Suffererof1crankymofo

What's ridiculous is some people trying to make out that UK policies and laws aren't affected by the EU whatsoever; perhaps one day they'll open their eyes. Being dictated to by the EU as to what tax is to be levelled sure as hell makes us 100% independent NOT.

No, Wheelsup, the only option left for Scotland will NOT be independence. The minority in Scotland might well support independence, which isn't possible by being in the EU, for starters. An option for Scotland is to embrace Brexit like the rest of the UK and carry on trading with its biggest trading partner - England.

@ cicero - You can drive with all the care and attention in the world but all it takes is one driver not to be doing that and you're screwed, regardless of where you happened to pass your test and drive. I passed my car driving test in London and my motorcycle tests in Chelmsford, both very different traffic-wise. I never drove in snow in the car in London and only once on the motorbike, but have driven several times in snow up here. I'd never driven in fog either down there, and the only time I ever overtook anything in London was a milk float on my driving test (but did obviously overtake vehicles outside of London)! NOBODY has experience of motorways until the first time they venture onto them, normally when they are no longer a learner. Where you going to draw the line, perhaps commenting that some toonies never venture outside of it and wouldn't know what to do on a single track lane with passing bays? And what about those living in the Highlands who never venture say to the likes of Edinburgh or Glasgow, you gonna have a pop at them too?

Hell, no. There's more than one problem with this junction:- 1) Impatient drivers, especially those turning right into the junction and turning left towards town. 2) Not being able to judge the speed at which vehicles are moving when approaching the junction from South Mainland; when you are sitting at the junction say waiting to turn right to travel South, there's a dip in the road further up which makes it difficult to judge the vehicles' speed (which might be adding to the thought of 1) above!) 3) Easy to overshoot the junction, especially in icy conditions. I don't think there is enough space for either a roundabout or traffic lights, although I'd prefer traffic lights to a roundabout. It might be time to seriously consider re-routing the road. Afterthought: Drop the speed limit on that section?

I saw on youchoob a spokesperson for Extinction Rebllion being interviewed on This Morning. Extinction Rebellion are a de-centralised organisation with no one in charge. So basically, each group can do what they want. The aim of disrupting transport was apparently to make people stop and think as to the lack of transport and other major disruptions to peoples' lives that climate change is going to bring about. They intend to continue protests and disruptions to folks' lives until they basically get what they want cos we all doomed. Apparently, voting in politicians isn't good enough for them.

And also from the NHS website:- "Most people will recover from measles after around 7 to 10 days, but sometimes it can lead to serious complications."

The response was OTT. I'm not against one organisation notifying passengers, but two? (Northlink and NHS) No, vaccines are not 100% safe, see NHS listed MMR vaccine side effects: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/mmr-side-effects/ Small pox had a very high death rate and nearly always killed, that cannot be said for measles. The majority of people catching measles, according to the NHS, get over it with no complications at all. The complications would appear to set in from the non-treatment of a high temperature - yet a side effect of the MMR vaccine is that some will experience a high temperature.

@Frances144 - They have had some good ballet films shown up here though and considering there's a lot of other places throughout the UK that didn't have those shown at their local cinemas, I think the fact they were shown up here shows that Mareel have gone the extra mile. It would be nice to see a ballet at Christmas, but I guess that depends on what is on release ballet-wise, plus what mainstream films are the season's 'must haves'; it be nice to think that the likes of The Nutcracker were deemed to be 'must haves'.

@sharalee99 - Did you get out of bed on the wrong side this morning? You obviously missed the smiley winky face! Good point you made regarding people walking there and don't drive; however, Mareel is meant to be for all of Shetland, not just those living in Lerwick. I would have gone to Mareel more than twice since it opened IF I could have got tickets/afforded to drive there/been something on that I wanted to see. I did enjoy the niche films I saw and thought it was great that they were on show up here. I didn't like the disabled access being reliant upon staff for the main screen and much preferred the smaller cinema. The staff were polite, cheerful and helpful. The bar was closed for refurbishment so can't comment on that. A non-alcoholic drink and a packet of sweets coming to around a fiver was OTT though. Ah yes, tickets: What a faff about to try and actually book something! In this day and age of (ahem) fighting climate change, do we really need large, thick, cardboard tickets just to see a film? The building interior is starting to look worn with normal wear and tear; however, there are two rather prominent cracks running through the Ground Floor. Great that it was busy when you attended, perhaps due to the genre of films I watched, that could explain why only one cinema was full (the smaller one) but that said, there was a film on in the other main cinema at the time. It wasn't busy. When I have wanted to watch mainstream released films, I've never been able to get tickets for films on at a suitable time unless I wanted to take a day off work and watch during the day. Live music? Never attended a live event there yet, I'm still waiting for all these groups who would be flocking to play at Mareel actually materialising as opposed to the 'who, never heard of 'em'/'copy acts' that seem to be appearing. Not a lover of popcorn so hey, not pleepsing on about not being able to buy fresh popcorn there.

So how is Mareel doing these days? Anyone changed their opinions on the place? I've been twice. Sssh, car park wasn't even half full on both occasions.

@Davie P - I read that FullFacts web page too after viewing the video; however, like a load of other stuff on the internet, we don't really know that's accurate either! 'After all, if it's on the interwebz, it must be twueeeeee!'

@ DavieP - here it is on youchoob: https://youtu.be/ZnndQhTHtAc

@ DavieP - When they were debating the No Deal in the House of Lords, one Lord spoke about it. There should be a House of Lords' television recording of it somewhere and it was that part of the recording that was circulating on Facebook. I think the referral to the Treaty was that other bits of it come into force in January 2020.

