Windwalker

I remember it well, but that democracy, Shetland would be no better under an independent Scotland, they will also strip us bare.

I suspect that there wasn’t much thought put into it. Mindless vandalism. Don’t think we can blame the official SNP for that. Don’t think it’s a double bluff either - just mindless.
Perhaps a symptom of what happens when people confuse nationalism with antiestablishmentarianism.
No doubt encouraged by all the banners and posters fluttering in the wind like a call to arms.

My main issue with the SNP has been independence and their obsession with it, despite the country telling them they didn’t want it at the last referendum. But after seeing the way they are conducting this by-election campaign, I’m now more concerned at what I see as heavy handed, over the top tactics, which seems to be the SNPs way of operating.
 
Whilst it seems the rest of the candidates are very much in charge of their own campaigns, the same cannot be said for Tom Wills. Clearly the SNP bosses are in charge of his campaign. this tells us all we need to know about how the SNP will treat Shetland in the future no matter how genuine Tom feels about his policies.

How about both?  How about looking into carbon capture to offset the emissions from fossil fuels while using the fact that Shetland has multiple green energy sources literally on her doorstep and work out how to best harness them?  

I think Tom Wills could do a good job, but there is no way I would every vote for the SNP.
So do you go for a party rep or an independent ? Usually I’m pretty sure who I’d vote for, but this is the first time I feel a few of them could be good in the job.
 
Totally undecided at present, so let’s hope they take this short time to sell themselves and convince me who to vote for.

I think Tom Wills could do a good job, but there is no way I would every vote for the SNP.
So do you go for a party rep or an independent ? Usually I’m pretty sure who I’d vote for, but this is the first time I feel a few of them could be good in the job.
 
Totally undecided at present, so let’s hope they take this short time to sell themselves and convince me who to vote for.

I see as well as having two visits from Nicola Sturgen, we are having a 2nd visit from the deputy leader along with MEP Christian Allard, then to be followed by Westminster leader Ian Blackford.
 
It is unbelievable the money the SNP are throwing at this, pity they can’t find the time to come up when issues like airport parking charges are being discussed..
 
According to the Sunday Times, they say the SNP have run a highly visible campaign, importing teams of activists from the mainland. That’s maybe the group Ghostie saw around his neighbourhood.
 
This all smacks of more than just desperation to win a local by-election !!!

Your likely right Capeesh, but what’s obvious is the “suggestion” is made to feel more like a threat. If you don’t vote SNP, your not going to be listened too.

I see lots of new SNP posters stuck to lampposts around us over the weekend, they must have had a second delivery. Now if the chap who complained that the queens picture in the Irish parliament offended him was awarded a lump of cash, I wonder if I could get the same as these SNP posters on all the lampposts offend me.
 
Perhaps they could have put a proportion of the money they’ve thrown at this by-election towards keeping the Sandwick nursery, now that would have been money well spent.
 
A vote for the SNP is a vote for independence, and if you think Brexit has been a disaster, just wait for the years of upheaval that would follow should the SNP win a future independence vote. I will never understand a party who fights so hard for independence from the uk, yet so desperately wants to be ruled by the conditions of the EU.
 
I can however understand why they are keeping stumm about independence during this election, you don’t see any mention of their top priority wish on any of their posters or leaflets, wonder why.

Dunna worry about it Ghostie, if we dunna lik da outcome we can just argue fir anider vote. Dats whit da remainers and the SNP are doing. If it’s guid enough fir dem, it’s guid enough fir wis.

Only if their SNP

I see lots of new SNP posters stuck to lampposts around us over the weekend, they must have had a second delivery. Now if the chap who complained that the queens picture in the Irish parliament offended him was awarded a lump of cash, I wonder if I could get the same as these SNP posters on all the lampposts offend me.
 
Perhaps they could have put a proportion of the money they’ve thrown at this by-election towards keeping the Sandwick nursery, now that would have been money well spent.
 
A vote for the SNP is a vote for independence, and if you think Brexit has been a disaster, just wait for the years of upheaval that would follow should the SNP win a future independence vote. I will never understand a party who fights so hard for independence from the uk, yet so desperately wants to be ruled by the conditions of the EU.
 
I can however understand why they are keeping stumm about independence during this election, you don’t see any mention of their top priority wish on any of their posters or leaflets, wonder why.

I see lots of new SNP posters stuck to lampposts around us over the weekend, they must have had a second delivery. Now if the chap who complained that the queens picture in the Irish parliament offended him was awarded a lump of cash, I wonder if I could get the same as these SNP posters on all the lampposts offend me.
 
Perhaps they could have put a proportion of the money they’ve thrown at this by-election towards keeping the Sandwick nursery, now that would have been money well spent.
 
A vote for the SNP is a vote for independence, and if you think Brexit has been a disaster, just wait for the years of upheaval that would follow should the SNP win a future independence vote. I will never understand a party who fights so hard for independence from the uk, yet so desperately wants to be ruled by the conditions of the EU.
 
I can however understand why they are keeping stumm about independence during this election, you don’t see any mention of their top priority wish on any of their posters or leaflets, wonder why.

Well Capeesh, I just hope your brother has obtained a degree from the uni that will serve him and the country in the years to come. I'm afraid so many have gone through uni just because they can, and come out waving a degree that is no use to them in the future, and no use to anyone else either. I wish him well if the taxpayer funded degree proves valuable.
 
My daughter has had problems since the closure  of the Sandwick nursery, so it's not all good news on that front. Perhaps that nursery could have been thrown a lifeline.
 
