Infiltrator

Just had an interesting email from a friendly Shetlander who is absolutely pi**ed off by Tesco's inflated prices on Shetland produce. But, of course, Tesco is only serving the good of the local community by forcing Shetlanders to buy non Shetland produce. All hail to Tesco. Savior of the Shetland economy. They're a ferkin joke. Ramsie - post the goods & prices please

How about if we start a campaign to get some tourism facilities at the Broch - the council could divert some of the Mareel funding. After all, they're bound to have some money left, it can't be that expensive to build a huge shed with a big bar at one end, can it

The Broch is probably the most undervalued unloved piece of Pictish heritage in the UK. I'm always astonished at the tourists having to dodge the traffic when they're offloaded from the buses parked on the main road. There's so much potential there for it to become a decent tourist attraction with parking and a visitor centre.

LOL, as a shining example of a victim of modern society I've just had a Tesco shopping delivery

Skyumpi you're right, apologies for the above, I just replied on the back of your post - much as I'd love you to do my shopping;) All I'm trying to get across here is that there's good reason why supermarkets are successful in todays society - folk have busy lives and can't afford to spend an entire morning shopping - for some families saving a few pounds each week or 5 mins of a shop is actually a big deal. Our modern society has dictated the need for cheap convient food - hence the need for intensive farming and big supermarkets. The average family in Shetland will see the arrival of Tesco as a major plus giving the coop some competition, additional choice and a quick and convient shopping experience. I fully understand, and appluad, your stance(s) on retail and farming ethics but if everyone took the same position, the country would grind to a swift halt.

The point I was making is that if you don't conform to the typical family shopper - parent(s) work all week, kids at school all week, Saturday is the day for shopping - it's a lot easier to have have the time to have and stick to these principles. Most families just don't have the time or it isn't a priority and this is where the supermarkets get the majority of their custom. The weekly shop becomes quick and convient.

At a guess I'd say you're not a person who has to do the weekly shop for the family each weekend with kids in tow. I wonder just how many of the folk on here who have constantly knocked Tesco on this thread actually do the weekly family shop? From the last few pages - Roachmill, Auld Ramsie, Posiedon & Skyumpi all seem to have a strong opposition to Tesco or supermarkets in general. Do any of you do the family shop each weekend with kids in tow?

BMW's and Mercs? - are you sure you were in the right car park? Call me pedantic but I can't see any BMW's or Mercs in the SN photo - maybe you were in the Council car park http://www.shetland-news.co.uk/news_07_2008/Thousands%20spend%20thousands%20at%20Tesco.htm

Forecast for the weekend is 11 deg C and northerly winds - I'd suggest you fill the place with sand and create an indoor beach resort

Thanks Roachmill - but I see nothing on that site related to the alleged story that Tesco will increase prices locally once they've shut down the local competition. Most of the stories relate to their aggressive drive for market share - that's what business is about though. It wasn't them it would just be someone else. As far as I can see on that site they haven't done anything unlawful - they're just more ruthless than their competitors.

There used to be farmers markets in Shetland a few years ago - I'm guessing they weren't that successful and just stopped? Tingwall Hall if I remember correctly.

What evidence do you have of this? I've mentioned before that I've used the Tesco on-line shopping system (not in Shetland I'd hasten to add) and the prices are the same countrywide regardless which store your order is filled from. I've said before I'm not pro Tesco but I am keen that everyone should have the choice to shop where they want. Part of this decision may be based the companies reputation but people need facts to base this decision, I wouldn't base my decision on a rumour from a bulletin board.

Lawsuit? LOL, you've watched too much American TV. Do you honestly believe Tesco will take the slightest notice of a few anonymous comments on a forum as quiet as this one? There's a number of folk on here who seem to feel very strongly about Tesco's arrival in Shetland. Will any of them actually do anything about it or (other than not shopping there )are they just keyboard warriors?

