BigMouth

The price of race to the bottom (wages for the minions) capitalism.

PO Counters are probably saving up their pennies to cover the compensation for the Horizon debacle, where their postmasters have been jailed for supposed dishonesty with the cash, whereas the fault lay with the IT system.

Set up your own UHA. Do it indoors, so you won't get cold or wet. Don't have helmets so you won't risk Hat Hair. Make sure that there is plenty of car parking so you won't have to walk far. Just a few ideas to get you going.

It would appear that the consultation was like most, a foregone consultation, where someone already had the rubber stamp in hand hovering over the paperwork. I feel sorry for the new staff as the job looks fairly complex, especially will all the extra selling that goes into it, and much comes with experience. If sense prevails one of the current PO staff will be brought into Conochies on decent money so that the new staff can get trained up from them, otherwise the chances are that it will be a complete gang f++k for a few months. Pay peanuts, get monkeys. Other parcel couriers are available though. Looking on the positive side, at least Conochies will finally have 2nd class stamps in stock, and not 2nd Large as is usually the only option. Although if you can't manage to keep stamps in stock, I am at a loss to how you are going to make a go of a Post Office. Bolts PO staff may be OK, but the queueing system is as bad as similarly named Boots. You only have to have some halfwit stood next to their husband* and the passageway is blocked. It will be interesting to see the floor plan of Conochies with the new PO in place to see how they manage the queueing. I assume that the Thorntons area is being thinned out as a way of making space to shunt a reduced stationery offering into. Not a bad idea as the footfall in the stationery part of the shop seems minimal; so quiet that Goudies could have a desk in there. I am curious to know what Da Street PO will become. Perhaps another eatery or charity shop. I am hoping that there will finally be some attempt at expanding the accommodation in that area. Hjaltland could throw up some of their tiny flats there. The street really does need to be less commercial, and more residential taking up the space of the dying businesses as they become available. *Or wife.

I just looked back in my bank records to find that I joined Bulb in 2016. That should give some context to the meter change cost. Yes, SSE are just going to concentrate on the power infrastructure, and will shed the customers.

£600 ? Mine cost £52 from a card meter. I decided SSE had had enough money out of me already, so got them to change the meter 6 months later. Best of luck with whatever you decide.

Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4 is a classic example of the anti white male bile spouting that goes on, which would not be tolerated if it was spoken on Man's Hour. Of course there is no Man's Hour. The SNP has committees to represent such interests as artists, students, religious groups and women. There is no representation of men. The World Health Organisation consider that if a scalpel is taken to female genitalia it is considered mutilation. When I asked of the same were true of scalpels being taken to the genitals of boys, the answer was no. That's alright then because the WHO said it. White straight men are being disadvantaged because every other group has some sort of special (victim) status.

I think the Toll clock differs from the High St with three businesses in particular: Scalloway butchers, decent quality meat and great service Scoop, wide selection of interesting food, including artisan breads, and drink not commonly available, and great service The Olive Tree, best coffee in town, great cakes, soup and sandwiches, free wifi and great service

What fantastic news, the Toll Clock Centre under new ownership. It’s been a sad sight for too many years, from the lacklustre paint, buckets catching the water leaks, automatic doors that don’t work properly, mats in the entrances that look like they have been chewed around the edges, well beyond their lifespan, and the main signage with a missing E. There are some great shops and a great cafe in there, The Olive Tree, and I am looking forward to the investment that our captains of industry, who have bought the place, will bring to it. Shetland deserves an exciting indoor shopping opportunity to bring money back to the Isles, instead of going online to the giants such as Amazon. Stand back and prepared to be amazed at the pace of change.

There is obviously more money in AirBnB than there is in booze.

Wonderful to see fellow forumites getting along so well.

