C

With the amount of negative comments directed at the owners of the Voe shop when they mentioned their fuel promotion I don't understand why the same people are not passing comment on these posts by p_nut_uk as a form of advertisement. I personally have nothing against people advertising on this forum as I don't use the form enough to find it annoying. The posts which do are often more sensible and to the point that a lot of what is written on Shetlink. I quote from a post in the Voe Shop fuel promotion thread (http://www.shetlink.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13087) 'With regard to this particular establishment, a one-off mention and welcome to Shetland and so forth post is all well and good when the shop first re-opened but anything after that is, IMHO, advertising; to me, it doesn't matter if it is for the benefit of Shetlinkers or not as you could put forward the argument that other businesses also offer services that too are for the benefit of Shetlinkers.' It may just be double standards but it's not really fair. Some of the comments directed at the owner of the Voe Shop were quite direct when all he was trying to do was something positive for the community. Once again, I have nothing against this Codfather business. I wish them all the best and it is fine to see enterprises providing a service to communities outside Lerwick. Just like the Voe shop does. I have no connection to either and have never purchased anything from these companies.

Does anyone know if there is anywhere in Lerwick that you can get a pair of shoes resoled?

With all due respect Claudias, I don't think that the events surrounding Willie Shannon were to do with economics but I guess we will find out next week.

I think this is a rather large generalisation. I'm afraid that the reason that this is the case is simply due to the artificial situation created by the high proportion of people on the isles who are employed in public sector. I think if you were to look at private business then most will have noticed some of the effects of the recession, especially if they are exporting from Shetland. If the council realised that perhaps it was time to start looking at making some savings then people in Shetland would find out that recession is not something that happens to other people. Although, when we still have organisations who promote the use of something like one third of a million pounds on putting a couple of lights in a few remote locations then we will have to wait for any realisation to occur. Apparently the invitations to the launch of Mirrie Dancers were of very high quality!

I think that a psychiatrist may be able to spend an interesting hour with Mr Hill. He is really just looking to provoke people. What is most annoying is that he is probably drawing a state pension from Britain despite proclaiming Forvik residency. Doesn't he still live in the South Mainland? If he is going to try and charge someone £1000 if they touch his vehicle then why do the relevant authorities not pass on the bill for his last rescue! A fairly proportionate response. On a lighter note the challenge counter on his site is amusing. 313 days without challenge. Shetlinkers could surely muster up a small group and retake the island for Britain. It could probably be done within an hour of departing the mainland. For Queen, country and all that!

From Dave Wheeler's weekly weather forecast email: My apologies, but www.northisles-weather.co.uk (including webcams) is still unavailable while my ISP relocates to a new data-centre. Hope to be back online asap. Dave WEATHER OUTLOOK FOR THE NORTHERN ISLES & NORTHEAST SCOTLAND Saturday, 25 April 2009 at 10:49 HEADLINES TODAY: SUNNY SPELLS. HAZY TONIGHT: MISTY, A FEW SHOWERS TOMORROW: MISTY, MOSTLY DRY DAYS 3-5:. CLEARER AND BRIGHTER DAYS 6-10: SHOWERS So hopefully will be back online soon! C

If you try http://www.bbc.co.uk/radioscotland/shetland/ It does work and I think they did mention it a couple of times on the wireless. For a while it was a bit difficult to find the programme online. C

I believe that there are particles incident on the earth from cosmic sources which have an energy greater than that produced inside the accelerator. I reckon we will be ok and there will be no end of the world because of the LHC experiments. I remember people being scared of the millenium bug (Y2K) and the impending doom that it would bring about!! What a joke!

The councillors who were not present during the meeting were indeed on official business trying to do good for the local community by meeting with the Scottish Goverment to try and reduce the excessive licensing charges due to be introduced by new licensing regulations. Such legislation could have dire consequences on local rural communities (halls and local shops). An important meeting don't you think. I imagine one of the reasons for the casting vote to be used in the way it was used was to prevent the convener form being seen as the person who prevented Mareel from being built. I imagine the press would have spun it along those lines anyway. Personally I feel that if he knew how the vote would go and was probably glad that some of the objectors were not there. What got me thinking was Jonathan Wills comments regarding the levels of staffing in Shetland Arts. Quite a few of them were at the meeting and have probably attended every council meeting where decisions on Mareel took place. This was not essential as they didn't need to be there. The decisions would have been made without them and if they were not busy enough to have work to do well then I think I have made my point. The new Lerwick high school was up for discussion that day too. I don't think any of the High School staff were at the meeting. I guess they were busy enough educating the children of the community!