Kavi Ugl Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 Did anybody else hear Josie Simpson on radio Shetland tonight?. It was refreshing to hear a councillor come out with some straight talking. Incase you didn't hear it, he made it known that he was against the Scottish Parliament when it was created and still is. He was saying that more and more of the local control that Shetland had, in particular under the Zetland County Council act, is being eroded with an increasing amount of decisions being made in Edinburgh which pre-Scottish Parliament would have been taken in Shetland, notably in relation to sea work licenses etc. In other words, all the power and decision making is being syphened to the Central Belt of Scotland. If it meant that we'd be left in a position where we'd have to take on the responsibility for, and make our own decisions on, most of what's done in Edinburgh would you vote Shetland out of the Scottish Parliament?. My vote is a resounding yes. Edit: I tried to set up a poll but it hasn't worked for some reason so maybe one of the Mods could add it if possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SJP17 Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 Given that what we control here locally at the moment is for want of a better word a disaster ! Can we really be let slip we more power ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavi Ugl Posted March 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 Hmm, yes the present situation may have it's problems but can you imagine how much worse it would be if the Labour dominated central belt had total control of everything in Shetland(which they're slowly getting) including the oil funds(which they've wanted for years)?. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostrider Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 I was never for the Scottish Parliament, and still aren't. Westminster maybe had never been very good to us, but they'd never been all that ill to us either. Ruling Scots were a whole different story, and their present day incarnation is no better than they were 500 years ago. Greedy, glabbin, controllin teives noo as den. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exciseman Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 I was never for the Scottish Parliament, and still aren't. Westminster maybe had never been very good to us, but they'd never been all that ill to us either. Ruling Scots were a whole different story, and their present day incarnation is no better than they were 500 years ago. Greedy, glabbin, controllin teives noo as den. I'm no fan of the Scottish Parliment and the ugliest public building in the known universe, however, would Westmister have given us the Northlink subsidy, the discounted air travel, free university education, free prescriptions, free personal care for the elderly? – none of which is available in England. Or as someone said in Life of Brian "what did the Romans ever do for us?" Simpson was talking nosense and getting his 'facts' mixed up as usual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavi Ugl Posted March 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 .....I did notice that he twice refered to "Aberdeen" instead of Edinburgh but maybe that was just a "slip of the mind/tongue". Whatever happened to the "bonfire of the quangos"?. Scottish Water is a disaster, the environmental agencies have more power than Stalin and the Scottish Parliament isn't even able to set one fish box worth of fish quota. Meanwhile. the Scottish Fisheries vessels stoor around hasseling all and sundry. As for the North Boats, look at the mess they've made of that..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhutch Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 When i heard there was going to be devolution i thought Shetland may kiss its ers goodbye. I totally admire the way Stuart Hill has brought back to light what we were told as bairns. Even though the place is saturated with people who have been taught the contrary the fact remains both parties were not in consent to Shetland becoming scottish. Devolution in the style Faroe got is not only right morally but right historically Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joenorth Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 would Westmister have given us the Northlink subsidy, the discounted air travel, free university education, free prescriptions, free personal care for the elderly? – none of which is available in England. Or as someone said in Life of Brian "what did the Romans ever do for us?" Spot on. On balance, the fact is we're pretty well off with Holyrood. BigMouth 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Para Handy Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 The Scottish Parliament is just a waste of more money, god knows there were to many MPs in the London Parliament. But now even more MPs and the bureaucrats to follow them all on high paid jobs for duplicating the work. And then tell everyone else to tighten there belts, but make up there pay from expenses. Lets put the disabled to work do away with pensioners. Let them all work until they drop dead. But imagine just how evenmore bad it would be with our councillors running the country Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 Spot on. On balance, the fact is we're pretty well off with Holyrood just how the hell do you figure that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Njugle Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 I think I've trotted this out before in these threads somewhere, but it is worth recalling the story of how close Shetland came to splitting with Scotland in the mid-seventies. The possibility of Scottish independence was looming and, cutting a long story short, lobbying in Westminster generated enough support for Shetland to remain under Westminster rule, with the high degree of autonomy it enjoyed at that