Well Claadehol, I see you are determined to pin the blame for the desecration of the war memorial on the SNP, and we all know that is fantasy stuff. After the LieDems joined the Tories in the ConDem coalition I would put nothing past them, especialy when the SNP were reducing their majority. It is obviously the work of a deranged, single figure IQ, fanatical follower of the LieDems. This kind of party always attracts people like this, it's been seen so often before. It was about as disrespectful as you can get in Shetland, but politically it was a LieDem tactical masterstroke. I wonder how they will outdo that the next time. Change will come to Shetland. It is only a matter of time. Politicians of all parties would sell their soul, yours and mine too, for money. There are very few that aren't feathering their nests one way or another. Anyway the LieDems may have gained a little after an astonishingly acrimonious campaign. They have held onto their seat, with a reduced majority and shown themselves to be happy with a poisonous divisve campaign. The SNP carpet bombing the islands with leaflets, signs, badges and innumerable servile helpers, (but they are still 1800 or so votes behind here), should have to pay for the recycling costs of all this crap, as should the rest. Servility describes all the helpers of all parties. The SNP don't need to lick their wounds and accept the fact the northern isles don't need them, or for that matter want them, because they got so many more votes, devastating the LieDem lead. Bear in mind that this is the LieDems safest seat in the UK. They shouldn't even have to campaign. You could ut a monkey in yellow and it would get in. The fact that the SNP are getting so close shows that change is on the horizon. It will come when people realise that if you think Holyrood doesn't give a toss about us, Westmonster cares even less. Most of Westmonster couldn't point to Shetland on a map. I should make it clear in case their is any doubt that I didn't vote for the SNP. I feel that little Jimmy Crankie's politics are as loathsome as the LieDems treachery.

The reality of politics is that political parties look after their constituencies. An example would be the Tories, who have diverted HS2 around one of their seats at vast expense (£600m). I know we like evidence, so here's a quote from the Tory Daily Heil: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2270380/Chancellor-George-Osborne-faces-furious-backlash-accused-diverting-controversial-HS2-rail-route-backyard.html

I was really surprised with the number of people that voted for the Tories. The party that has seen so many deaths shortly after those assessed were deemed fit for work. They have tried the starve the disabled and brought in the Rape Law. Their leader in Scotland ran away. Loathed in Westminster, where it was felt she needed to wind her neck in. The Tories overwhelming success has been the food bank. There are no shortage of them. We are not a country at war, we are the 6th richest economy in the world, yet we have people going cap in hand to food banks to feed their children and themselves. The tax avoiders have done well, as have those that benefitted from our assets being sold off. Many made a killing on the Post Office, especially the preferred bidders. As far as I am concerned, if you vote Tory you have little interest in your fellow human beings, and have an I’m alright Jack attitude. Labour really do need to stop putting up a representative here. They just humiliate themselves every time. When an independent candidate can command multiples of the vote that a major well funded national party can get it may be time to give up. The worst thing about the campaign was the amount of crap that came through my letterbox, from all parties, but particularly the SNP. You’re politicians, therefore you are by nature duplicitous, see Boris Johnson. You are lower than estate agents, and I wouldn’t waste my time reading your proclamations, let alone believing anything you said. For those that dream of autonomy, keep on dreaming. You need permission to break away, and you’re never going to get that, not until you are a cost rather than a benefit to whichever government rules us, but even then Northern Ireland has been kept in the UK union. As for the War memorial, it smells of the LieDems. Any party that could go into coalition with the Tories could quite easily arrange for a useful idiot to do that.

You ought to try to buy a house here now. A buyer is battling against buy to letters, builders, speculators, airBnB’rs. Then there are the ones that never make it to market. Then there is the bidding system and the extortionate cost of the property itself. Then you need surveyors and solicitors, and the bank will want their cut of you. Social housing helps to keep the prices down by reducing, if only slightly, demand for houses in the private sector. I can't imagine that there are many renting who wouldn’t prefer to be buying. The trouble is that banks will often not give out mortgages on the grounds of affordability despite buying being cheaper than renting per month. Those renting are often paying the mortgage of the owner or keeping them in a lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. Build more social housing as long as you have people that want it, and are usually financially unable to support private rents or mortgages.

