, an SNP candidate in the forthcoming European elections, claims the alteration to the fisheries boundary is ''strategic'' in nature and sets a dangerous legal precedent.

Wilson is holding a conference in Aberdeen tomorrow to express outrage at the move which he says amounts to the English ''robbing us of our waters''.

Wilson added: ''If it had been land rather than water which had been robbed in such a fashion there would have been an uproar.

''This carve-up has been done under the guise of devolution and it is a threat to our rights under Scots law. Scottish fishermen fish between 80-85% of the waters which are affected and are now suddenly subject to English law.

''This area has been removed from Scottish jurisdiction ... it is a dangerous precedent.''

Wilson said he was investigating whether the boundary shift would affect ''other activities'', such as oil and mineral exploration which take place inside the marine area.

LibDem Euro candidate Robert Aldridge said he was ''very concerned'' about how the alteration to the boundary ''had come about''.

''It has been quietly done and seems to have bypassed any democratic process,'' he said. ''It has broader implications for democracy which are quite worrying.

''We will be pressing to have this looked at again with a public examination of the reasons for the boundary change which has been implemented.''

The former boundary between English and Scottish waters ran due east from Berwick to a median line between the UK and Norway. But a new ''demarcated'' limit has been created 60 miles further north at Carnoustie. The new boundary has been drawn up under international maritime regulations to identify a zone within British fishery limits for which Scottish ministers will be responsible in the future. The boundary shift was established by an order carried out at Westminster under the Scottish Adjacent Boundaries Order (1999).

The order was passed by the House of Lords and the Committee on Delegated Legislation on March 23, but was not openly debated in the Commons.

It was moved by McLeish - then a Scottish Office minister and now a senior member of the Scottish Cabinet - and reportedly received minimal opposition from a committee containing three other Scottish MPs - Tam Dalyell, Sir Robert Smith and John McAllion.

A Scottish Office spokesman said the change in the fishing boundary - which did not come to light until early last week - was necessary as a result of Scottish devolution. However, the spokesman could not explain the constitutional logic of the boundary alteration.

The spokesman said the area, which now comes under English limits, would be policed by Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food protection vessels rather than the Scottish Fishery Protection Agency.

Hamish Morrison, the Scottish Fishermen's Federation chief executive, said that although the boundaries became law a month ago, the federation had not been informed about the decision and there had been no effort made by the government to consult with the organisation on the matter.

A Scottish Office spokesman last night defended the controversial boundary changes, claiming that ''full and proper parliamentary procedures were followed''.


Herald Article : A catalogue of Scotland's national grievances

Pub Date  Tue 14-Jun-2005
Supp/Series  Features
Type  Correspondence
Pub  The Herald
Edition  Final
Page  15
Word Count  613
back 

WHEN will the people of Scotland wake up to the fact that for the past couple of centuries Scotland has been, and is being, demeaned and vandalised at the hands of our nearest neighbour?

Currently, we are likely to become a massive windfarm, although recently Sir Donald Miller, former chairman of Scottish Power, made a scathing public attack on the creation of windfarms, likening them to subsidy farming that would cost the customer up to four times that of other types of bulk power.

The costs of providing stand-by backup to cope with sudden reductions in output would be passed to the consumer, not the windfarm developer, and where will the power go? Small local and domestic turbines are attractive;

mass development is not.

Now, for nuclear dumping, Scotland has six of the 12 sites most likely to be favoured for long-term use, despite the population balance of one to 10 and without Holyrood input.

In 1999, Scotland's marine boundary was shifted for some unexplained reason from Berwick to Carnoustie, about 6000 square miles of the North Sea becoming English. We are also the location of choice for the UK's nuclear defence capabilities. On June 11 you report that a fisherman has been fined in England for fishing in Scotland.

Scotland will lose about pounds -20m from lottery awards if the London Olympic bid is successful and a special lottery fund is dedicated to that. 

Scotland alone is supposed to pay for the building of the Holyrood parliament, despite the fact that over the years Scots have contributed their share of the building of Westminster, London government buildings and whatever else Westminster chose to build in the pampered south-east. We no doubt had a share in the creation and maintenance of the ridiculous and extravagant Dome [pictured].

We are all used to the fact that Britain, the United Kingdom and England are all synonymous. The Barnett formula, supposed by the English to give Scotland unfair fiscal advantage, though disputed, is under threat and our partner in a so called "union of equality" has devoured our rightful inheritance of oil revenues.

When one wishes to subscribe to a site on the internet and has to insert one's address including country of residence one is faced with a list of 238 countries, some unheard of, tiny and remote, and no mention of Scotland.

It matters not a jot whether one's personal political standpoint is hard right or hard left or anywhere in the middle - achieve independence, repatriate our Scottish senior politicians from Westminster to Holyrood and let us for once have our country to ourselves and be in charge of our own affairs. This would also allow the English to have their very own parliament, which Westminster more or less already is, without the need to trouble themselves with us, and it would also avoid the West Lothian question.

