Clickimin Clippie

Some strong leadership at last!

I hear that to help the economy the Up Helly Aa committee is considering a summer festival called Up Jimmy Aa. They will celebrate the life of an alleged rapist who was a hero in his life time. They will spend the year decorating a Savile caravan that they will take round the schools then set fire to with large cigars. Only the Jimmy squad, led by the Guizer Jimmy can dress up as the alleged rapist himself. The rest can dress as women though. Aparently there is not much support, because unlike the Vikings they worship, Jimmy didn't pillage too.

As I recall the disruption to pupils that caused the last attempt to build a new AHS to be stopped was the school effectively being in the middle of a building site for several years. I don't have much sympathy for those who are pleepsing about bairns having to spend the week in Lerwick when they are at school. I had to do it myself and in those days (the 60's) many of the isles pupils had to stay all term. Me and my siblings all survived it and made friends from all over the isles, many of whom we still keep up with. Bairns coming to Lerwick to stay the week will have the opportunity to enjoy far superior facilities around the town that were not available when I was there - Clickimin, Mareel and Islesburgh to name a few. Another convenient untruth. The pupils would have been near a building site, like most are when their schools are upgraded - like I was when Bells Brae was upgraded and it did me no harm being in the huts seperated from the work site by a secure wire fence. In the 60s many shetlanders lived in poverty, so I don't want to go back to that. The idea that everyone could be happy living in Lerwick because it has the best facicilities is interesting - however 75% of us choose not to, so why force it on our children?

Just read http://www.shetnews.co.uk/letters/5643-discrimination-against-north-isles and couldn't agree more. When Dr Wills led the van guard to stop the upgrade of the AHS, which would be complete by now, one of the strongest agruments against the works was the disruption to school puils and the impact it would have on their education. Now the council is proposing to to create infinately greater disruption to the lives of many children and their families in the northern isles forever. Scrapping the new AHS, ringfencing the gas funds and savings from cutting the outrageous SIC sickness costs could easily avoid this stupidity. The need for a new AHS and the savings from school closures is, to quote our local bearded guru, A Convenient Untruth.

I couldn't agree more with Dr Wills letter A Convenient Untruth http://www.shetnews.co.uk/letters/5612-a-convenient-untruth But why did he leave it until the 'redeemer' had just departed? Maybe he was afraid his personal attacks would cost the council another half a million. At the end of the day, I hope any new trustees answer 'yes' to his question. But then, Turkey's don't often vote for Christmas.

I’ve just been reading our illustrious leaders speech to the council which he has published in the letter page http://www.shetnews.co.uk/letters/5570-we-can-only-spend-the-money-once I would have thought he would have hoped the public never got to hear such woeful self-indulgence. A child that is a cry baby is annoying. A man full of self-pity is pathetic. A political leader that whines about criticism, is not only cringe worthy. It is also unacceptable. Robinson should learn a lesson from a real leader – the Duke of Wellington, who lived by the motto ‘never complain’. Robinson’s moaning then descends to his habitual hypocrisy complaining about a member “being subjected to some fairly reprehensible personal attacks from people who might not have grasped all of the facts – that’s almost forgivable. What isn’t forgivable is when people who really ought to know better, who have the facts available to them, stoop to this level.†I seem to remember Robinson is not altogether innocent of similar behaviour. On the bright side, his letter did answer one question. Dr Wills is still pulling the puppet boy’s strings.

Outgoing Buchan has this to say on his last blog: "Much is said, quite rightly, about the heady days of the mid 1970s, the establishment of the oil port and the creation of the special funds and so on. These were visionary, ground breaking achievements on an international scale. A re-launched and effective Community Planning Partnership for Shetland involving the Council, Charitable Trust, NHS Shetland – indeed all of the public, private and voluntary sectors – represents the best opportunity for the 2012 equivalent of those pioneering days. I hope my old friends and colleagues will grasp that opportunity with both hands." The man is a complete joke! Comparing himself to the council of the 70s? The deals of the 70s brought Shetland a billion pounds. Will his community partnership do this? Can't see how. Meanwhile, this is the man on whose watch the reserves started diving again after a brief increase for a year. This is the man who not only saw them breach the £250m target, but saw them belly flop under £200 million. this is the man that while he was doing this, 30 out of 62 service measures got worse. You can paint a turd any colour you like - it's still a turd.

‘SIC on the ‘right track’, says Buchan “I think dramatic progress has been made; and we have done so while we managed to maintain day-to-day services.â€â€™ Monday, 24 September 2012 ‘It emerged that, from a list of 62 statutory performance indicators, Shetland Islands Council had performed worse in 30 of them during the last financial year.’ Audit and Standards Committee 27 September 2012 WOW. He achieved all this while only blowing £60 million of our reserves. What a bargin.

"In the town hall yesterday Dr Wills argued Lord Reed’s 2007 judgment showed an element of human error among officials. “I move that we don’t accept the report and approach the insurers again,†he said. He described the legal advice provided as an appendix to Mr Buchan’s report as “six pages of legalese hogwash.†Political leader Gary Robinson argued the report should be noted. “This is a long, drawn out sorry saga,†he said." Goodness! The puppet thinks he's a real boy!

The difference is when you can't believe a word Robinson says. He is a hypocrite who can't take the heat.

"11.42am: Robinson says he is appalled at some of the things said about him in public over last week. He lists a lot of things which are not true." There's nothing more pathetic than a 'man' that can dish it out but can't take it. What a hypocrite.

"10:09: Introductions to the new chief executive Mark Boden and a thankyou to Alistair Buchan who is leaving next month. The council's accounts have been approved by Audit Scotland and he thanks staff for their work." Babyface 1 Mr Boden 0 Would love to be a fly on the wall at thier first meeting.

http://www.shetnews.co.uk/news/5554-sic-accounts-praised-by-auditors Babyface does it again! Campaign now well under way. Now if only the auditors of the new CE had been just emphatic about his financial records........

http://www.shetnews.co.uk/letters/5528-a-charitable-clusterbuckle "But my own evidence-based, peer-reviewed performance management analysis of his outcomes for key stakeholders reveals serious deficiencies." Im sure the CE of OSCR will be a-quiver knowing Dr Wills is watching his every move. He's probably more offended that Dr Wills sees himself as one of his peers. What is more worrying is that the Chair and Vice Chair of the trust that controls our funds seem to be at war now. Come on Dr Wills - resign again and take your battle to court. Writing a few letters never achived anything for you.

Todays decisions is a complete disaster for the education of our children. A complete disaster for Shetlands future. It could have been avoided by slicing the ridiculous development budget which keeps getting frittered away on propping up unviable business relics from the past. Well done!