Has it dawned on anyone yet that the withdrawal agreement doesn't mention trade deals? Having a political declaration means nowt. So I don't get why Labour are insisting on a deal by 31 December 2019. And what's this other stuff doing the Failbook rounds about if the EU does grant an extension beyond 31 October 2019, that it means that Madge will have to abdicate cos part of the duties her and the House of Lords do won't exist under the Lisbon Treaty in January 2020 so how could she give Royal Assent to something that was basically signing away parts of the vows she took at her coronation? Fake news? True but just not in the main media or what? It got stupid trying to keep up with BREXIT with all the motions and meaningful votes a few months back. Yellowhammer reminds me of Blair getting advice on weapons of mass destruction which turned out to be based on what some student had put in a dissertation.

I'm finding it a tad ironic, whalsa, that you're now advocating autonomy when Wir Shetland appears to have disappeared without trace with no explanation as to why to the general public at large. I found little, if any substance, in what Ryan had to say; several people have said to me that you might as well have voted for the SNP because Ryan just kept going on about working with the Government and no real detail as to how he would achieve results; the devil is in the detail, as they say. However, I do think this election has demonstrated just how vicious, vitriolic, blinkered and downright fanatical many of the SNP supporters are on social media, resorting to personal attacks if anyone dare to criticise their beloved party. I have never seen such intolerance in any election previously and I, for one, would hope that along with the veiled threats by SNP politicans themselves, that has opened people's eyes. Beatrice will be a member of the opposition. It's not down to her to go begging for our services to be well funded, any Scot. Gov. should be providing services for all, not dependent upon whether or not a certain constituency voted for them. The Scot. Gov. prepare their budget and it is then debated, it is the opposition's job to vote against it if it is a pile of poo but hey, never mind, Ryan would work with the Government in any event. If his backing of the wheelie bin scheme is anything to go by, then thank goodness he never got voted in. Soooo whalsa, are you going to stand in 18 months' time advocating autonomy or what?

@ Davie P - There was more than one Leave campaign group.

Complaining about an extra 4 days of no parliament; oh, my heart bleeds. Australia, Canada and other countries close down parliaments in the same way all the time and nobody bats an eyelid. Add on a couple of days either side of being closed for party conference season and all hell breaks loose!

@ Capeesh 100's of affordable homes you can see all over Shetland and loads more in the pipeline for those Shetlanders who can't afford extortionate private rents or massive mortgages. - Many mortgages are less than the cost of renting. I doubt that we actually need as much social housing as the powers that be would like to make out that we do. Shetlanders can go to University without having to pay for the privilege, they pay 9k a year in England. - I'm not in favour of free higher education for all, see earlier comments. Built a new high school, - Wasn't it PFI, thus costing an arm and a leg in the long run? Free prescriptions for sick Shetlanders, - That's if you can actually get your GP to prescribe the drug you need plus I don't see why someone on say £100k should get free prescriptions. Free personal care for elderly Shetlanders and then went on to extend it to those that need it regardless of age. - nope, it isn't free personal care for all, it depends upon how you have been assessed by your local authority with shopping and housework, etc., still being chargeable in many circumstances. Bigger discounts on travel to the mainland, - Suggesting freezing air fares/keeping discounts at a certain level isn't really factoring in any overheads' increases Loganair/Northlink might face plus for every £ spent on the mainland, it's a £ less being spent in local shops. Also, if you don't sort out paying ya staff well enough (Air traffic controllers), you ain't gonna be able to fly to the mainland. Nearly doubled the free nursery hours for Shetlanders with young families. - At the expense of local private nurseries being forced to close/considering closing.

@ Ghostie Quite. Less than 10 years ago when at ARI Pharmacy, when asking where I lived and my reply, the person asked if we had got electricity! I can't help but wonder of my reply should I be asked again in a few years' time, only to advise them that we have plenty of power cuts due to the interconnector getting damaged/the wind not blowing and how we no longer have our own power station.

@tirvaluk - is it not a case of whom the press tends to report on? I know from speaking to some past councillors, it wasn't a case of them not speaking up but a case of the press not reporting on it or not publishing their letters, etc. In any event, even if Ryan has been vocal, I think his electoral literature is lacking in detail and the devil, as they say, is in the detail.

Surprised at the amount of folk voting for Ryan, given his leaflet just seems full of "I will work with the Government to ..." as opposed to 'I will endeavour to make the Government work for you/Shetland'. HOW will he work with the Government? Throw his toys out of the pram when anyone asks him a difficult question? The LDs have been criticised by the SNP for not working with the Government re budgets; well, they are in opposition and besides, the SNP should know what each region needs. It shouldn't be down to individual MSPs to go begging because a Government is meant to work for all. Honestly, you might as well vote for SNP instead of Ryan if all he's going to do is "work with the Government". What if the Government propose something totally abhorrent to Shetlanders? Come to think of it, that doesn't leave much out!

Anyone else wish some of these independent candidates would withdraw?

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.

@Windwalker - Apparently I slept through it! Ghostie reckons I was the lucky one.

A freeze on ferry fare would work wonders if the price of diesel soared. Free fares for foot travellers on ferries? No doubt in the interests of those living on Shetland, they'll introduce free bus fares too. All this rubbish about free prescriptions and what else is free under SNP rule is rubbish, it comes out of the central pot, taxes. No mention as to how businesses are struggling or closing down as a result of the increases in business rates. Holyrood is dysfunctional.