Scots fishing challenge: Is this threat over Rockall very fishy?

The 17.15m-high lump of granite — Rockall — and the fish-rich North Atlantic waters around it, are the cause of trouble yet again. Rockall disputes have been breaking out intermittently for decades, normally between Dublin and London, but sometimes also involving Iceland and Denmark. The latest outbreak of claim and counter-claim about fishing rights is unusual in that the complaint about Irish boats fishing in a 19km zone around Rockall has come not from the UK government but from Edinburgh in the name of Scotland’s semi- autonomous government, which has gone to so far as to threatens “enforcement action” if it continues. Is Scotland’s government really prepared to send its fleet of three fisheries enforcement ships — one of which is small and normally confined to inshore tasks — to arrest Irish boats?

This interruption in international Celtic comradery could be the result of either very fishy business, or the Scottish National Party (SNP) government pushing its luck to make a point yet to become clear.