KATE Forbes has called on the Scottish Government to ditch its controversial plans to ban fishing in some coastal areas.
In her first column for The National, the SNP leadership runner-up called on her party to “govern for all of Scotland, not just parts of Scotland” and said their plans for Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) severed a key “lifeline” for fishing communities.
The Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP, recently returned to the backbenches, said fishing was key in Highland communities like hers and it must be supported for the general good of the economy.
She highlighted “stark” official statistics which projected the population of Scotland’s rural population to fall “off a cliff”.
Forbes said a true “wellbeing economy” must ensure the interests of rural communities were protected to serve the “collective wellbeing of current and future generations”.
She wrote: “We must govern for all of Scotland, not just parts of Scotland. The SNP must truly be a national party, representing all of our people.
“We must not adopt the failed UK economic model of only firing on one cylinder (in the UK that is London and the South East).
“Instead, we need to create and redistribute wealth across Scotland, so that no area is left behind.
“We have immense resources and great talents in every region of Scotland. We must harness all of that and ensure that everybody has equal opportunities to participate in, and benefit from, the success of the Scottish economy.
“That’s surely what the ‘wellbeing economy’ is all about. The Scottish Government defines it as an economy which serves the collective wellbeing of current and future generations. That must include the young and old of our rural, coastal areas.”
Forbes was opposed to the policy during the SNP leadership race.
Torcuil Crichton, a former Daily Record journalist and Labour candidate for the Western Isles, said he believed Humza Yousaf offered Forbes the rural affairs role in his government because he knew she would turn it down because of her opposition to the policy.
The Scottish Government has committed to place “place strict limits on some human activities, such as fishing, aquaculture and infrastructure construction” on around a tenth of the country’s coastline by 2026 and said the moves would protect marine biodiversity.
You can read Kate Forbes's first regular column for The National here.
