Infiltrator

Yes, let’s put things into perspective. Over the last 30 years the SIC have squandered much of the investment fund set up in the 1970’s. The fund was intended to help build a strong local economy for the time after the oil industry had come to an end. The SIC certainly has been (not sure now) the richest council in the UK. I’m not aware that any other local council benefits to the same extent from any similar type of private industry One in 3 employed in the isles is employed directly by the local authority, well above the Scottish average of something like one in 10 or 12 Local unemployment is still around the lowest in the country. The average local wage is reasonably well above the Scottish average (poss the SIC Island allowance if that’s included in the calcs) Shetland was given an incredible opportunity in the 70’s to set itself up for the future, Given the above, other than pure selfish greed, why should Shetland be given another fresh opportunity to reap (& continue to squander?) benefits from new developments - there are many other parts of the UK in a much worse position than Shetland who could benefit from the tax. As for the closing of the Freefield centre, personally I think this is the council ignoring the elephant in the room and needing to be seen to do something. As for your economics, big numbers yes, but there’s considerable investment, operating costs and tax to be taken into account. I’m not defending the huge profits, it’s just your number is a bit headline grabbing.

^LOL Two sides to every story. I'm still a boy racer at nearly 50, afraid it's in the blood - and it's a Shetland thing

How would you define 'lifeline'? Surely a reduction in services would be in line with demands - e.g. cuts during quiet spells in the middle of the day?

What's the last thing you need when you've lots of infrastructure and facilities needing subsidies - even more... For Mareel, it's track record for the council running most things for one and the unrealistic (fanatasy really) cafe/bar projections for another.

And just in case anyone missed this ridiculous story that seems to sum up the mess of the modern day UK society trying to cope with multi-race, multi-cultural and multi-religions and trying not to upset anyone. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9105788/Fireman-Sam-creator-detained-at-airport-for-veil-comment-at-security-gate.html Last I heard about the above, the Gatwick mgt were refusing to apologise for detaining the poor chap.

LOL, master of understatement there, could it have gone any worse? Mind you, maybe he'll surpass himself yet with his latest venture and end up wiping out one of the Scatsta planes on his way into orbit.

As far as I can see, you're the only person on this thread that's assumed the folk who suggested Steve should 'kicked off Shetland' were from Shetland? He said it was another forum - the perpetrators could be anywhere in the world, and just trolling for a laugh. The very nature of public forums means if you take things that are written personally, they're not the place for you. As for Shetlink being the public face of Shetland, your previous post, talking about people not wanting to speak openly in public for fear of reprisals, is almost verging on paranoia, and unless Shetland has turned into the 1950's Mississippi since I left 6 years ago, your views bear no resemblance to the place that I spent 40 years growing up in. I spent my entire working career in Shetland working with hundreds, if not thousands of incomers, and socialising with many of them, I never once experienced anything I'd consider even verging towards racism. As for Shetlink being out of control, it's the tightest moderated forum I've ever been a member of - by a long way, and with it's optional anonymity, it plays a valuable part in Shetlands modern society. I don't have a problem with Steve wanting to raise the profile, and educate people about casual racism - I think the impact of his approach, given Shetlands tightly knit community, was somewhat underestimated by Steve. Had his message been about the issue in the wider society, he may have had a more positive response. However, he chose to target a particular shop, and then make allegations about the Shetland community, unfortunately many people have taken this personally. (edit last para to reflect what I really meant)

Sorry, but to me it's an inanimate object. It's how the object may be used, not it's very existence, that's the issue here. If the object is used in an intimidating manner to deliberately incite tension, then the persons involved are at fault, not the item itself. Another example being the Swastika - Should I wish, I can purchase a Swastika badge or T Shirt quite easily, however, should I then be stupid enough to wear them in public, I could, at the very least, find myself accused of inciting all sorts of racial tensions. Gollywogs in a shop window for sale in Lerwick are unlikely to raise local racial tensions enough to start a riot - Gollywogs in a shop window for sale in Brixton probably would raise racial tensions and would almost certainly be seen as a deliberate act of intimidation. It's how the item is used, not it's existence.

^ I think you'll find that the majority he's referring to are people who can determine for themselves what's right and what's wrong without searching for something that someone somewhere may take offence at.

No, it's what people interpret what it represents - and interpretation can be used as a powerful weapon. I had a German Action Man as a child, full SS uniform - I don't remember thinking that I should then buy a whole load of Ken and Barbie dolls, gas them then burn them. I'm not for a minute suggesting racism doesn't exist, but it's about time we took a stance to all this extreme PC nonsense. And don't get me started on the dog from the Dambusters film...

Very short debate I'd suggest - none of it, can't see the UK giving it to Holyrood, let alone Shetland. Whenever it's been debated on here before, the whole Shetland sovereignty discussion centres around the oil tax revenue. It seems folk want independence for Shetland, but only as long as it's a wealthier Shetland.

I'd agree with that, the letter writer is just creating a storm for the sake of it - why not find a real worthwhile cause to take up his time?

