Talpa

Oh oh oh - and KLF and Zodiac Mindwarp..... and Cumbawumba

ooppps.. I mean The Andrews Sisters (and Bing Crosby) and Perry Como while I'm at it....

Hmmm.... 1. AIR, Nick Cave, Diamanda Galas, Gogol Bardello, Sigur Ros (but in Staneydale Temple), The Raconteurs, Bjork (wearing swan dress), Madeleine Peyroux, Libertines 2. Beverley Sisters, Christopher Walken and Marlon Brando doing a duet, (well, it's the fantasy selection, hmmm... maybe that's a different type of fantasy), Ivor Novello, DB as Ziggy Stardust, Marlene D, Johnny Cash, Sex Pistols, Patsy Cline, Jacques Brel, Eva Cassidy 3. Peatstack, Rumshack Blues Band and, em, Hanggai (????!!!!!!) well, if they do the FF does that mean they count as local? and have to agree... anything with Jack Sandison up front

That's not true. The problem with the banks goes back to the 80s. RBS started a massive expansion into America (starting buying up American banks etc in 1988.) and also into insurance and global and more risky investment banking/ speculation. They continued to swallowed up more financial services/ banks/ etc unchecked. Then the warnings started. By then Labour were in power and, yes, should have done something. By the time America went tits up RBS were up to their necks in it. Gordon Brown was key to brokering the deal with world leaders in 2009 that started to turn around global recession (which could have been much much worse). He was so unpopular by then the UK population hardly remembers nor was it widely covered by the media at the time. I’m not a labour voter (vote for Tony B-liar?? no), but that is the truth of it. It started under the Tories in the 80s and got way out of control during the 90’s. Labour took power in 1997 and should have done something early-mid 2000s. GB was key to getting the world to agree to a deal that halted it, but by then most of the damage was done. . That is what people are paying for now. The poor will be hit first and hardest for ideological reasons under the Tories. These aren’t ‘excuses’, they are the consequences of flawed policies on thousands, maybe millions, of real people’s lives not just be the ‘feckless’. They need to claw back a lot more money than that would yield. There are some valid points from people in favour of this, but dismissing the people who point out the problems and back them up with facts as making ‘excuses’ is putting your head in the sand. On the other hand, maybe thought-out, polite and reasoned debate doesn’t work. If peaceful demonstration changed anything they’d make them illegal. Like it or not, the Millbank protest coverage was huge, global, people are talking about it and the LibDems will lose millions of their traditional supporters over that issue. At least the Tories have the political savvy to hit those that don’t usually vote for them the hardest. Getting revenge on the lazy might make you feel better but it won’t solve the problem.

Thousands of council workers are about to be sacked. But, that's cool because now the unemployed can paint, weed, litter pick, grave dig etc. etc. on the cheap. Joined up thinking or what???!! I say sack the whole of the public sector (including MPs) put them on benefits then force them to do their old jobs or lose their dole. Savings a go-go....

the difference being is one half of the partnership is out earning the money so that together they can bring up their children. the couple on benefits sit home screwing and producing ever more kids that the rest of us have no choice but to bloody well pay for. with a dole check should come some kind of contraception if you cant feed em dont breed em. Have I woken up in Jeremy Kyle world?!!? We all pay for children’s education, health care, carbon usage etc. etc. with no guarantee those children will do anything useful in the end. Everyone gets handouts/ state support in one way or another and there are some very judgmental, rich, lazy people out there who are not contributing much except more off-spring. Point is that Mr. Cameron’s happy clappy big society will not work. You were very offended when I asked if you are happy to ‘benefit’ from unemployed customers. Like you, people defend themselves when challenged, they fight their own corner. The cuts might look fine on a balance sheet but be prepared for the real world consequences (crime etc. see above). I don’t need (or want) to wind you up with personal attacks – I think you are fully sprung and loaded already!! But, this stuff needs debated and I am glad you care enough to get worked up about it. More and more people will do as the reality kicks in. Anyway, I’m a child-free, risk taking, self-employed entrepreneur and apparently I have to mop up all the mess. Work to do...

