Nigel Bridgman-Elliot

The only reason we have Boris and the right in charge is that they were the first to get behind something that the majority of the electorate would back them on, while Corbyn and the left remained headless chickens chasing their own tails. The rise of the lunatic fringe on both extremes of politics is due to the last dozen years of weak leadership and directionless parties and policies right across the political spectrum
 
After Thatcher reined in the Unions, Labour's power base was spent and they were a laughing stock rabble under Foot and Kinnock, it took Blair and his 'New Labour' vision (whatever that was, exactly.....) to make them electable, and it served its purpose insofar as it took Tony on his power trip until his hand waving baloney rhetoric passed its sell by date, and the money ran out...... He left Labour as clueless about what 'New Labour' was as most of the country had been clueless about what it was since day #1. It was a brilliant(ly) (stupid) idea to put an old red like Corbyn in charge, presumably to try and breathe life back in to the party and recreate the heady 'old red' days when they had some respect and clout in the 60's and 70's. Completely omitting to factor in that their MP's and prospective MP's were by and large trendy theorists and idealists, with damn few realists, and they've been treading water when they've not been sinking deeper ever since.
 
It'll be interesting to see what phoenix rises this time, but whoever it is sure as hell is going to have to work long and hard to make the left start to appear electable again.
 
The right have little to crow about either, Thatcher left a vacuum Major tried to fill like a pea would fill a shopping trolley and any chance of continued Tory Government flushed down the tubes in front of his eyes. Hague, Smith and Howard all lacked leadership qualities, as did Cameron, the only reason he became PM is that he and his party were deemed the slightly lesser evil by the electorate at the time the election took place......a sad indictment.
 
May was deluded on two counts, that you could please all of the people all of the time, and that she could sell something well enough to please all of the people all of the time, the rest is history.
 
Boris is presiding over a ramshackle party, of that there is no argument, as opposed to the directionless rabble that is Labour, another sad indictment.
 
At least he had the nouse to recognise an idea, a concept, a path, whatever you want to call it, that he believed he could get the electorate to back him on, and he's run with it, and its worked out for him. That's more than any party or leader has managed for 10 years, so its a start.........How he gets on with delivering his chosen crusade........time will tell.
 
I can't say I particularly like the man, I don't support all of his policies, I don't think he has the balls to always stick to his guns through thick and thin and is likely to be talked in to compromises along the way, few of which we'll like,.......We'll see though.......At least we appear to be starting to move in some direction now, which is one hell of a refreshing after living the last three years in a 'Grounghog Day' scenario, and the previous 7+ paddling around aimlessly. The mould desperately needed broken, and if that's all he ever succeeds in doing, good luck to him. Whether your personal politics approve or disapprove of his direction, at least he's succeeded in doing more in a few months than all his predecessors achieved in over a decade.

Its good to see that there are a large number of candidates. I would rather see a by-election where the public have to make their choice, as against someone gets in because no one else was interested. At least the outcome of this vote should be accepted by all, although I see there is an snp candidate, so we might have to have another vote if they dont like the outcome

I live ‘South’ I drive all over the UK and Europe, I like to think I am a considerate driver. On my visits to Shetland, family warn me about this junction, with good reason - it is a tricky one!  I do think that it is people who are little used of driving on busy roads that cause the problems. This is not ‘having a go’ at drivers, just a plain statement of fact. If you only drive short distances on quiet rural roads most of the time then you will not always be aware of the faster conditions on some roads. We humans are creatures of habit, so it might be nice if all drivers along that bit of road remember that not everyone is as good and as fast a driver as they are. As always, a little kindness goes a long way.

Nigel Bridgman-Elliot. I am not for changing it at all. As in my example video and the comment from tlady, in both scenarios the car that should have given way did not, it’s also clear that the oncoming cars should have been well within their site. Honestly if you are coming out of the black gate to turn right on both sides I feel you should stop and look properly. Perhaps all one needs is a stop sign, as davie-L points out.
 
Putting in spaghetti junction, HA! it’s not a 4 lane cross motorway junction.  I have seen plenty of people drive up the wrong side and drive passed the entrance and go up the next one. No way, nope don’t go there.
 
People just need to engage brain, look, signal in good time and position themselves correctly when driving.

