Capeesh

This is the safest of safe seats for the LibDems, if they put a LibDem rosette on a freshly clipped sheep and put it up for election it would most likely win by a landslide and be bleating away in Holyrood till the next election. I have to disagree with JGHR when he says the millennials and post millennials will decide the vote, I hope I'm wrong but when I go to the polling booths and look around, the older ones always seem to vastly outnumber the younger ones.

He wouldn't have been an SNP candidate then. There are no SNP peers because unlike LibDems, Labour and the Tories who regularly award themselves, party donors, and other cronies peerages (800 members and rising), they believe the unelected upper house is an "affront to democracy", they've described the House of Lords as "the most absurd and ridiculous legislature anywhere in the world" and that it "should be abolished". They believe so strongly about it they put it in their constitution.

^^ Tax the sick with prescription charges. Abolish free nursery places. Make working parents pay extortionate childcare costs. Axe free education. Saddle our youngsters with £36k tuition fee debt before they even start working. Hard Brexit to really damage crofters livelihoods. I don't fancy your party but hey ho, each to their own

The Scottish Lairds were doing the same all over Scotland not just Shetland. If you're looking for the modern day equivalent you won't find them in Holyrood, they're more likely to be in the Palace of Westminster snoring away at our expense in the House of Lords or on the Tory benches in the House of Commons.I would like to think most people are intelligent enough to place their vote based on policies that affect their everyday lives not on Scottish tartan shortbread stereotypes, roadsigns or things that happened centuries ago. Policies like our bairns being able to Uni without them having to pay £9,000 a year tuition fees, free prescriptions, longer nursery hours, free care for the elderly or any of the many other things the Scottish Parliament has done to make myself and many other of my fellow Shetlanders lives better since devolution.

Who was in charge when we got these tiny boats? Was Tavish not the transport minister at the time? Nevermind, maybe we could trade one of our punts for this

This poll of the Tory party membership is an eye opener. The Conservative and "Unionist" party couldn't give a hoot about the UK union, they would happily wreck the economy and see their own political party destroyed, all in the name of Brexit. At this rate Scotland won't have to vote for independence, the English nationalists look like they're going to boot us out.

The thought of a kamikaze No Deal Brexit with the lying, lazy, incompetent, hypocritical, egomaniacal buffoon Boris Johnson at the helm fills me with a sick feeling of dread. ...Unless of course you're one of the lucky few in the top 10% who'll be sipping champagne and toasting their massive tax cuts while the plebs struggle to pay their bills, or worse still, have to visit one of the many food banks that have sprung up after nearly a decade of Tory rule.

NFU presidents opinion on a no deal Brexit... ".. a no deal scenario would be catastrophic for British agriculture.." Are there any crofters on here? It would be interesting to hear their view.

^Every time the charlatan Farage comes under a bit of scrutiny (almost never) he wails like a baby and runs off in a huff.

...Liam Fox, him who previously claimed that any post BREXIT trade deal would be "the easiest in human history", went to Geneva last year to instruct the WTO that a post BREXIT UK would simply adopt the very favorable terms in the existing EU schedules of membership they currently enjoy and which was negotiated for them as a member of the EU by the EU . 4. At the Geneva meeting the USA, New Zealand, Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil very quickly kiboshed Fox's pompous plan and sent him homeward to think again. 5. Disabused of the notion that bossing the WTO members into allowing Great Britain to dictate the terms of their membership schedules would be the easiest of things it eventually dawned on Fox that perhaps Theresa Mays deal with the EU wasn't such a bad thing after all, and so at the back end of last year he changed his mind and concluded that Mrs May had in fact achieved "the best possible deal that safely delivers BREXIT"... Delusional British exceptionalism at its best, people like Liam Fox, Boris Johnson and that monopoly character guy Rees-Mogg actually believe they can strut about the globe like peacocks and all others will bow and be in awe of their splendour.I'm ashamed to admit that I thought the education that most of our masters in the palace of Westminster enjoyed might at least give them some idea of what they're doing. The reality is it's all smoke and mirrors, they're completely clueless. Brexit has cleared the fog and stripped us naked, we are now an international laughing stock, any respect we might have had has turned to pity and ridicule, and let's just hope that's all it is, who knows what the nations who have an axe to grind with us are thinking considering our illustrious past. They might enjoy bringing us down a peg or two.

