Nobody puts Shetland in a box, for some stupid reason

Filed under U for "Uh-huh..."

Mr Scott wants a "Shetland mapping requirement" put down in law. This would require public authorities to display the islands "in a manner that accurately and proportionately represents their geographical location in relation to the rest of Scotland" whenever they publish a map of the country. Basically, it would bar public bodies from putting Shetland in a box - or publish their reasons for why they feel they have to.

SNP backbencher John Mason - no stranger to cartographic controversy, given his previous insistence that Skye is not an island - said he was "enthusiastic" about the idea of banning boxes. This was echoed by SNP member Richard Lyle - via a brief diversion around his annoyance at the shape of the BBC weather map - and Scottish Conservative MSP Jamie Greene agreed that "nobody puts Shetland in a box".

However, fellow Tory Peter Chapman said he had consulted map specialists who thought it would be "inappropriate" to bar mapmakers from using boxes. He said this would reduce the scale of maps of the whole of Scotland by 40% - a "loss of detail" for much of the mainland just to add in "a whole chunk of sea".

Mr Scott has attempted to get his mapping rule onto the statute book via an amendment to the Islands (Scotland) Bill. Humza Yousaf, the Scottish government's minister for the islands, has accepted that this is a "really serious issue".

NO IT ISN'T !!!!

He told MSPs he was happy to write to public bodies encouraging them to avoid "incorrect, inaccurate depiction" - but warned that the wording of Mr Scott's proposed rule was too broad, potentially rendering it unenforceable.

Either that and max it out and ban all non-Cartesian coordinate systems from all plots of any kind in any context whatsoever. That'll teach 'em.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-43574298