Colonel Ruth has gone missing. Deserted perhaps?

Only slightly less, but nett more by bringing more tourists potentially. We get discounted flights and ferries south. For people south, Shetland is an expensive place to get to, and any savings they can make on accommodation will surely encourage more. They are not going to find recruiting staff easily so that might add to the nett gain if it encourages growth in the population, albeit small.

I will be voting for the best man for the job.

The local hoteliers are doing little for the local economy by paying their staff minimum wage, so I won’t be weeping for them. Premier Inn is the better of the pair imho.

Thanks George that is very useful. And according to the Urban Dictionary, because the word has been previously mentioned on the thread, and we like links here! Mansplaining Stating accurate, verifiable facts. Especially when these facts are inconvenient to the feminist worldview, or contradict feminist talking points. It is often used by a feminists who makes an incorrect claim in support of their narrative, and someone responds with something refuting the feminist’s claim, which she (usually it’s a she) cannot counter. By claiming “mansplaining,” she tries to pretend to have invalidated her opponents claim, even though she has not addressed it at all. Feminists: Women only make 77% of what men make for exactly the same work! Oh the patriarchy. Factual Person: No, they don't. That statistic is just for overall median pay of full time workers, and does not account for overtime hours worked, location, experience, degree earned, or even the field someone is working in. Women make less on average because men and women make different career choices, because believe it or not, men and women are different

I am not sure that many 60 year olds will thank you for suggesting that they are elderly! With regard to your earlier comments, It is human nature, that when one is in a position of advantage, one campaigns against any Government that tries to reduce that advantage. We want the process to take an extended period of time, the change to happen to others, not us, and if the change is inevitable, the change should happen well into the future, in fact pushing change into the future is a common tool of Government to reduce opposition. Today we are less worried about planned changes in 2050 than we are worried about planned changes in December 2019. When one is in a position of disadvantage, and change by the Government would advantage us, change can't come quickly enough for us. I still fail to see how women are in a more difficult financial position. They just do what men do, carry on working. No-one is expecting them to live without an income from 60-65.

My Items tend to be small items from power sellers. The last missing package was spark plugs for the car. I also lost an expensive, large and heavy padlock recently. That was the one that came by courier, or rather didn’t! There was also a power bank, not from eBay, and I now understand that the Post Office won't carry these so that was explained. I think most of our purchases come from China these days. Some are sold by the Chinese direct to the customer, whilst others are sold from UK distributors with a healthy mark-up. There has been a huge improvement in the quality of their goods, but poor pay and child labour is still a problem, although pay has been improving. I am happy paying a fair price for a product if it stops the workers being exploited. In respect to not being able to get goods shipped here, and in the case where they are not 'dangerous' items, I usually spot that the shipping method is by courier and then always offer to pay the extra charges. In the case of expensive items, the vendor often writes the extra cost off.

Do you agree then that when women are being paid less hourly than a man for doing the same job, that equality on this issue will take time to introduce and therefore any sensible thinking woman will not see it as unequal?

Those are probably the ones that are getting through!

I have a modicum of education, but religion has never influenced me. Religious education was not part of the compulsory curriculum in senior school beyond reciting the Lord’s Prayer in assembly at my school. The compulsory curriculum consisted of: Maths, English, History, Geography and French. It feels hard for me to support a religious ethos when one looks at the troubles in the Catholic Church, for instance. My smattering of religious knowledge does not include whatever the decent woman was. Much like you, I lived under a roof. I am surprised that you find my view that women should have equality, and equal terms and conditions in life not to be modern. What would you prefer my view to be? The opposite view would be that of the Saudis, not something you could support surely? I consider myself to be blessed with the company of women who have received an education, and are well-rounded in their personalities. They are open minded enough to see the opposite side of an argument, even if they don’t agree with it. It's odd that you didn’t comment on the thoughts of Ms Widdecombe. It must grind a little when a woman with the brains and influence of her says that women should retire at the same age as men, and that women are advantaged compared to men.