Council arrogance???

[Sudden Stop]

With regard to the proposal to include Shetland in the rainfall/weather radar network, I was bemused to read that some councillors are dismissing the advise they are receiving from ex-met office staff and current forecasters as being 'sour grapes'!

 

Through my job, I know a little about weather reporting and have even spent a little time at the Met Office in Exeter and I see no practical benefit in the extention of the network, for Shetland anyway.

 

What makes the council think it knows better than people who do actually know what they are talking about?

[Carlos]

I think councilors are like most people, they are far happier to accept expert advice if it agrees with their own views, otherwise they tend to look for reasons to ignore it.

[Ghostrider]

What makes the council think it knows better than people who do actually know what they are talking about?

 

Isn't this official council policy, I thought it was? After all, if it isn't why in the name have they been employing top name overpriced consultants to provide "studies" and "reports" on everything from pie in the sky bridges down to probably chewing gum and dog turd on the pavements, then ignoring them and doing what they were going to do before hiring them anyway.

[moorit]

We are the people who elect the Councillors. Why we vote for some of them baffles me. There is at least one who is not taken seriously at any level, yet people vote for them and then moan when they make stupid decisions they don't like.

[humptygrumpty]

Well put that Ghostrider , 100 % behind that comment.

[pernjim]

Indeed. And some of them don't even bother to stand up and answer to their actions - da Flee doesn't seem to think he needs to, saying publicly he won't be wasting any time speaking to Radio Shetland. (I thought it was part of the job description?)

 

Mind you, I did hear that lots of folk pledged money on their Children in Need broadcast if he'd go on Public Platform.. now that WOULD be interesting. What about it, Mr. Duncan??

[moorit]

^

 

I heard that. Children in Need is a night where people make fun of themselves. It beggars belief that we vote for people that we think will make an ass of themselves representing us in public.

[Cavy]

I spent 37 years working for the Met Office, finished up bossing the shift gang that operated the big computers that produced the National Forecasts, and my best pal Colin Fair was responsible for the design of most of the Radar Rainfall Network. I can confirm the idea of "sour grapes" is ludicrous - I know both Alan Gair and PAF very well, and they are are both intelligent and level headed individuals. What they have said is purely commonsense - adding Shetland on to the existing radar network would be mainly cosmetic, and would bring only a very small benefit to Shetland in terms of increased forecast accuracy. If the SIC can manage to persuade someone else to pay for this, then by all means do it, otherwise save the money for something more worthwhile.

[Sudden Stop]

^^^

 

I agree fully.

 

Yes, if the met office or someone on the mainland wants to increase the coverage then fair enough, go for it. There will be few up here opposing it, but lets be sensible - Shetland is not going to see much if any benefit from it, other than to see some pretty pictures of what has already hit us - met office link and certainly not enough to warrant spending the money that the met office currently isn't willing to spend.

 

SIC - don't waste the money. Please listen to those in the know.

[Trønder]

Don't you elect these people?

[Sudden Stop]

Yeah we do, but it's hard to predict that rational people will do silly things after taking office.

[cuckoo]

Well maybe anyone that wants to stand for any public office is in itself irrational by the mere fact they want to stand and try to get voted into a system that is, lets face it, the most UNDEMOCRATIC system on this planet! We really kid ourselves into thinking we live in a democracy. Just take a look around this country now and see what we can say in public without being arrested! Democracy, feedom Ha. It's all gone. There's more freedom in modern Russia now than we ever had. First past the post system like ours should be chucked onto the garbage heap - Oh sorry thats not politically correct now is it! We aren't allowed a garbage heap now.

 

And further more the people who wield the main power in this so called DEMOCRACY of ours, the power behind the throne as it were, that is the civil service both in Whitehall and in every local council system, are not voted in by the people. These power happy mongers influence every aspect of political decision more than the people and yet they are compeltly un accountable directly to the people.

 

So its no wonder that our newly elected councillors don't want to face the public in a radio debate about spending OUR money. It's about time that we the people took control of our purse strings. Every time significant amounts of our money are promised/comitted by councils, or msp's or mp's then we should have a say via a vote. They forget it's our money not theirs.