Yip, T shirt weather today

But surely extra business and extra work equates to additional profits and it may well have been the case that the Managing Director owned ordinary and/or preference shares thereby gaining personally on share dividend payments? Yes, but what I don't understand is that the MD's of Catch took a much bigger risk than the individual skippers, by making the entire fraud possible, but presumably didn't personally gain anything like individual skippers did? Will this be a case of 'if you don't buy my black fish I'll sell them, plus my quota, elsewhere'? I can't fathom out if Shetland Catch were the perpetrators of the whole scam, or if the factory were effectively held to ransom by the whole black fish culture - over to the court to find out I suppose.

^Thanks for the replies, it's odd that the media have recently only referred to them as the Shetland Catch management - it made it sound like there were lots of management from the factory involved? Arguably the skippers drive was greed from the extra fish they sold (& paid tax on) but surely it would have been difficult for the MD's of the factory to benefit personally? What I'm trying to say is presumably the extra fish was just extra business and extra work for the factory?

As I've mentioned before, I'm keen to understand the role of Shetland Catch in all this. Yes the fishermen convicted broke the law, but the crime was very well organised and it looks like Shetland Catch, or at least some senior management at the factory were at the centre of the scam, if not responsible for setting up the scam in the first place. All that's ever mentioned in relation to Shetland Catch is 'the management' or 'the owners' this seems somewhat odd given that the fishermen have had their names in the press for months, and yet presumably the factory is at the centre of the whole crime.

I wonder how much the LPA had to pay the dredging contractor? Presumably the best part of the £5 million settlement? Folk on here sometimes complain about the supermarkets taking money off the isles - but this was £5 million pounds that left the isles and nothing was received in return.

Words fail me (well almost ), watched the news item on Grampian, once again Shetland is a laughing stock in front of the media thanks to decisions being made by people clearly not fit for the task. As for no-one is to blame, I'd beg to differ on that one. And the news also mentioned that the SIC were now committed to building 4 tunnels to replace ferry services - I can think of about a dozen folk who could start immediately with picks and shovels, as they might as well be of some use as they can't fritter away any more money as there's none left.

£33 million + £4.8 million = £37.8 million, better start looking down the side of the council sofas for loose change. Had this been a private business that had lost £4.8 million though sheer mismanagement, someone would be joining the ever lengthening dole queue.

They put on a good show live though. Watched The Killers at the AECC in 2009, then saw Snow Patrol the following weekend. Killers were good, but the crowd atmosphere was miserable - whereas the following weekend the whole of the AECC crowd were going mental singing and dancing. I've found that quite often the concerts I expect the most from are the one's that most disappoint and vice versa.

Care to deciphere this for us mere mortals Shetlands situation 1960's - economy shrinking, depopulation 1970's - oil discovered, lets build lots of stuff 1980's - blimey, where did all this money come from, partytime 1990's - better start to invest some of this money, anyone got any daft ideas, Sturgeon farm anyone? 2000's - Oops, how did the council get that big, if we keep it quiet no-one will notice... 2010's - the brown smelly stuff has hit the rotating windy thing - who can we blame? the future - see 1960's I personally think one of the council main priorities over the last 30 years has been to maintain a healthy population size - to the extent that the local economy has been largely subsidised by the oil money by having a council workforce that is 33% of the total local workforce, plus all the other council money that's been pumped into islands from the charitable trust. I think they gambled that by maintaining population of 22,000+, the local economy would have been bouyant enough to spawn much new local private industry and the economy would become self sustaining. I'm not saying this policy was wrong - it was a gamble that didn't quite pay off. But unfortunately the gravy train is quickly running out of steam, and the windfarm dream to keep fuelling the gravy train seems to be little more than another expensive non starter - school, bridge, etc.

Voted yes. I knew the rules when I was a child and I knew what might happen if I broke the rules, did me no harm. Desperate lack of respect in the UK society nowadays, I blame the nanny state. Good example was that scrote who was kicked off the train at Christmas time for not having a ticket. One drunken yob who knows in todays society he can do what the hell he wants and get away with it. Upshot is that everyone on the train is held up for 20 mins, the ticket inspector is signed off sick for weeks, and the guy who took it upon himself to sort out the situation charged by the police (dropped now) And yet the scrotes dad was still defending him that he'd done nothing wrong As for the sort of cr4p that school teachers have to put up - thankless job nowadays.

Anyone else following the live coverage on the Shetland News website? - it makes fascinating reading. Grampian News is reporting a possible 1,000 SIC job cuts - and the councillors are discussing increasing the cost of renting the Town Hall from £40.... Micromanagement on an epic scale, at the rate they're going they'll still be there this time next week.

Really? I don't see any sign of any sort of local organised push for devolution? Do you think a bunch of keyboard revolutionaries who spend their time bickering over grammar in a distant corner of the internet are going to change anything? Clearly no-one's taking this seriously, there isn't even a facebook page for Shetland Devolution yet...... As for the folk who want to be part of Norway - why not just emigrate?

Or how about a button for; 'no one can tell me what any other option, other than what we currently have, will really mean to me, so I can't make an informed decision' You might as well have 'become a member of the United Federation of Planets' as an option on here as I'm pretty sure more folk would know the impact that would have rather than any of the one's selected.