What is there to stop anyone invading Forvik and overthrowing the monarchy ? If the weather is half decent this weekend a spot of invading another country might be fun - unless I need to cut the grass in the garden, that being the case I may have to postpone the invasion to the following weekend. I'll maybe see if I can find Mrs Thatchers email address for some tips. Is there anyone I need to contact before invading Forvik - NATO perhaps? I might need someone to take the tiller as I'll struggle to row and keep a lookout at the same time. Any volunteers will be decorated and will have a beach or hill (small one) named after them. Serious question though - what is there to stop anyone overthrowing Calamity - can't be breaking any UK laws if it's on Forvik. Isn't this how real wars start?

Can anyone actually confirm he has purchased this outcrop? Anyone who sends him money thinking they're buying a bit of this new principality needs their heads examined - no doubt they've already bought some land on the Moon and Mars and have a star named after them I actually missed the below link posted by Fratelli as I thought it was Calamity's website....it isn't, but it's a good pi55take. I want one of the T shirts http://www.forvik.net/

Tried to book a trip on the Northlink earlier in the week. Probably the worst on-line booking system I've seen for years. Gave up and phoned them

Advert for FlyBe in the P&J today advertising flights to Shetland and Orkney for £43.99 if booked before 10th July.

If you want to monitor Tesco's Shetland prices vs. their mainland prices you should register for their on-line shopping and use this to check their prices. Personally I'd be very surprised if they decide to have 'Shetland Only' prices. This would play havoc with their pricing and ordering system.

This amused me - this was printed by the Telegraph, imagine if he's shot down Oscar Charlie The Shetland coastguards were not impressed by Mr Hall's grasp of safety procedures. He had been advised to fire a flare to indicate his position but instead fired three when the rescue helicopter was overhead. Keith Oliver, a coastguard spokesman, said: "Flares and helicopters are mutually incompatible. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we have seen the last of him."

Trout, you are aware that as Calamity, sorry, Stuarthill (or is it God now ), is no longer a UK citizen or recognises UK law in his new kingdom, he surely no longer conforms to the forum T&C's (item 1). Maybe you need to tighten up the forum registration. Call yourself a moderator

I'm in stitches reading all the news articles from his sailing trip - I'd forgotten all the details, he really is missing a trick here, he should have sold the film rights to this story.

Found this as a reminder of his exploits. He accepts the 'Captain Calamity' tag in the spirit of gentle fun, his sailing history points to it being more of an accurate reflection of his sheer ineptitude. In another story from the site the quoted his wife and family who all thought he was mad - Mrs Hill, I think we can confirm your suspicions. Personally I blame the RAF's poor aim for all our grief... Manningtree: It's finally the end for sailor Stuart From the archive, first published Thursday 23rd Aug 2001. Stuart Hill's determined attempt to sail round Britain has ended, but he went further than anyone expected. Mr Hill set sail in May from Manningtree, but was dogged with problems throughout his trip. His efforts earned him the exasperation of some coastguards, but also a growing respect as he made his way round the coast of Britain. At first, he thought the trip would take 30 days, but things didn't go to plan. For more on this story see 'Manningtree: Captain Calamity capsizes' in the drop-down menu at the bottom of this story Even before he set off there were problems, as he suffered an allergic reaction to resin being used on the boat, and then his mast broke during a trial run. Mr Hill, who runs an internet showcase for IT companies in Manningtree, had been aiming to raise about £20,000 for six charities. His attempt earned him the nickname Captain Calamity, and here's why: May 12: Sets off from Manningtree. Collides with moored boat within minutes and helper has to swim out with centreboard - essential for steering May 17: Mast breaks, picked up by Cromer lifeboat. Month's break for repairs June 17-28: Returns homeward. Yarmouth Coastguard voices concern. Beaches at Southwold for repairs and decides to try once again July 22: Off Norfolk again and making little progress July 26: Begins moving up coast, but narrowly avoids being 'blown out the water' when sails into RAF bombing range August 20: Boat turns over in heavy conditions but manages to right it August 21: Rescued by helicopter after boat capsizes in heavy seas