WTF talpa are you on about, for a start a couple of those lazy sobs are due me money through not paying their bills, I could and probably should put a debt collector on their ass and let the charges mount up but I dont. They just wont get credit next time and unfortunately it means that others who probably would get credit now wont because why the hell should I take the risk. Hey maybe I should withdraw the service from the ones I think dont deserve it or are living at the taxpayers expense just so you can sit there all smarmy a say "See what that nasty fascist is up to now" It will of course mean that they then have to travel to avail themselves of the service I provide and life will then get a lot more expensive for them meaning that their ill gotten gains have to go even further. you would like that wouldnt you. you are quick to critisize folk that take a risk with their own cash and provide service to the community because hey we are all robber barons after all. Get a grip and join the 21st century the class divide you and your ilk thrive on only exists in your tiny little minds. As for new labour being capitalists give me a break the party consists of lawers and accountants the biggest bunch of parasites that ever walked the face of the earth. just like the scotish socialists with comrade sheridon who would rather hob nob with actors and artists(oh yeah and hookers) than attend the opening of a community centre. left wing politics and polititions are all about loudly telling the masses that the rich are screwing them while quietly doing the screwing themselves. I have a faint hope that the coalition will be able to sort the mess out that labour has left us with but with the unions shaping up for strikes and disputes at the behest of "new" "new labour" in an attempt to cause as much civil unrest as possible Im afraid they really have their work cut out for them. Unfortunately we are all in this together even though we may wish to lighten the load so at least those of us willing to work and get on have a chance of doing so, liberalism in todays society wont let us. We dont even have the option of survival of the fittest anymore because we have to drag the lazy incompetant and corrupt along with us. If i was religious I would say god help us but Im not so we can only try and help ourselves. We are drowning in a sea of debt and some damn fools want us to carry on spending because havent you heard we can borrow our way out of debt. for 13 long years TB and GB told us things were going great the economy was on the up "the longest period of growth in british history" "no more boom and bust" so no need to save for a rainy day something every housewife in the country who stayed home to bring up the kids while husband worked knew to be complete folly. So instead of moaning about the coalition who inherited the mess from labour who you no doubt voted for (if you even got of your ass and bothered to vote that is) try getting the head down and getting on with it we are in the sharn accept it and deal with it. Nothing annoys me more than apathy. BdaH, you are angry, passionate and very, very annoying. I wish there were more like us in the world….

Sounds like a bl**dy marvellous plan, we could all sit around in the sun, quaffing ouzo and getting royally drunk whilst debating rather than tapping away on a keyboard on a freezing rock!

What are all these people who are going to lose their jobs, benefits, homes going to do? Sit nicely and take it on the chin because they are part of the big society??? Come on! They will do whatever they have to do to so that they and their families survive. Dodgy ebay sales, undeclared earnings and crime rate will rocket. What do we do with these new (and probably reluctant) tax dodgers and offenders? Put them in prison? Sorry, no room, Ken ‘Jazz’ Clarke has seen to that (he’s right though –prison doesn’t work) Community service? Sorry, there’s no gardening, painting or litter picking to do – the long term unemployed have pulled all the weeds, white-washed all the care homes and lifted all the curly wurly wrappers. Seems Mrs. T was right, there is no such thing as society, certainly not a big one. She’s back, she’s on her last legs and this time it’s personal. It’s b&*ger all to do with what you think is right or wrong, it is common sense. I think we’re going to need a bigger boat…

Everyone either works and makes their own money or gets handouts from someone else. What is the difference between ‘benefits’ and ‘housekeeping’? whaaaatt???? Real world - a lot of people are going to take a hammering as a result of the coalition cuts. Cameron and Co.s business plan for the nation relies on us all being in this together. Not likely if you have just been shafted and are subsiding the global banking f**k up by losing your job, your home, your emergency tugs, your library etc. etc. People will fight tooth and nail to protect their own slice of the cake (e.g. it is someone’s home in London or Shetland’s tug). Coalition’s cuts might add up on a spreadsheet, but the real world consequences of those cuts are not a big society, they are dog eat dog. And some people think that Mareel’s business plan is based on cloud cuckoo land!?? I’ve more confidence in humans’ desire for a pie and a pint than I do in their willingness to sacrifice their homes, jobs, emergency services for the ‘common good’.

Does your ‘vital service to the community’ involve pocketing taxpayers money through providing a services or goods to 'lazy son-daughters of a bitch'? Or, do you refuse their ill-gotten gains on principle?

Note how our lovely we’re all in it together, big society is already eating itself, angrily disintegrating and dividing as a consequence of the coalitions actions. Ok, I’ll try joining in. I single out for vilification women (or men) who just happen to have well-off partners/ spouses and chose to stay at home, not work, have time with their children and then without a sniff of irony are outraged by other women (or men) with young families who are poor and chose to do the same. Stupid! It is the better off that could afford child care and get a job, the poor can’t. Are the un-working rich also feckless? If the working, well-off partner/ spouse has a job in the public sector we’re paying for their stay-at-home other halves as tax payers or if they are working in the private sector we’re paying for them as consumers. I have heard well-off non-working stay-at-homes be very vocal in their judgements of their poorer counter parts, usually over lunch. Get a job love....

I guess that the other issue is that a whack of Mareel is being paid for by funding bodies/ tax payers that are not in Shetland - so they gotta get a fair crack of the whip south when there are jobs/ tenders up for grabs? Also, it would likley be hugely illegal not to put it out to national tender, again as a heap of it is being paid for nationally?

Oh you are a one WiiMan, you cheeky little rabble rouser you - it's not SA money, they are fundraising for the film and doing so in a way that means they have part ownership so profits comes back here (eh... and is an income stream for Mareel - snacks alone ain't gonna cut it after all, as has been said) rather than just lining the pockets of Hollywood studios.

Tricky one - if it was a tender and local firms did apply and the sooth one won it is presumably because they were just the best fit for the job - or should it be positive discrimination? Like all female shortlists? Museum PR/ branding was mostly marketing and design firms that were not Shetland based - they just wanted the best for the job and tendered on an even playing field and those were the ones that won. Re. funds up front - far as I understand - it is just having the money that was agreed for the stuff that was agreed. They are ready to put the stock in now so want to get on with it and get the doors open....Nothing more, nothing less.