Leaderboard

Dats dem on da nort boat. Still wan consultation, freight will be cheaper goen south we wan less caravan!

The North Boat was so named after the North of Scotland, Orkney & Shetland Steam Navigation Company, who provided the shipping link to Aberdeen etc before P & O and Northlink.

Naethin tae hinder the Good Shepherd lying at Grutness Pier today :- http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3827/12256124005_e529d7e1b8_c.jpgGrutness Pier IMG_5484 by Ronnierob, on Flickr

And then they can't understand why people don't want them anywhere near......

UKOK is one of the slogans of the better together campaign but irrespective of that is it really true of modern day Britain. Here in Shetland at the beginning of December the issue of fuel poverty on the island was raised as a serious issue by Citizens Advice Scotland and the recent article on Shetnews and food parcel just the tip of the unspoken truth that Britain is no longer as Great as it once was. Politicians may wish to blame the current problems of the "worldwide" banking crash and that we are all in it together. However a little research and problems can be traced back to before that date and comparisons with other countries rule out the banking crash excuse. The UK as we know is the larger producer of oil and gas in the European Market yet in terms of fuel poverty only one country in the European Union has a higher level of fuel poverty and that is Estonia. http://www.itv.com/news/story/2013-10-25/fuel-poverty-energy-david-cameron-government/ Fuel poverty is over 20% for Senior Citizens across the UK one of the causes of this is that the state pension is amongst the lowest in Europe and compared to Germany about 1/3 in value and about half that in France when measured against average earnings. In absolute terms its worse. Over all Britian's pensioners are considered to be the 4th poorest in Europe. Across society austerity has not been shared equally as the rich are increasing their wealth. The top 20% of the UK earners account for 60% of the national wealth and the poorest 20% just 0.6%. The top 1% alone account for 16% of the wealth. http://inequalitybriefing.org/ According to the World Health Organisation the UK has some of the worst rates of child poverty in the world and changes to the welfare system are forecast to make this worse not better. The provision of free or subsidised child care is poor compared to our European neighbours and the lack of this has been argued as a barrier to tackling poverety and a number of other issues in society. In terms of the gender gap/balance inequality in pay is not anticipated to be eradicated until 2067 whilst at present UK is ranked 8th fom bottom in Europe. All these figures put us at the bottom rather than the top were surely as a progressive, modern, enlighten, demecoracy the UK would wish to be. Unfortunately we cannot all be Norway that ranked the best place to be but surely those in charge in the Political Parties and Government are aware of these same facts. Surely our Government for the last 30 years have not seen these problems and just chose to ignore them. They need to admit there is a problem and work on producing real solutions now. I say real solutions as the answer to fuel poverty seems to be lower the threshold of energy consumption as a percentage of earnings and the free market solution for energy is currently not working in the consumers interest. What are the constructive solutions to the poor state of the UK as I would conclude the UK is not OK.

I bloody hope they haven't

In the Sumburgh Roost today on route to Denmark again was the Faroese ro-ro passenger ship Symril, a real beauty, she seems to have swapped rolls with the Norrona for the meantime. :- http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7412/12273451075_ddc05f104e_c.jpgSmyril passing Horse Holm IMG_5618 by Ronnierob, on Flickr

I wondered what was happening at the Rova Head yesterday. I swung out for a look and could see a lot of activity. They've left nothing but a mess though(incl the wreckage of a caravan) which no doubt some other poor soul will have to go and clean up......

Any minute now someone will be along to say there's a fishing boat out there and the ferry should be, too ......

Well said. You would think these folk could only recieve one station on their radios. If you they don't like it, re-tune or switch off. Simples! Radio Shetland has reared many great presenters who have gone on to do well. It's great to hear "weel kent" voices on major radio and television programmes/sports etc. What makes it local and special is the variety of presenters, the fact there are a mixture of local and non local voices. The occasional mistake or fit of the giggles is the best bits about it. The presenters all do a good job sometimes under difficult circumstances. As for Jane, well she's just a star. Some folk really need to get a life and get out from behind their keyboards a bit more often. Wouldn't it be great to stick them behind a mike for a night and see how they get on! They might then appreciate how difficult it can be.

Well said Hjasga. I resisted responding before to this cruel and hurtful thread previously as I am married to Jane. But to start up again on the new boys learning their trade is simply not fair. I am sure we all have moments in our jobs when things don't go to plan or we do make mistakes, but we are not subjected to this nonsense. I have been a keen " Shetlinker" for a long time but find these anonymous negative ramblings rather sickening. James Nicolson

http://www.roganoglasgow.com/oyster.html Rogano - pricey but they know how to do food and service.

Yip, just as you would expect from the House of Lords. Not only are most pretty wealthy, they like to use our taxes to subsidise their meals, despite already getting a daily allowance. Mind you that's likely why their so well off. As they have their noses in our troughs, locally we struggle to provide basic meals for da ald folk at Freefield. Noo what was it they said about government cuts? Oh yes, " we're all in this together"! It Maks me dat mad.