It’s not just the Gulberwick side that has issues, on a regular basis I have near misses at the Scalloway Side of the Black Gaet. People exiting the junctions should stop before driving on to the main road in front of cars travelling at 60 mph.
 
Just because your not looking in your rear view mirror doesn’t mean there is a car/can/truck having to decelerate very quickly so as not to hit you. So many times they pull out and gently accelerate up to 30mph completely oblivious to the potential carnage behind them.
 
IMHO both ends of the Black Gaet should have stop signs and vehicles have to stop and check the oncoming traffic before pulling out.

Its a rather crappy junction, there's little debate about that. It and numerous others all over Shetland. It won't matter what gets done to it though, unless you also address the 'operator error' factor.
 
There are any number of 'good' drivers in Shetland, there are also some pretty crappy drivers, who know they're crappy drivers, and seldom cause problems.  Its those who are crappy drivers but believe themselves to be the world's finest, and those who believe all roads are there for their personal convenience and other users will just have to work around them that cause the issues, and unfortunately those latter two groupings seem to be breeding very disproportionately.

> Main point being is all your doing is moving half the junction further up the road, and thus the problem still remains.

Which problem is that specifically ?
 
I thought the problem was difficulty in coming out of the turning and seeing to your right ?
 
Is there another problem of folk turning into the turning such as shown in your video ?
(A problem one could say is the same for any turning !)

You could solve that one by the same kind of approach as Spaghetti Junction !

http://www.eridug.com/junction.jpg

> Second you have to fill all that area to make it level with that section of road. It’s also got a ditch in that area for land draining.
> I don’t think the land owner would be happy to have a flooded field.

You could install a pipe / tunnel for the water to travel through to solve the flooding issue, or build the road on stilts.

I thought also one of the issues was the steep turning road, with the output moved you could end that steep part before you hit the main road, allowing for a nice long stretch of flat road for people to stop more easily in bad conditions.


All this talk of junctions reminds me of the Tesco car park entrance and associated lead afterwards into said carpark, not being wide enough for two vehicles to easily pass enough other..
 

Hello Nigel Bridgman-Elliot

I can see what you are trying to do with your diagram but I don’t think it’s going to work. Main point being is all your doing is moving half the junction further up the road, and thus the problem still remains. Second you have to fill all that area to make it level with that section of road. It’s also got a ditch in that area for land draining. I don’t think the land owner would be happy to have a flooded field. That is where cost comes into it, for this and the roundabout. You could perhaps put the Lerwick bound traffic there but again this is not going to fix anything, and seams pointless. You could make both Lerwick sides enter and exit from here but then you have an extra junction onto those coming from the south side. Perhaps a mini roundabout there, but again this is making it more complicated making it more likely for accidents to happen and costing more and more.

I mention cost allot is because of the nature of the area (and the decisions of council). When you’re on the road looking it’s not obvious. But if you’re coming out of Lerwick heading south and as you come over the hill you can see that each side is very steep. It’s manmade. Lots of dirt trucked in to make a nice... mostly... smooth level road. To keep cost down you would make a small roundabout. You could just perhaps get one the size of the sound school to operate there, but the road is too fast for that design. You may just squeeze the Tesco one there but again said this before people don’t use it right. They drive down the wrong lane or down the middle of them and fail to indicate correctly. Bad enough at 30 zone, think of what they are like at 50-60 zone.

No its people not the junction.  Perhaps this link will also help you as this is the most common thing that seems to happen at the black gate.

example video @3:39 below. It’s very clear where the problem is.
https://youtu.be/cH1IG7ry378?t=209

Um......fresh air?
 
Anytime I've been near the place patients were extremely glad of a waft of fresh air from an open window whenever possible, some, if they felt up to it and were capable equally glad of the chance to spend a little while outside in it.
 
The unfortunate, but regrettably very necessary use of numerous chemical cleaning, disinfecting etc materials in a place such as a hospital makes for a permanent very sickly air in such places that can only be a negative for those spending 24/7 in them.

^It should be built on the top of Ronas Hill. Then, it'll stay out of the sea a bit longer.

How about someplace relatively quiet and peaceful and equally sheltered from the weather. The vast majority who inhabit such places are either feeling pretty grotty or are watching the door for the reaper - to be left it peace and quiet to either recover as best you can or peg it as incoveniently to the person involved as is possible, is what most need. The place, by default of what it is generates quite more than enough noise and kerfuffle indoors for ill and dying folk to have to put up with before you add to it with external noise too.
 
