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Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/06/19 in all areas

  1. Claadehol

    New Old Library

    I remember the letters flying in to the Times re the moving of the library to St.Ringans church building some years ago. The reason being apparently that the old library building had had its day and was now condemned. An expensive refurb in St Ringans produced the new library, but the public were less than impressed. Apparently there wasn't enough room for the books and that's quite a priority for a library. Complaints poured in and several sites were suggested for a new library. Meantime it was suddenly decided that the old library building was actually ok and wasn't condemned after all. I remember some wag suggesting that a good site for the new library was in the old library, and as it was nearby, the books could easily be moved. However, the council had now decided to use the old library as council offices so another refurb was required for this purpose, new ventilation, heating, etc. Now that the council is able to use some of it's new state of the art building, the old library can be refurbed yet again and we will have a brand new old library back in operation soon. I didn't make this up, honest!
    1 point
  2. paulb

    Brexit (merged threads)

    scotland did not have it.its not relevent to scotland.
    1 point
  3. JGHR

    Brexit (merged threads)

    Not so long ago there was a Spanish fishing boat about a mile, perhaps a mile and a half offshore in St. Magnus Bay. It had its nets out, stripping the fish out of our waters.That's just one of many, many things that could [JGHR Emphasis] be solved. Then it would possibly be a bit more worthwhile to go out fishing. You see George, that's the problem, could be solved - not would. A lot of things could happen, but unfortunately most of them do not and the fishing is a case in point. I am no expert on the EU fishing rules, but it is clear that the people who are, or should be, experts - the fishermen, despise the current situation and would do almost anything to see it changed. The problem is however the entire economic output of the UK fishing industry is tiny to the point that it is not significant in any material terms to the country as a whole - just over 1 tenth of 1 percent of the all UK economic output. <link will download a pdf for you to read>. It is of course hugely significant to fishing communities like Shetland the North East of Scotland, and Scotland as a whole, but as far as the people who are going to determine what happens post BREXIT are concerned it is as good as worthless. That is why fishing rights to UK waters will almost certainly be bargained away and used as leverage in an attempt to gain more favorable outcomes in sectors of the economy which provide more economic value to the UK as a whole. The notion that voting for BREXIT, far less a no deal BREXIT will result in improved conditions in the UK fishing industry is far from certain and when you think about it objectively it appears incredibly unlikely. Like Hilaire Belloc's boy named Jim, the fishing industry might well find instead of testing its fate in the jaws of the westminster lion it was better off keeping a hold of the EU nursemaid.
    1 point
  4. "Official EU voting records* show that the British government has voted ‘No’ to laws passed at EU level on 56 occasions, abstained 70 times, and voted ‘Yes’ 2,466 times since 1999, according to UK in a Changing Europe Fellows Sara Hagemann and Simon Hix. In other words, UK ministers were on the “winning side” 95% of the time, abstained 3% of the time, and were on the losing side 2%." From https://fullfact.org/europe/eu-facts-behind-claims-uk-influence/ I wouldn't say that amounts to us being "subjected to EU directives", rather it is an indication of our influence and how the EU is, in the vast majority of cases, in accord with UK priorities. Or during the horse trading they were bought off one way or the other to 'toe the line'. In a Europhile UK Parliament its hardly surprising that they get with whatever Brussels are selling this week, the problem arose, when they held a referendum which showed what the rest of us have suspected for a long time, that the UK population is about as anti-EU as the UK Parliament is pro-EU. Consequently the argument that the UK Parliament's influence within the EU, and the UK Parliament's priority as far as the EU is concerned is the UK's population's influence and priorities is weak in the extreme. Oh, the joys of holding votes on differing terms on the same subject relatively close together......add to the third vote involving the EU which we've just had returning roughly equal support for the Europhile parties, the anti-EU parties, and for two that seem to have no clue where they stand on the EU or anything else, and you have a right dog's dinner to wade through.
    1 point
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