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Election 2016


Colin
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Looks like I'm the first with this (on here anyway) and, although I am not a LibDem, well done Tavish for roundly defeating the "Old Etonian, Laird of Skene, on his 3rd political party" SNP challenge.

 

Looks like the electorate gave a "thumbs up" to Tavish and, "two fingers up" to the SNP.

 

Now, if Wir Shetland can start to make some inroads with the SIC then, we might get somewhere.....

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Well done to Tavish,Yet another 5 years of winging from the back of the room, god help us!. What good that will do Shetland im not sure. The Labour party is heading of into oblivion it seems and the conservatives are making a comeback. . That does give the parliament a better balance imho. All we need now is Brexit and all will be well.  LOL.

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Labour was really the largest unionist opponent that could have kept Westminsters 308yrs old dream alive, Scotland has gone through a political metamorphosis in recent times & nothing stands in the way of independence for Scotland, a brave new future beckons as imperialism has made it`s last stand ironically in the place of it`s birth. 

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....another 5 years of winging from the back of the room, god help us!. What good that will do Shetland im not sure.

 

Slightly more than someone standing muttering at the front of the room, being steadfastedly ignored by all their colleagues who are far too busy putting the boot in to us non-Celts to even consider anything else.

Edited by Ghostrider
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I think that the dream of the socialistas in the central belt of an independent Scotland in our lifetime is over. With Labours mantle assumed by the SNP people will look to a centralist or right Of centre party to counterbalance. As for Shetland, the penny has dropped that Scotland's imperialism towards us as bad as any other.

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Labour was really the largest unionist opponent that could have kept Westminsters 308yrs old dream alive, Scotland has gone through a political metamorphosis in recent times & nothing stands in the way of independence for Scotland, a brave new future beckons as imperialism has made it`s last stand ironically in the place of it`s birth. 

 

Really? 

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Congratulations to Tavish Scott on his victory, it proves the SNP still have a way to go to win the trust of a large number of my fellow Shetlanders, hopefully they'll learn lessons and use their third term in government to do that.

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Well done to Tavish,Yet another 5 years of winging from the back of the room, god help us!. What good that will do Shetland im not sure. The Labour party is heading of into oblivion it seems and the conservatives are making a comeback. . That does give the parliament a better balance imho. All we need now is Brexit and all will be well.  LOL.

I think that you might be under estimating Tavish's abilities.  After all, he does appear to have more than solid support locally, is well experienced, knows his way around various political obstacles and, despite the "warts" appears to have more "presence" than the "yes man" who was his main opponent.

As for "whingeing from the back of the room"..  I think that you will find that more than a few MSP's would be willing to pay some attention to a man who has the support of so many of his electorate.

 

Maybe it was the "local boy" vs "the laird of skene" effect that gave Tavish what was in effect, a landslide result but, when you take a good look at the other candidates... Nuff said..

Edited by Colin
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^^^ A couple of inaccuracies in his petition,

1)The author of the petition says...

“The Scottish government, in their manifesto for the Shetland Isles, promised to cut the ferry fares for our lifeline service if they won the Shetland seat in the Scottish Parliament Elections in May 2016,”

 

This is factually inaccurate, it was if the SNP were re-elected to government, which they were, not conditional on winning the Shetland seat, here's the quote from Nicola Sturgeon...

 

“A re-elected SNP government will begin work immediately to look at how we can reduce fares for the Northern Isles and provide greater support to businesses and residents in Shetland and Orkney.”

 

 

 

2)The author goes on to say...

“Shetland should not be paying more in lifeline ferry fares than anyone else in Scotland We are a part of Scotland and all we ask is to be offered the same level of service as other island groups.

 

“This petition is designed to show the Scottish government that Shetlanders should have equal parity with the rest of Scotland and is not designed to be a protest campaign against any political party."

 

Also factually innacurate, we would have to pay MORE if we went with the same RET (Road Equivelent Tariff) formula they use in the Western Isles.

 

I had a look at the price per mile on a number of ferry routes around Scotland back in April last year because I also thought our ferry fares were disproportionately high, (As an aside I do think our ferry fares are too high, I just disagree they're disproportionately so.)

Here's the post from back then...

Had a quick fare check not including islander discounts all journeys calculated at peak times, car and passenger....

Aberdeen to Lerwick - 83p per mile

Aberdeen to Kirkwall - £1.09 per mile

Compared these prices to Western isles ferry fares currently under road equivalent tariffs...

Arran - £1.28 per mile

Colonsay - £1.05 per mile

Coll - £1.33 per mile

Gigha - £2.18 per mile

Harris - 88p per mile

Islay - £1.21 per mile

Lewis - £1.08 per mile

North Uist - £1.08 per mile

South Uist - 91p per mile

To give an idea what ferry fares are like without road equivalent tariff Oban to Mull is currently a staggering £4.84 per mile, this route is changing in october this year to road equivalent tariff an will work out at £1.40 per mile

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Seems that the cost per mile is less but, the comparison is misleading because it takes no account of the distances involved and that has a bearing on the overall cost...

 

Arran to where?

Harris to where?

South Uist to where?

 

I suspect that some of the distances are quite short (less than 50 miles etc.) and, with no cabin involved, makes the "hit" considerably less.

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^^^If we used the same RET formula they use in the Western Isles our ferry fares to Aberdeen would rocket because of the distances involved, that's the point.

The petition calls for parity with the Western Isles, if that happened we'd be seriously out of pocket.

As an example Ullapool (mainland Scotland) to Stornoway (isle of Lewis) is 53 miles.

The price for a passenger and car with the Road Equivelelent Tariff (RET) scheme comes to £58.70 at todays prices (source CalMac ferries).

The total per mile price for this journey is £1.10

If you use this price per mile on the 220 miles it is from Aberdeen to Shetland it would come to £243.60 which is £56.60 more than we pay now for a car + passenger. (All peak times without islander discounts)

Edited by Capeesh
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^ Define "parity" though. Mile for mile there's little to argue about, and the RET situation has been known ever since it was first mooted over 40 years ago following the intro of ro-ro. The issue which hasn't been addressed though is "affordability", ie. that services etc only available on the Mainland are "reasonably" available to all island dwellers equally - In other words, we choose to live furthest away from them, so can expect to have to pay more to access them, but is the total price we're currently being asked to pay to do so "reasonable", or not?

 

Being both Socialist and centralist one would have hoped a SNP government would have easily recognised and been open to working towards a resolution of such an issue, but after two terms and mimimal signs of it happening anytime soon, folk's patience is understandably very thin.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm too much of a capitalist to consider passenger fares a "big" issue, as a good part of any reduction would just be wasted on folk doing yet more un-necessary jaunts, I'd be far keener on pushing for freight cost reductions to make trade more competitive. But with that said, I can recognise the "unfairness" of the "social" argument that to get to the Mainland and back consumes a far greater percentage of a Shetlander's disposble income than say a Hebridean's, and is that "right" in what in effect is a Socialist ruled area.

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^^The subsidy Northlink got from the Scottish government to provide the service over 6 years was a staggering £243 MILLION.

If we had to fill that gap through increased fares I couldn't even hazard a guess at what the fares would be.

If not wanting to pay that kind of money makes me a socialist, then I better unfurl the red flag.

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