admin Posted December 30, 2005 Report Share Posted December 30, 2005 Since the announcement of RAF Saxavord's closure, the future of Unst has been thrown into uncertainty. Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem MP for Orkney and Shetland, expressed anxiety over the loss of 100 salaries from the remotest and one of the most economically fragile communities in the country Should Unst residents have been given more warning of the RAF pullout? How can Unst best face the loss of its main employer? A tunnel to Yell? Council investment into diversifying it's economy? What do you think? Links to some articles on the subjectClosure of RAF Sava Vord a 'devestating blow' from AlistairCarmichael.org.ukFerry fares scrapped as RAF base closes from Scotsman.comScrap sale of camp say Unst folk from Shetland Today330 jobs set to be axed at defence bases in Scotland from Scotsman.comRemoval of the Radar Base at RAF Saxa Vord. Preliminary impact analysis from Shetland NewsIsland looks to hydrogen to solve job woes from Guardian Unlimited Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Njugle Posted January 9, 2006 Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 Though i 100% sympathise wit the RAF dependant inhabitants of Unst it may be worthy of speculation that the government can comfortably turn around and say "we do not owe you a living". Certainly in a 'new labour' context anyway. The other fact is that given it's beauty, birdlife, geology, cleanliness and generally outstanding 'feel-good' factor as well as it's geography in a national context, Unst may well have a painful and bleak transitional phase, but it does have an awful lot going for it if properly exploited and marketed. A tunnel to Yell would be a major and relatively inexpensive stop-gap economic measure. Especially if Europe can be persuaded to pay for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 "Welcome to Fabulous Iles de Unst" Once the RAF leave Unst, there will be the well publicised loss of money, jobs and people. Well I think the way forward is to turn Unst into the UK's very own version of Las Vegas. Build casino-hotels all the way along the road from the ferry terminal to Haroldswick. In keeping with Las Vegas, the hotels will have themes relating to different places. Suggestions include Sydney, Paris, Rome and Ronas HIll. These hotel complexes willl be huge with swimming pools, theme parks and a whole load of other rubbish. As a number of the Vegas hotels have animal sanctuaries (Lions, Hammerhead Sharks etc...) at least 2 of the hotels will include this in their gimmick. One will have a working farm with all the usual farm animals, and the local Salmon farming industry will recieve a boost with their real live Salmon Farm in the "I LOVE the Fish" Hotel-Casino complex. To match the Las Vegas "shwo atmosphere" a number of locally produced shows will be playing in the various hotels when the resort opens. One such show will be the "Really Blue Man Group" where 3 locals will stand outside in the dead of winter wearing nothing but a pair of pants whilst cursing repeatedly. Another show that will play outside the "Lerwick Harbour" complex will be named "Bridge over Troubled Water". The show will go along the format of the local Harbours bosses going about their daily business of dredging the harbour when the dastardly local authority bosses appear with a massive bridge and look set to blast the harbour bosses out of the water, but in a surprise twist at the end they will coming riding back in on a big oil rig leading to lots of arguements and petty name calling. This show will echo real life in the end, it will get drawn out to the point that no one really cares anymore. Of course, where would any copy of Las Vegas be without the magic shows. One such magic show that is being proposed for Viking themed Casino-Hotel - "Oh Galley Gosh" - is named "Sweep it Under the Rug". The star attraction of "Sweep it Under the Rug" will be when a pre-selected pre-vetted member of the audience will be invited up onto to stage. When onstage they will be asked to commit a crime that would usually be considered a jailable offence, the audience will gasp in amazement as the crime is completely forgotten and the offender is raised to a position of high esteem. A truely mind-blowing event let me assure you. If you were asked to name the first celebrity that comes to mind when Las Vegas is mentioned then 99 out of 100 would say Elvis Presely. And with this means there are a large number of Elvis impersonators in Vegas. Although not banned, Elvis impersonators will be strongly discouraged from appearing in the Unst Resort. Instead our impersonators will be based on those famous local faces: Peerie Willie Johnson, Aly Bain, Tavish Scott and Sandy Cluness. I hear some of you saying that transport will be a problem. Well have no fear! Las Vegas has the world famous "Las Vegas Monorail", well Unst will have the soon to be world famous "Jeemie and his tractor". Visitors will be transported up and down Unst in the comfort of a trailor pulled by local man Jeemie in his tractor, rumour has it that the tractor is a brand new John Deere and the smell of cow dung isn't that strong. After an extensive review of the ferries to Unst, we have decided that an International Airport accomodating budget airlines will be built on the site of the airstrip at Baltasound. Should the airport fail to attract the budget airlines necessary to sustain the Unst Resort economy a local budget airline will be set up to service the airport. In all likely hood this new airline will have lots of money thrown at it and some sort of Trust will be formed. The local compnay will be called "AffyEasyjet". We feel that this proposal for Unst is the most viable. Many of the local people will be encouraged to work in the Casino-Hotels. Those who don't wish to work in these establishments will easily find work in the various industries that come along with a resort such as this....Strip Clubs, Street Crime and Souvenier shops. This truely is an exciting proposal for Unst, which in turn will be given the more cosmopolitan name - Iles de Unst to go with its new look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muppet Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 You are obviously a person of considerable energy Luigi, to have written that oddesey!Keep them coming! