brian.smith

As I said we have no choice either way as Westminster cannot let us walk away without taking our supposed share of the debt the two links you have put up are pro independence and the IFS are better together

Simple whatever way the country jumps we will have debt it will be the debt that criples any chance of change whether we are independent or remain part of the UK

Both reports rely on some sort of mythical powers fact is Scotland will be no worse off out of the UK and will be exactly the same within it the only factor that changes that is what proportion of the national debt Scotland inherit and how they plan to service it.

Very Stupid question here is some laptops have a function key to switch the monitor off its normally default on but had one given to me recently and after scratching my head for two days decided to try it and screen came to life mine is FN and F5 but there pretty much model denpendent Just checked try FN and F6 to increase the brightness and FN and F12 to switch from internal to external monitor Another thing you can do is to take the battery out and press and hold the power button leave it for a few minutes then reassemble and reboot One last thing if all elses fails try booting it with ac power and no battery

Are you geting anything at the bios screen or nothing at all.

Well put. Small communities require services firstly to survive and certainly to prosper. Do people not read the news fact people buy houses and moved to areas only if the have decent services of which education would be at the top of that list

Well I had to change to the IP address but working fine with that Just checked puting www.shetlink.com automaticly takes you to the IP address now

Was it not hacked sure the last time I tried it there was a virus warning

I dont think it comes down to cost as previously stated Shetland is paid a premium for rural schools. You cannot compare the costs of a private boarding school to that of state education, for one thing the fees may well be 28K but there will be much more payable activity costs are 10% plus uniform etc so the costs are much greater than you have stated

Very well said as a parent

It does seem to be a bit of pointless legislation as improper use would be covered by current laws but this government is famous for introducing such laws

I wouldn't have thought there would have been a huge financial benefit unless it became a policy for say schools under a certain amount of pupils

Oh well must be a solution somewhere keep all the folks happy

Thanks Joannie I can see the point of the secondary education being centralised its the primary school provision that seems strange. Why have head teachers in the primary schools when it would be far better to utilise the teachers and class room assistants and have say heads floating between four schools perhaps one week a month surely keeping primary school education local means a far better environment for kids under the age of 11. I don’t know what a head is paid but saving three salaries would seem to be quite a saving to start with. I understand that the Curriculum for Excellence has brought in minimum standards but can the teachers not be more flexible and travel to offer this surely it is cheaper to have the teachers travel than bus all these kids in to Lerwick.

Hi all first post here so be gentle. I am one of those described as an outsider or incomer and yes I live on one of the Isles. I don’t think in all my years I have read such an emotive issue and I do feel for those who are affected. When I arrived I found it hard to grasp the need for some of the isles older kids to have to board but having been here a while I have got a grasp on the concept and would actually say it does benefit them and certainly improves communication skills. Now to the thread school closures. I have a couple of questions. Has alternatives to closing the schools been explored? Does Shetland council not get extra central funding in their budget to provide these remote services due to geographical layout? Do all these remote schools have a head teacher whether teaching or not? I find it hard to believe that in this day and age and with the available technology remote schools cannot remain open at an affordable cost. It does seem to be the way of Shetland Island council to cut rather than adapt services. I mean there is not many places down south you could travel 24 miles on a bus during peak hours for £3.

I get what papastour is saying. You wouldn't build a housing estate without services why would you expect people to move to Papa Stour while cutting them off..

Need to move a stock trailer from lerwick down to grutness for transportation to Fair Isle any ideas if anyone on Shetland offers this service and an idea of the cost. Thanks