St. Kilda - under threat from oil exploration
This afternoon's session in Court was cut short because the
Government's QC, Eleanor Sharpstone, wanted more time to prepare her
arguments on the fact that Greenpeace should have brought their case a
number of years earlier. But what they did do was make it clear that
these technical arguments were their main contention and they started to
list various dates they thought Greenpeace should have brought the case
over the last few years.
And also this afternoon there was a discussion about the other
regulations which the Government has in place in the Atlantic Frontier.
In the Government's submission it seemed to me that they put these
arguments forward to suggest that what they were doing - the regulations
they had in place - were equal to what they are required to do under
the Habitats Directive. But this afternoon it became clear that those
regulations they had were not sufficient and the Government conceded
that they didn't actually have a bearing on the current case.