The SNP should gain massive popular support to achieve independence and then we can all split up into the usual political divisions in Holyrood. Independent, we can stand on the right or left of the political spectrum in normal, untrammelled political debate about Scotland and her future in the wider world.

I apologise for this undiluted whinge and have no wish to be categorised as a sad complainer. When these items are seen in isolation they are ignored, but if they can be catalogued a little, and I have missed out many in writing this, it may bring people to realise just what is going on. It takes scant account of 300 years of history, which could provide many, many further instances just as shocking as the above.

Nigel Dewar Gibb


Westminster English/Scottish political establishment is conning Scotland and the Scots 

Pub Date  Wed 30-Jul-2008
Supp/Series  Features
Type  Correspondence
Pub  The Herald
Edition  Final
Page  14
Word Count  753
back

DOUGLAS Fraser reports (July 28) that Andy Kerr MSP, in his introductory speech for the Scottish Labour Party leadership campaign, apparently says that Alex Salmond wants to use fear to "shatter Scots' confidence". He goes on to say: "Mr Salmond wants Scots to believe the English are conning us, stealing from us. He (Mr Salmond) ignores all that unites us as he tries to create division."

The atmosphere in Scotland is palpably more optimistic and less fearful about the future under the SNP government in Holyrood than it has ever been under the control of Westminster or the Lib/Lab coalition at Holyrood and their wasted nine years. As for being conned, it didn't need Alex Salmond to make everyone in Scotland believe that they are being conned. The infamous deceit over North Sea oil, with Scottish and English politicians conspiring to hide the true position from Scotland and top-level cabinet pretence that it would never amount to much, is a good starting point.

Equally shocking is the as yet unexplained and largely secret and unknown move of Scotland's marine boundary from Berwick to Carnoustie, losing Scotland 6000 square miles of the North Sea, proposed by Westminster in 1999 and nodded through by the treacherous Lib/Lab coalition in Holyrood - refusing a debate. The suspicious reasons behind this move, requested under the Freedom of Information Act, have been denied to the SNP government as "it would not be in the public interest". Whose public interest do they refer to? One can only hazard a guess at what that means. Admittedly, it is only the fishing boundary that has been moved so far, but expert legal opinion declared the move illegal on three grounds and it is widely felt that it is "a likely marker for oil and gas" in the future.

The other union, the EU, also comprises many nation states. Can anyone seriously consider, say, the French who currently hold the presidency, proposing to move the Belgian, Spanish, German or any other member state's marine boundary without a revolt?

Taking only these two matters into account, I think it may be fairly said that, even without the illegal Iraq war (that Scotland in general opposed), the Westminster English/Scottish political establishment is undeniably conning Scotland and the Scots. There have been many other instances over the troubled 300 years of the now disintegrating Union.

Interesting that in the same edition of The Herald, a full page is devoted to the success of Gigha and the improvements there after only six years of independence. This, I suggest, is a likely marker for an independent Scotland that is coming in the near future.


Nigel Dewar Gibb

LABOUR'S collapse in by-elections, most recently in Glasgow East, shows what little confidence the British public now have in the party. The roots of this distrust can be traced back to the Iraq war, when it took catastrophic decisions against the public will, and then became mired in a morass of lies, misinformation and skulduggery. That was when Labour truly lost its moral authority.

Its social-democratic standing has been further devalued by obsequious deferral to big business, utter failure to bring forward a coherent energy policy, contradictory behaviour over the environment and global warming, plans for new nuclear submarines and excessive use of PPP financing.

Tony Blair, the consummate political tap-dancer, was able to finesse these failures with the public through one more election, as long as other things in the economy went well. However, Gordon Brown now has to contend with an inhospitable economic climate, without a stock of public trust to draw on. Easy meat, even for an SNP which offers no more than rhetoric, an assorted jumble of opportunistic policies and a growing track record of broken promises.

Socialism is nothing if not a moral crusade. Taking us into Iraq was an unethical act of betrayal which will not be forgotten or forgiven by the electorate until the perpetrators (including Mr Brown and Jack Straw) have left the leadership and Labour's moral credibility is repaired. It is now time for Labour, in Scotland and UK-wide, to go off quietly into the wilderness and rediscover its soul and its purpose.


Comment - David Henderson

GORDON Brown claims he can "feel our pain" during this period of financial hardship. Anybody who can put the cost of the TV licence for his second home on his expenses has not the foggiest idea what he is taking about.

Comment - Maggie Jamieson


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Blog and tell the World of this, an example of the lengths that the, feckless and treacherous Liberal / Labour arm of Westminster based in Holyrood are prepared to go to get their hands on other peoples oil.

In 1999 England made 6,000 miles of Scotland's Sea, English !
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