The 26 you refer to are collectively the richest and largest trading bloc in the world, the EU is a behemoth in trading terms who more often than not call the shots in trade negotiations with other nations, far from hamstringing us, the trade deals they've negotiated on our behalf and the frictionless free trade we've had as part of the club has benefited us.

^^Sorry I misinformed in a previous post...I mistakenly said EU buyers would have to pay a 20% tariff on British Steel products in the event of a no deal Brexit, thanks to JGHR I stand corrected and humbly apologise..... It's 25%!!!!!!! I like facts. What about Shetland JGHR? I'm sure I read that salmon and lamb producers would be hit with similar tariffs in the event of a No deal Brexit.

One problem, EU buyers would have to pay a 20% tariff to get British Steel's products if we leave the EU with no deal.Union sources said British Steel had lost 25% of orders at its Scu.thorpe plant because of this kind of Brexit uncertainty.

The vast majority of our fellow Shetlanders who voted in the European election have opted for pro remain parties just like every single other council area in Scotland, very similar to the EU referendum itself. We maybe don't wear kilts but the majority of Shetlands voters seem to share a dislike of Brexit.

Agreed and signed, Planning should never let industrial sites like this be built so close to peoples homes that's what they're meant to be there for. Not one person would like this or put up with this on their doorstep, your case should be bulletproof imho, if they do end up getting permission then something's wrong with the system.

They didn't sneak in, they were invited in by our own government in London and will continue to be invited in Brexit or not, they'll be bargained off in a heartbeat just like before. Now and again I see a Euroboat fishing in St. Magnus Bay, fishing about a mile offshore. Please justify. The Westminstorean winkers are not, in any way, my government. You may choose to pander to them but..... I'm not going to justify the CFP or how our waters are policed, from what little I know or have heard from fishermen the whole thing needs scrapped and reworked and fishery patrols improved. I assume one of the main issues is fish don't adhere to border controls, they don't stay in one place so there's going to have to be some kind of agreement with our neighbours and decent policing to conserve fish stocks otherwise one country could fish to extinction while they're in their waters, leaving nothing for the rest.My point wasn't about the CFP though, it's more to do with the general trend of blaming Johnny Foreigner for the actions of our own government. EU boats in our waters = Our government invited them in Knife crime rises in England = Government slashed police numbers. Can't get a medical appointment = Underinvestment in the NHS Young people can't get a house = The government sold off all our social housing and stopped building more. Can't get a decent job = Government policy plays a huge part. The list goes on and on and on. All these examples I have seen either the EU, EU nationals or people of ethnic minorities get the blame for.

They didn't sneak in, they were invited in by our own government in London and will continue to be invited in Brexit or not, they'll be bargained off in a heartbeat just like before.

^^ Because if we were that would mean countries like Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the rest of the EU's nations aren't independent, which in my humble opinion is mental. They all share a little sovereignty in order to compete in a globalised world, the EU has definitely got issues but I don't see a huge clamour from any of the other member states to leave.

We are not controlled or ruled from Brussels. Brexiteers do not speak for our war dead. One of the main reasons European nations formed closer ties after WW2 was to end centuries of conflict. Fantasists who dream of a return to the days of empire where we controlled trade to and from our former colonies need their head examined, they've moved on since 1945. In fact we've enjoyed more clout forging trade deals with them and the rest of the world as part of the EU, the biggest and richest trading bloc in the world. Every nation gives away a little sovereignty wether it's with trade deals, military alliances, environmental agreements etc, and so on, the only countries I can think of that have almost complete sovereignty are rogue states like North Korea, I don't want my kids to be brought up in an inward looking backward country like that.

If the EU is so undemocratic how come we're voting in a democratic European election?

Sounds a bit sinister. Are they gonna be rounded up?

The latest bizarre twists in this embarrassing Brexit fiasco coming from our masters in London...We should leave this undemocratic institution over which we have no say before they have elections where we get to have a say.We shouldn't be allowed to have a vote because having a vote would be an insult to democracy.

When I read hypocritical gushing quotes from our representatives in local media regarding the changes to pensions for women born in the 50's, I wonder if they will ever ask Tavish Scott and Alistair Carmichael why the Lib Dems, along with the Tories, introduced these changes when they were in Government? They voted for it!!! In fact, it was Alistair Carmichael's job as government whip to make sure everyone else in that government voted for it too!! Some brass neck protesting against their own policies right enough. It's like blaming the dog for their own smell.

Who would be president?

^ Of course as individuals a Shetlanders vote is worth exactly the same as a Mancunians, in that way we're equal, as a nation within a union (the UK)...not so much.