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Njugle Posted January 11, 2006 Report Share Posted January 11, 2006 Luigi, you read my mind! BUT, ha,ha,ha! I have already lodged the business plan with Shrekland Enterprise, so all that euro investment AND casino taking will be mine, mine! ALL MINE! mwohahaha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peeriebryan Posted January 11, 2006 Report Share Posted January 11, 2006 Maybe the Unst salmon farms can rebrand as 'salmon sanctuaries' for the sake of the nature tourists. Punters could sponsor their own salmon and get news/updates as to how they're doing. There's probably more money in that than selling the disease ridden sea lice hosts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 14, 2006 Report Share Posted January 14, 2006 Though i 100% sympathise wit the RAF dependant inhabitants of Unst it may be worthy of speculation that the government can comfortably turn around and say "we do not owe you a living". Certainly in a 'new labour' context anyway. The other fact is that given it's beauty, birdlife, geology, cleanliness and generally outstanding 'feel-good' factor as well as it's geography in a national context, Unst may well have a painful and bleak transitional phase, but it does have an awful lot going for it if properly exploited and marketed. A tunnel to Yell would be a major and relatively inexpensive stop-gap economic measure. Especially if Europe can be persuaded to pay for it. what's happening with the Unst tunnel? Unst's future is very much ties to Shetlands and thus to how well we value the feel good stuff mentioned here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowe Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Build a tunnel from Unst to Yell and one from Yell to Mainland. Then build some shops/hotel/cinema/pubs etc on Unst and create loads of jobs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Njugle Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 the disease ridden sea lice hosts To be fair, the Unst guys were the first to gain fully organic status, and you can really tell the difference. Especially after Dave Parham has worked his magic with it. (You owe me for that one dave ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Now it seems to me that using former RAF houses to house (genuine) asylum seekers would stop locals fearing the RAF houses would be sold off cheap and therefore downvalue their own houses, would keep enough bairns in the school to keep teacher levels up to what they are now and would keep the local shops going. All that would have to be for the general good of Unst....yes?. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McFly Posted January 30, 2006 Report Share Posted January 30, 2006 The future for Unst will be one of the options in this article. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trout Posted January 30, 2006 Report Share Posted January 30, 2006 The future for Unst will be one of the options in this article. Not sure where you're going with your train of thought? Is there even a station to pull into? Are you saying that, paraphrasing from the article, that Unst "has become an unimaginably vast, cold, dark and profoundly lonely place", or are you trying to suggest that they build an Observatory in Unst? The latter would be a waste of monies due to Unsts' relatively low height relative to sea level, and that Shetland for .1% of the year is covered in large fluffy clouds ... and not so fluffy, angry dark menacing clouds the other 99.99% of the time! I have to admit I didn't read the whole article, so may be way off the mark here. I am willing to be corrected! Violently with large sticks if need be! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McFly Posted January 30, 2006 Report Share Posted January 30, 2006 Are you saying that, paraphrasing from the article, that Unst "has become an unimaginably vast, cold, dark and profoundly lonely place" Christ no! I wasn't being that clever. It just occurred to me that Unst will probably share the same fate as the rest of the universe. I realise this doesn't help much with the current economic crisis but it's an interesting article anyway. There was a better one in New Scientist last year but I couldn't find that one. Sorry for the random, off topic link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trout Posted January 30, 2006 Report Share Posted January 30, 2006 Crikey, I just sat and read through that article. I'm going to go and rest now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McFly Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 I found the New Scientist article on their website but you have to subscribe to read it. Damn capitalists! Probably worth it though, it is a good magazine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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