Where the current one is maybe wasn't too bad in 1960, it was almost on the edge of the then town, there was far less road traffic, and much less foot traffic. Now its nearer the centre of town than the edge, and both road and foot traffic is constant well in to the night.
 
It has always been a hellish place whenever there was any appreciable wind from anywhere easterly for infirm folk to move round the doors, stuck as it is up in the air atop banking with no shelter from the sea whatsoever. At least it has a decent view, which might not be considered anything worth worrying about to planners, but is appreciated by many stuck in the place, and arguably puts them in a much better and positive state of mind, which in turn can only be beneficial to recovery.
 
Just for God's sake don't let anybody resurrect the 'idea' that was briefly punted when this subject was kicked around last, building across from the power station, somewhere in the vicinity of where the pipeyards were..... Stuck in the bottom of a mirey hole, surrounded by nothing but bleak brown hills, and the only other view either the back of teh power station or a glimpse of the gut factory, is more than enough to want to make anybody die than be stuck in such a place one moment longer.
 
As has been said by many, 'Hospitals are no place for ill folk" - Can't we try at least now in the 21st C. try to make them a little more suitable for ill folk.

Its a very difficult to access and very cramped site, its now a hotchpotch of conversions and extensions to the original building, which itself is 60 years old - Whether or not its unfit for purpose at the moment is maybe still open to debate, but I think its fair to say its already passed its sell by date by a chunk, and if not now, then quite soon its fitness will become increasingly and rapidly more questionable.
 
That said, a new building isn't going to magically fix the ails of our local NHS. What I'm seeing is a service so wrapped up in its own little bubble of procedures, policies and protocols that even routine work has been turned in to a cack handed marathon, and the vast majority of good people it employs are being frustrated and stymied by a small handful of characters who should have been strongly persuaded (forced?) to follow an alternative and very different career choice from Day 1, but have somehow managed to ingratiate and wheedle themselves in to key roles of influence and control.

I doot da side effects of da vaccine are insignificant compared to da risks o measles.
 
Also fae da NHS website https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/measles/complications/
 
Common complications More common complications of measles include:
diarrhoea and vomiting, which can lead to dehydration middle ear infection (otitis media), which can cause earache eye infection (conjunctivitis) inflammation of the voice box (laryngitis) infections of the airways and lungs (such as pneumonia, bronchitis and croup) fits caused by a fever (febrile seizures) Uncommon complications Less common complications of measles include:
liver infection (hepatitis) misalignment of the eyes (squint) if the virus affects the nerves and muscles of the eye infection of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord (meningitis) or infection of the brain itself (encephalitis) Rare complications In rare cases, measles can lead to:
serious eye disorders, such as an infection of the optic nerve, the nerve that transmits information from the eye to the brain (this is known as optic neuritis and can lead to vision loss) heart and nervous system problems a fatal brain complication known as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), which can occur several years after measles (this is very rare, occurring in only 1 in every 25,000 cases) Measles in pregnancy If you're not immune to measles and become infected while you're pregnant, there's a risk of:
miscarriage or stillbirth your baby being born prematurely (before the 37th week of pregnancy) your baby having a low birth weight

This seems very valid news and perhaps somewhat ironic that they both appeared on my Shetlink News list today.
 
"A public health alert has been issued to hundreds of ferry passengers after it emerged a passenger was diagnosed with measles.
 
More than 240 passengers and crew members were at risk of catching the contagious disease.
 
The incident emerged when NHS Grampian contacted passengers travelling on the Northlink Ferries operated vessel – MV Hrossey – from Aberdeen to Shetland on the night of Monday October 7."
 
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/islands/1868486/public-health-warning-issued-after-shetland-ferry-passenger-diagnosed-with-measles/
 
To those that don't vaccinate - well, you have no idea just how much danger you put folk.....  If it had been free in the early 18th century, I bet the population of Foula would've reacted differently to save the lives of their loved ones. 
 
https://www.scotsman.com/heritage/the-tiny-scottish-island-wiped-out-by-disease-1-5029098
 
"Around 90 per cent of the population of Foula in the Shetland Isles was wiped out by smallpox epidemic in the early 18th Century........The disease returned to the island in 1760 and a period of inoculation was introduced but the high fee of two or three guineas, only ten or twelve people took it up." (the cost was prohibitive).
 