LOL, slight difference of opinion there, I know who I believe. Anyone know what Stuart Hill has done previously? Eccentrics like this don't just 'appear', he must've been making a nuisance of himself elsewhere previously.....wonder what else we can uncover?(slopes off to do some googling)

I've often wondered what would have happened in the first world war, when the foot soldiers had spent weeks in the trenches and the night before the final push, the cook decided to knock them up a special nut roast instead of bully beef

Another protester for Tesco's opening day I see - funny how folk like this seem to only post their own personal viewpoint rather than printing a balanced view to let folk make their own choices. He seems to have overlooked the reality of the situation - AA Gill put the issue into a better perspective. Intensive farming is a way of modern life - you want something different then you'll need to curb the population growth. p.s. Salmon in cages, hmm, maybe Mr Dobson should spend his time protesting for better Salmon welfare rights around the farms surrounding Shetland. http://www.shetland-news.co.uk/letters_07_2008/Foul%20protest.htm This is part of of AA Gill’s article in the Sunday Times on Jan 27 2008 “As part of the concerted Channel 4 crusade against murder most fowl, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver have been using a lot of TV time and clout to stop intensive chicken farming. Now, normally I’m all for improving flavour, freshness, goodness and the sexual allure of livestock, but this isn’t about the quality of chicken, it’s about the quality of chicken’s lives, and frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn dish of boiled wattles about the lives of chickens. Giving them a hay bale, a square yard of grass and an hour a day in the chilly drizzle is a bit like putting a bridge table on death row. If you care about the quality of chickens’ lives, their happiness, there’s only one thing you can morally do: don’t eat them. Animals are bred into humiliating, unnatural shapes and idiotic imbecility in strange, unnatural habitats, and then die for dinner. Get over it or eat grass. The only thing you should campaign about is whether they’re improved eating. This zoomorphic sentimentality, this Beatrix Pot-au-feu of food, is as dysfunctional and disassociated from the reality of field and table as medical foodies who think that all breakfast is either poison or a cure for cancer. But it goes with the bosky, cute, Waltons-style sets that Hugh and Jamie make out they live in: gastro-arcadia, where everything is innocent, happy and immortal. It won’t do. Livestock engineering is about human engineering: there are 60m of us. Let’s say 50m want to eat chicken once a week, and you want the chickens to have a square metre of grass to play in. And they take a minimum of five weeks to get fat enough to eat. Well, that’s 25m chickens living on a square metre each, totalling an area roughly the size of Wales. A better use of the principality, we may agree, but it’s not exactly practical. For a start, it’ll be knee-deep in crap by Easter – and, of course, it won’t happen. What might happen is they just make chicken a lot more expensive. That won’t bother Jamie or Hugh or me much; we make a bob or two. But it might make a difference to people who depend on cheap, reliable food: the young, the old and invalids. We have intensive farming for a reason: not just simply for laziness, or because farmers like to work indoors, but because we are an intensive population. Expensive food will send us back to the 19th century, and the national cuisine will be porridge and bark for the poor, who will get rickets. Chickens and rabbits are the cheapest, quickest and most efficient converters of protein. If you take them out of poor people’s diets, you have to replace them with something. It used to be fish – herring mostly. There is one fishing boat left in Great Yarmouth: start forming a queue now. What this maudlin, sanctimonious bout of petting-zoo food rights leads to is simply exporting the moral problem. We ban the manufacture of veal, but not the consumption of it. So it is made in Holland, and we drive it back in lorries. We improved pigs’ rights, so our pork comes from Poland. Intensive chickens will be reared by the hungrier nations of the EU, and we will buy them back. And if you aim to make food contented, bespoke and rare, well, that’s just fine and dandy, but, please, will you tell the rest of us what parts of the world you’re planning on ethically starving to death.