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I am struck by the lack of perspective. All over the country - all over the western world in fact - we are struggling to maintain the services we have built up to maintain a decent standard for our most vulnerable people. In Shetland we still have enough money to keep decent standards of welfare going, if we spend wisely. All Council departments have made cuts. Most have relatively small budgets compared to education and community care. There is not much more to glean from the other departments. Education and community care are the biggest spenders. The money should go where there is the greatest need. Community care is facing the same cuts as education. They are dealing with the most needy, vulnerable, friendless, lonely, abandoned, ill, senile, poverty-stricken and vulnerable. They need to help people who have a huge need, or to relieve their desperate families. Social work needs to be able to step in and protect the children in danger, the children who have much greater problems than which school they go to. They need to protect also our vulnerable adults, the people who no longer have parents to protect and support them. We are facing a situation already where cuts in care homes and social care could leave dangerous gaps in help for desperately needy adults. In schools, we are looking at a very good education system, being slowly starved of funds, but still very good. We are looking at cuts which could require teenagers to travel longer on a bus each day, or stay in a very good, supportive hostel, and still get a very good education, perhaps a better one. We are looking at children with protective, supportive and responsible parents to look after them, homes to go back to and the health and resilience to help them cope with change and perhaps even benefit from it. We are in very serious danger of keeping schools open due to emotive campaigning, and continuing to strangle our other services, including the ones which make life that little bit better for everyone, for the rest of our lives. And we will all need community care, sooner or later, for ourselves, for our elderly relatives. And so will these children that come after us. Please get a perspective.

A well written letter by Mr Andrews well done , don't know who he is but Sustainable Shetland needs him onboard to fight this flawed proposal. http://www.shetnews.co.uk/letters/7524-time-warp

Wonder why I thought of the SIC when I saw this? NASA Research Announces Discovery of a New ElementThe heaviest element known to science was recently discovered by NASA Research physicists. The element, tentatively named Administratium, has no protons or electrons and thus has an atomic number of zero. However, it does have 1 neutron, 125 assistant neutrons, 75 vice neutrons, and 111 assistant vice neutrons. This gives it an atomic number of 312. These 312 particles are held together by a force that involves the continuous exchange of meson-like particles called morons. Since it has no electrons, Administratium is inert. However, it can be detected chemically as it impedes every reaction that it comes in contact with. According to the discoverers, a minute amount of Adimnistratium caused one reaction to take over four days to complete when it would have normally occured in less than one second. Administratium has a normal half-life of approximately three years, at which time it does not actually decay but instead undergoes a reorganization in which assistant neutrons, vice neutrons, and assistant vice neutrons exchange places. Some studies have shown that the atomic mass actually increases after each reorganization. Research at other laboratories indicates that Administratium occurs naturally in the atmosphere. It tends to concentrate at certain points such as government agencies, large corporations and universities and can usually be found in the newest, best appointed and best maintained buildings. Scientists point out that Administratium is known to be toxic at any detectable level of concentration and can easily destroy any productive reaction where it is allowed to accumulate. Attempts are being made to determine how Administratium can be controlled to prevent irreversible damage, but results to date are not promising.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2470128/Horrific-cost-taking-legal-highs-Mother-releases-shocking-picture-dying-son-20-suffered-heart-attack-smoking-herbal-substance.html I would be interested in how you would forward the debate about drugs by demanding such figures, the debate on drugs are already on two threads, there is also a wealth on information on policies. If folk want to contribute to the Drug Dog Charity, that is their perogitive and has little to do with you, I guess how ever, you are looking for information to put a negative spin on the educational work these charities do. As for charities doing work that Govs should do, charities used to get paid by the Govs to do such work, the funding for this has been severely cut, yet the charities are still obliged to continue.

Hi, Yes it is amazing how many people still use their mobile phone when driving. We have dealt with over 50% more offences for mobile phone use this year (compared with last year). There is a reason for it being against the law to use your mobile when driving - it is a pity some driver's ignore it. Angus

However, if someone considers a phone to be "smart", then they probably aren't from the sapiens branch of the species

First post Really interesting to read all the views and information on the problems effecting the more rural schools of Shetland, for my own family the closing of Aith will effect us alot. Where we live our bairn will have to board in Lerwick, which Im afraid as parents of a young lass at 11yrs old this is not an option for us as a family ( after alot of discussing) If we wanted our bairns to go to boarding school, we would of sent them.. not to be forced into it by the local council and especially not being boarded at some council supplied boarding which will be increasingly filling up with the closures, We had children to bring them up ourselves, not for ' staff members' to supervise them in the week. Our eldest is now away at university as a well balanced , compasionate and intelligent young person. AIth did a fine job with their younger childhood education and so did their upbringing. They are also totally against their younger siblings being taken away from the family all week and is really angered and upset over the possible Aith closure. They wrote a brilliant letter in support, and they could not imagine the travel times local bairns will have to endure from such a young age. 11yrs old is just to young for us as a family for our bairn to be away from home all week, and as for the bairns who would need to travel for those distances everyday I was staggered to believe some people think this as acceptable the poor bairns will be complete zombies. Its just all a complete mess Id also like to add about the viewpoints on the boarding, we have to understand every bairn is different, and some may have possible emotional needs more then the next one. Take for instance a bairn that has gone through care home/foster/adoption etc and now has a settled family home. Do you really think that child now wants to leave all week to go to a council hostel at 11yrs old? Can you even start to imagine how unsettled and devasted that child is feeling at future prospects? You can be isolated living in Lerwick if you do not join in anything, have any hobbies or attend any clubs? We have an active and fun family life, and our bairns do not wish to be stuck in Lerwick all week!!. believe it or not they are Very happy, well balanced and confident dispite being trapped in the confines of a 'stifling' rural setting apparantly rife with bullying with no where for them to run to! There seems to be a sort of picture painted by some posters on here about how terrible it must be for them living in a rural village and how held back and trapped they are?! totally ridiculous !! Every person is different - some may love it some not, just how some children would hate living in larger towns. We have many varied hobbies and attend clubs both in the village, and around the island including Lerwick. My bairns also take great pride helping on the croft, its our way of family life. Their choice, their life, their education... their future - Nobody elses, not even a person on an internet forum or sat in an office who thinks they know other peoples children and family life better then the people involved.

Hi Muppet so glad your back....