As reported in these pages, the Scottish Fishermen's Federation has felt the wrath of the First Minister for daring to question certain dark hints (since denied as being such) about how an ex-EU Scotland could make life difficult for foreign fishermen accessing Norwegian waters.

The leader, former military man Bertie Armstrong was even traduced in the chamber of the Scottish Parliament by an SNP MSP as a unionist stooge.

To show there are no hard feelings, the SFF has now published its scrupulously even-handed assessment of the responses to the various fish-related questions, concluding that, while bigger countries do better than small countries in negotiations in Brussels, Scotland's problem has been that UK and Scottish ministers have not combined effectively to head off damaging draft legislation. It also says that, ironically, the best result for Scotland's fishermen would be to withdraw from the Common Fisheries Policy, while acknowledging that this is impossible without withdrawing from the EU (which the SFF does not advocate).