Independence for Shetland!

[digitaldodo]

"Yeah as I'm alwis said niver trust a scoty"

 

Sheepshagger crawl back under your steen. I'm half a "Scotty" and I wouldna let you lick the S***e aff o my shoen.

 

However, not to get too off topic. Would anyone seriously like to give the present councillors any more power than they already have?

 

They are certainly incompetent and if not provably corrupt, very lackadaisical about the rules governing public life.

 

I don't know if there is a big enough pool of talented and visionary individuals in Shetland to form a successful government, - you're struggling to get descent representation at the Scottish parliament (check some of the New Labour central belt reps) and some of our cooncillors make the SP duds look like burning wizards in comparison.

 

As for the folks who learned the Ladybird book version of Shetland history "if we could ging back ta Norrawa again somehoo it wid aa be better" brigade I witnessed a rather instructive tableau in the lounge t'other night - a bunch of Norwegians banging on about "you Brits this, you brits that" tarring Shetlanders wi the sam brush that we normally reserve for the "arrogant and superior" SE of England - they wir surely totally unaware of the "special relationship" that's supposed to exist between Shetland and Norway,

 

Odd eh? But maybe like Britian's special relationship wi the USA, it's just a one-way thing.

[sheepshagger]

Funny thing that I am in Norway just now and most if not all the folks I'm working with have a fondness for Shetland. They are very grateful for the Shetland bus and a hell of a lot of them have visited Shetland to find out more about the place. Some are as I write this making plans to come over next summer.

 

Now to your point about a lack of talented individuals I know a lot of very talented Shetlanders who left Shetland to go overseas and I don't mean to the UK, the reason given that there was too few opportunities for them to use their talents in Shetland as long as it was ruled by the UK, I am sure a great many of these folk would return if the right circumstances were presented.

Just look at New Zealand their prime minister is from Shetland I cant say I agree with everything she stands for but I certainly admire her ability.

 

the ladybird version of history as opposed to the twisted sprootle fed to us by the UK.

 

methinks your views may be coloured by your genes

 

the vote stands at 28% for the status Quo, almost enough to win a scotish election

[EnglishinScotland]

Odd eh? But maybe like Britian's special relationship wi the USA, it's just a one-way thing.

 

I don't know about that. I think a fair amount of folks in the US have respect and fondness for Brits.

[digitaldodo]

Sheepshagger - Mass exodus of talent fae Shetland because of being part of UK, this I have never heard of, what planet is du on?

 

There's plenty o talented folk here but for some reason, they are not interested in being on the political stage, or maybe they're then "past it" by the time they decide to graduate to the council. My argument stands that you would not want to give the present lot ony mair power than they have already.

 

As for "views coloured by genes" - I didn't know your views were pre-programnmed by yr genetic coding. what are you? a racist? (don't answer). Na, my views are coloured by observation.

 

As far as twisted sprootle goes - there's plenty o it from the UK but just as much emanating from your keyboard.

 

I like Norway as a country and hae friends there, but stop well short of the knee-jerk, slavering, creepy adulation that some Shetlanders express. Of course a lot of Norwegians have a fondness for Shetland, the Shetland Bus etc. but I've also frequently heard Norwegians speak of Shetland as just another part of the UK/Scotland with no apparent knowledge of Shetland's Scandinavian past.

[digitaldodo]

I think a fair amount of folks in the US have respect and fondness for Brits.

 

I'd agree wi that, but politically speaking its a "you say jump and I'll say how high" relationship. It does not reciprocate.

[Dagfinn]

Sheepshagger - Mass exodus of talent fae Shetland because of being part of UK, this I have never heard of, what planet is du on?

That´s a common problem for all small island communities, educated people don´t come back after graduating, because professional career opportunities are very limited; this is also the fact in Faroe.

However, whenever the local faroese government has taken over fields of responsibility from danish institutions, in accordance with the home-rule agreement, more educated faroe islanders living in Denmark, have moved back to Faroe, to man the newly established faroese institutions, because they now can get a professional career at home.

 

I´m not supportive of faroese independence (we have no oil ), but the home-rule or crown-dependency status, gives us a good chance to take care of our own local affairs. You can also call it "local democracy" or "participatory democracy".

[digitaldodo]

"However, whenever the local faroese government has taken over fields of responsibility from danish institutions, in accordance with the home-rule agreement, more educated faroe islanders living in Denmark, have moved back to Faroe, to man the newly established faroese institutions, because they now can get a professional career at home."

 

I can see the sense and logic in that though it differs in principal from migration because of the economic conditions, unless you mean the specific economic conditions of an admin job being created that wasn't there before.

 

In your view, could Faroe be prosperous without support from Denmark? given that the Faroe fishing industry is (I believe) relatively more important than Shetland's.?

[sheepshagger]

seems I'm on the same planet as an impartial observer.

I wouldn't of taken offence with some Norwegians slagging of brits but with your scottish ancestry you did digitaldildo.

you find it strange that some Norwegians know nothing of Shetlands history but how many scots have any idea at all of Shetlands history.

I remember a lecturer at college telling me that I should speak gaelic and refusing to accept that it was not spoken in Shetland, he took offence that I refused to acknowledge my "celtic/gaelic heritage" a bit like you are now.

[Freyr]

I remember a lecturer at college telling me that I should speak gaelic and refusing to accept that it was not spoken in Shetland, he took offence that I refused to acknowledge my "celtic/gaelic heritage" a bit like you are now.

 

It is my impression that there is at present a "nation building" process going on in Scotland. An emphasis on internal consolidation, scottishness and so on. It is also my impression that it centers first and foremost on celticism and norse heritage might be seen as inconvenient in this process.

