UK: David Cameron sinks Irish-Scottish Rockall fishing deal

Britain’s foreign secretary David Cameron has scuppered an agreement between the Republic and Scotland’s government that would have allowed Irish vessels to fish around Rockall, a disputed islet in the North Atlantic that Britain insists is its sovereign territory. Under the agreement vetoed this week by the Tory government in Westminster, Irish fishing vessels would have been allowed once again to trawl for species including monkfish and haddock within the 12-mile nautical zone the UK claims around the uninhabited islet. Irish vessels were banned from the area after Brexit when Britain left the European Union’s common fisheries policy. The issue has been at the centre of a diplomatic row ever since between the Republic, the UK government and Scotland, where fisheries are a devolved power. In return for a resumption of access for Irish fleets, the State agreed to pay for specific marine research and to share the results with Scotland’s commercial fishing fleet, whose leaders have ...