As for the new Anderson High School, well that is certainly impressive. However that has been built using the much maligned PFI, or Private Finance Initiative. A large majority of buildings and all roads built taking this route end up being maintained by the private operators, squeezing out public sector workers. Not only that but it costs a fortune.
 
The Anderson High School cost around 41 million to build but will cost around 102 million to the country over the 25-30 year life span.
The new Aberdeen bypass cost around 469 million to build but will cost taxpayers around 1.45 billion over the 30 years ahead.
City of Glasgow College cost around 193 million to build but the private contract will cost taxpayers around 604 million.
 
The list goes on. Alec Salmond's baby, the SFT, or Scottish Futures Trust is responsible for a large part of this funding fiasco. Vast amounts of taxpayers money heading into private hands.
 
Carillion's collapse brought some of this into the daylight when the risk reverted to the government and they had to pick up the bill to provide public services.
 
PFI has been discredited by cost, complexity, and inflexibility, yet the SNP seem oblivious to this. The Tories and Blair's labour party were heavily involved in PFI, and it is taken up with enthusiasm by our SNP leaders.
 
We will be paying for the Anderson high school for a very long time, it cannot be viewed as some kind of gift from the SNP. 

Luckily I haven’t seen them near my door, they would have gotten a short shift.

Perhaps they would like to see the damage being caused by Viking Energy whilst they're up here and explain how a helicopter taking water from lochs is carbon neutral?  The more I read about the SNP, the more tempted I am to put my views about the LDs and Brexit to one side and actually vote for Beatrice.

^ Care to post the full quote then, as the only thing available to some of us is the 'quote' in the first paragraph - The Herald site requires registration to see it all, and not everybody is willing to do that, especilally just to see one more piece of space filler propaganda.
 
The fact remains though, that if anybody within the SNP government/party has said anything that could be construed to suggest a constituency served by a non-SNP MSP may end up getting a 'lesser' service as a result, is grounds to raise an eyebrow. Any government's job, as far as I'm concerned is to serve and provide for all parts on the territory they govern equally and fairly, certainly where one of the ruling party's members is the representative it makes doing that easier all round, but the onus still lies with the government to work with representatives from other political persuasions so that they do the job they're elected to do properly. That's the theory anyway, but as we know, its seldom demonstrated in practice.
 
Its not just this guy in the acticle that's at it though, Wills' own bumph includes the soundbite bullet point headline "Real Influence at Holyrood" which carries the same implied message - That returning any of the other nine candidates equals less/zero 'influsnce' on what happens in Edinburgh than returning him.

It seems pretty clear from the last 10 years of 'governance' the inherent SNP attitude is one of 'if you're not for us, you're against us'.
 
Surely, seeing as we've resisted their choice of worker ant for us this far, they should be trying to be extremely nice to us and be promising us how much better things will be if we have one of their people speaking for us, instead all we're getting are 'threats' of how much worse things will get if we choose someone of another political persuasion to speak for us. A case of preferring the stick over the carrot.

So SNP deputy Keith Brown now warning us we will get poorer public services if we don't vote the
right way.
As I've said before, the SNP have deliberately held back on ferry fares, etc. as we have not voted
their way in the past. This was purely political.
Now lots of promises on these things are are being hurled our way.
I don't like being blackmailed.

If they do so much for us anyway Capeesh, why is Keith Brown issuing warnings?

Yes I’m sure your correct, and I believe Tom Wills is a fine man. It’s the SNP Top dogs I wouldn’t trust for one minute.
 
Most of the things Tom will fight for have been on the agenda for a while, nothing new. But we have been ignored so far. Now if your telling me we will get them because we vote in an snp candidate, then that tells you all you need to know about the Scottish Government. They are meant to govern for the whole of Scotland not just those places that vote for them.

According to the Scottish Herald they state that the SNP deputy is under fire for voter warning after he appeared to threaten voters with poorer public services if they don’t back them in the by-election. (Sorry don’t know how to link it but it’s on the news page)
 
(Moderator edit - we’ll post the link for you) https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17843237.snp-deputy-fire-voter-warning-shetland/
 
He’s stated as saying ‘that if a candidate from another party won the Shetland seat they would not have real influence with our Scottish Government. “
 
This is why the people of Shetland should show them that we are not interested in their political threats and vote for anyone except the SNP. They need to be reminded that a lot of the cash they have to spend comes from the Shetland economy, yet they hit us the hardest with their cuts and break their promises. They have thrown everything they can at the by-election but also feel the need to try and blackmail us into voting for them.
 
This is a party who shown little interest in Shetland until this last few weeks and all their propaganda and tons of leaflets coming through our doors, forgets to highlight their main agenda. Independence.
 
We need a Shetland voice in Edinburgh, not an Edinburgh voice in Shetland (pinched from a quote by Beatrice Wishart in the same article).
 
If the SNP think for one minute that they can bully Shetland into voting for them, they obviously don’t know us very well.

Yes I’m sure your correct, and I believe Tom Wills is a fine man. It’s the SNP Top dogs I wouldn’t trust for one minute.
 
Most of the things Tom will fight for have been on the agenda for a while, nothing new. But we have been ignored so far. Now if your telling me we will get them because we vote in an snp candidate, then that tells you all you need to know about the Scottish Government. They are meant to govern for the whole of Scotland not just those places that vote for them.

Thanks Peeriebryan

Yet, not a day goes by that I do not see at least 2/3 people driving along with phones held to their heads. 
Some are "repeat offenders" who should be fairly easy to "pick up" as well as it would appear that they cannot "live" without their phones.
 
What about taking their phones off them as part of the "punishment" ?