[digitaldodo]

"I wouldn't of taken offence with some Norwegians slagging of brits but with your scottish ancestry you did digitaldildo. "

 

I didn't take offense, but i did think it funny in the way you do when you hear someboady talking out the hole of their e**e, and just in case you missed the point they were lumping Shetland in as "Brits."

 

"I remember a lecturer at college telling me that I should speak gaelic and refusing to accept that it was not spoken in Shetland, he took offence that I refused to acknowledge my "celtic/gaelic heritage" a bit like you are now."

 

I couldn't gie a toss what you think about that, but I certainly did take offence at your Scoty remark. Incidentally, if you don't hae a drop o "Scoty" blood in your veins your the only man in Shetland that doesn't. But you seem mair like a trow right enough.

[digitaldodo]

"It is my impression that there is at present a "nation building" process going on in Scotland. An emphasis on internal consolidation, scottishness and so on. It is also my impression that it centers first and foremost on celticism and norse heritage might be seen as inconvenient in this process."

 

Na the Nats are being careful to be all-embracing and broaden the definition of Scottish away from tartan, bagpipes and Mc surnames - and quite right too. It is certainly not a "nationalist" movement centered around Celticism and I cannot understand where you'd have got that impression.

[sheepshagger]

I was present at a meeting of the SNP in Pitlochry this was at a time that they had persuaded the Shetland Movement they would support our moves for independence. His Scottish majesty Alex Salmond when questioned about this and its effect on Scottish fishermen and oil was not fazed in the slightest as the waters around Orkney and Shetland would still belong to Scotland we would have 6 mile limit. Not what he told the Shetland Movement.

The phrase "niver trust a scoty" was one I heard all the time when at the fishing, and after hearing that little #**# I understood the sentiment completely

 

I couldn't gie a toss what you think about that, but I certainly did take offence at your Scoty remark. Incidentally, if you don't hae a drop o "Scoty" blood in your veins your the only man in Shetland that doesn't. But you seem mair like a trow right enough.

 

like many of your ilk you couldn't give a toss about anyone you disagree with so why should anyone give a toss about your opinion

 

and as for the nats being careful to be all embracing, that'll be to get those among us who don't fit with the tartan image to vote for them, as has been discussed on other topics here they are very good at "spicken oot da hol o dir muckle sphincter", remember afore da election dae wir a for da St Ninnians Isle treasure being returned to Shetland after dae wan da election dae coodna gie a toss

lik I said niver trust a scoty

[derick]

Wha cares aboot twartree owld pots!

 

Language lesson:

 

"Da Loch a Vatster"

da wan-dimensional Noggin da Nog Norse Racial Purity Fascist reads dat 'purely' as a norse neem - 'Vatnsaetr' Farm on the hill, by the lake

 

He she or it doesna see ony o da followin

'Da' - Shaetlan dialect o Scots

'Loch' - Scots neem derived fae Gaelic

da structure oda neem Loch a Vatster ie A of B - which is a celtic syntax

common ta baith Brythonic (Welsh, Cornish, Pictish) e.g Pont y Senny - Brig of the (river) Senny and Goidelic (Irish, Scots Gaelic) e.g Sgur an Lochain Uaine - peak of the green loch

Hence Loch a Vatster eydir contains a pre-norse structure fae Pictish, or a post norse Scots structure derived fae Gaelic. Eydir wey, it's no 'pure' norse thank God.

and so on and so forth fur ivry 'loch', ivry 'burn' an ivry 'A of B' structured place neem in Shaetlan. It's a lok mair interestin as da racial purity loonies wid hae you believe.

 

I bide in central Scotland - Pentland hills Penllan Brythonic 'Mountain of the Church'; Kirkintilloch (Kirk an Tulach) - Church (fae Northumbrian Norse) an 'of the' - Gaelic structure, Tulach 'small hill' Macaronic, fascinating, non pure.

 

an WHIT IS dis 'Crown Dependency' land of hope and glory twaddle? Dear God! Da ghosts o Carson an Bonar Law will be laek dugs wi twa tails a dat. bah.

[digitaldodo]

Ya Derick,

 

judging by the complete s***e dis guy has been scattering all ower dis grate sight I kinda get the impression you'd only hae ta remove a scale or twa to reveal a swastika.

 

Tell me this sheepshaper, does this 500 years o abuse mak you mad?

[islandhopper]

It is my impression that there is at present a "nation building" process going on in Scotland. An emphasis on internal consolidation, scottishness and so on. ...

I don't see that at all. What I am afraid of is the danger of a cultural split following f.e. the Gaelic Language Act and the absolutely disproportional funding of Gaelic compared with other things. Could you just ask one question? Why is there a full Gaelic BBC program for a minority of some 1.5% of all Scottish people and just a daily half an hour in Shetlan, Orcadian or other Scots dialects??? ... and that's just the tiop of an iceberg ...

 

Hence Loch a Vatster eydir contains a pre-norse structure fae Pictish, or a post norse Scots structure derived fae Gaelic. ...

Forget of all the Loch-names on OS maps or so. They are all going back to Pont and his accounts or those of his 17th/18th century successors who had neither an idea of Gaelic nor of Scots. They just wrote down what they did understand and that ended up in so funny things as on the western coast of Scotland like "Loch Laxfirth" or "Loch Snizoort" for that what had been "Synforth" for centuries ...

 

In terms of modern place name research: Nothing else but rubbish ... Nevertheless there was an agreement between Ordnance Survey and Historic Scotland by the end of the 1990s or early 2000s to go back to the traditional placenames and spellings but I do know only a few locations where it is applied on the most recent maps ... like Brodgar again instead of Brogar or Aikerness instead of the corruption Gurness on Orkney and a handfull of Shetland inshore waters ...