time, rather than side with Holyrood. It was a "done deal", but some frantic counter lobbying persuaded Edward Thomason to renege on the idea, and then the referendum was quashed anyway. But, for a tantalising moment the situation of Shetland regaining some historical autonomy was sanctioned in Westminster and could have happened. Not under the dowry idea either, but simple modern politics. If the public wanted it and our representatives took up the cause, the same could be done again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostrider Posted March 24, 2011 Report Share Posted March 24, 2011 I was never for the Scottish Parliament, and still aren't. Westminster maybe had never been very good to us, but they'd never been all that ill to us either. Ruling Scots were a whole different story, and their present day incarnation is no better than they were 500 years ago. Greedy, glabbin, controllin teives noo as den. I'm no fan of the Scottish Parliment and the ugliest public building in the known universe, however, would Westmister have given us the Northlink subsidy, the discounted air travel, free university education, free prescriptions, free personal care for the elderly? – none of which is available in England. Or as someone said in Life of Brian "what did the Romans ever do for us?" Simpson was talking nosense and getting his 'facts' mixed up as usual. Maybe my memory is getting misty, but I seem to think there was some subsidisation in place for the North Boat, long before any Scottish Parliament was a twinkle in the eye of a few central belt Scots. To what extent it was applicable I cannot remember, but the principle and precedent was established. Who can say what could have been done with gaining further increases and coverage. Its rather academic anyway, as the present so called subsidy is not entirely what its sold as. If we leave out the the fronting that's afoot in the whole thing, the Scottish Government created North Boat contract tender documents containing specs that effectively made it bad news for any commercial company to seriously consider submitting a bid. This then gave them a free hand to award it to themselves, at any price they thought fit, which made it easy for them to price the contract high enough lower rate of fares could be applied to certain classes of ticket sales without pushing the bottom line in to the red, and the price differential they could then call a "subsidy", which earned them some nice political brownie points. Without any meaningful commercial competition they could play with the numbers any way they liked, and practice "creative accounting" to their heart's content. Rearranging the deckchairs at its very best. The air discount....Hmmm, seems to me they're doing their damndest to be what was used to be called a "Pirly Pen"...."gae a gift, dan tuik hit igyen". Wasn't it pulled for business customers not long ago, who's next to have the rug pulled from under them?? Lets face it, it was a nice vote winner for Tavish at the last election, the other mob have been in charge for the this session, they see it on the balance sheet, and its not really providing them with a sufficient return in political capital. We've been warned how the wind is blowing by having it pared back for some, if the same mob get back in in May, don't be surprised it it takes another hit. University Fees, Prescription Charges and free personal care for the elderly, I'll refrain from commenting on as I have no working knowledge of any of them. On the flip side though, how much have we lost on account of the Scottish Parliament, the most obvious and first that comes to mind is being twice knocked back for money to build council houses and Hjaltland having their finance effectively decimated. Its all very well concentrating on things like air discounts and prescription charges, and while they do make a massive difference on an individual level to those who benefit from them, its crumbs from the big table to keep the plebs quiet, if when it come to Capital project finance or the Rate Support Grant, or whatever its called now, that we either get short changed or knocked back entirely. Air Discounts and Prescription charges amount to petty cash compared to that, how many bottles of asprin or the discount on a trip to Aberdeen does it take to build a hoose? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joenorth Posted March 24, 2011 Report Share Posted March 24, 2011 Spot on. On balance, the fact is we're pretty well off with Holyrood just how the hell do you figure that Wasn't it clear, Bob? 'How the hell I figured that' is because I agree with the (quoted) comments made by exciseman. If you have a son or daughter at Uni. or a parent in a local care home, you might too, just like many of us should. Scottish Government policies such as free personal care for people over 65 years old make a real and very tangible difference to people's lives, most especially when you consider how fast this section of the population is ageing. That's one way of figuring it... Spinner72 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arfski Posted April 30, 2024 Report Share Posted April 30, 2024 (edited) 7 hours ago, Clarar said: Stuart Hill's efforts to revive Shetland's historical autonomy amidst devolution discussions are commendable. It's a reminder of the significance of consent in territorial changes. While conflicting narratives exist, acknowledging Shetland's unique historical context and advocating for a devolution model akin to the Faroe Islands is not only morally sound but also respects historical rights and identities.PM KISAN Oh nice try with the colour change to hide the spam URL at the end of your bot post! And I can see from your post history that this is not your first rodeo either, A+ good effort. Edited April 30, 2024 by Arfski Remove psam link in quote. George. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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