And the message that really breaks my heart was from children's author, Roald Dahl's letter - https://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl/timeline/1960s/november-1962 -
 
"The measles had turned into a terrible thing called measles encephalitis and there was nothing the doctors could do to save her. That was twenty-four years ago in 1962, but even now, if a child with measles happens to develop the same deadly reaction from measles as Olivia did, there would still be nothing the doctors could do to help her.
 
On the other hand, there is today something that parents can do to make sure that this sort of tragedy does not happen to a child of theirs. They can insist that their child is immunised against measles. I was unable to do that for Olivia in 1962 because in those days a reliable measles vaccine had not been discovered. Today a good and safe vaccine is available to every family and all you have to do is to ask your doctor to administer it.
 
It is not yet generally accepted that measles can be a dangerous illness. Believe me, it is. In my opinion parents who now refuse to have their children immunised are putting the lives of those children at risk. In America, where measles immunisation is compulsory, measles like smallpox, has been virtually wiped out."
 
The lies about the MMR vaccination still goes on while lives are put in unncessary danger.  In this day and age, it is unforgiveable.
 

I was travelling all over the world before and after we joined the EU
 
This country had thousands of immigrants and workers long before we joined the EU .
 
Merchant Navy personnel and plenty of other worked for periods all over Europe and elsewhere , but they all had to comply with the rules of the country they were visiting ,which is not a problem.
 
Sorry i do not see any major problems for the most of us.

The U.K was supposed to leave the E.U on 29 March this year. Then a wee extention that we believed was supposed to be agreed by 12 April, possibly delayed, yet again, until 22 May. Boris the pratt has stated that the United Dingdong must leave by 31 October, with or without an agreement or deal.
 
When David Cameron offered us the chance in 2016 to vote regarding either leaving or staying in the E.U it was put over clearly and concisely. It was put over as being the decision that common man the wanted, and therefore the decision that the common man would get.
 
Westminster is still fooling around, wasting our time and no doubt our money, and I wonder just how much longer it will waste our time before it wastes our time for however much longer it decides to waste and waste and waste again, and then it waste a little more and then a little more, and then a wee bit more - until Westminster chooses to do what Westminster chooses to do.
 
Round and round and round again, and round and round and round a few more times.
 
Yet again, that's democracy for you - well, what Westminster chooses to call democracy.
 
And, yet again, we will get inflicted upon us just what Westminster wishes to inflict upon us.

I gave up giving them the benefit of the doubt at this point.
 

'Dodgy', as in you wouldn't be the first person to be lured from mainland Europe to the UK on the promise of an attractive sounding, but non-existent job, only to 'vanish' upon arrival. If you're making your own travel arrangements, then probably fair enough, but if your prospective employer is 'arranging' them, perhaps not......
 
Lerwick is a small town, there's a few pubs, a few cafes and a cinema..... and not much else in a winter evening. The 'nightlife' doesn't exactly extend to very much. There's a few 'specialist interest' groups/clubs that meet weekly/monthly/whatever, depending on your interests.
 
While Brexit looked at from outside may seem something of a storm in a teacup that will sort itself out eventually, the view from inside is looking more and more like, close the door, build a wall, and walk away.

I was always told that if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.
 
Where is the work?  Shetland can seem big and also lonely, depending on where you are. 

^ A few tourists come in winter, but only a trickle. Short dark days and unpredictable mostly extreme weather doesn't make for much chance to take in the scenery, and auroras are hit and miss, its just on nights when the conditions are right and the sky is reasonably clear they're visible. Most of winter the night sky tends to be overcast.
 
Concerning Brexit, yes, businesses will continue to run, but if you're a non-UK national working in the UK, its far from clear what your work/residency status might be on 1st November. Worst case scenario, depending on your nationality and whether the UK has reached an agreement with your home nation, you could find yourself without either a work or a residency permit and be required to leave the UK immediately, or be deported.
 
Sorry to be so negative, but I'm just being realistic. There are many days in winter even us residents only go outdoors when we really must due to the weather, and with the current uncertain political situation nationally, relationships between the UK and the rest of the world's nations will remain unclear until at least 1st November.

I guess it might come down to whether the hotel in question is near to the centre of civilisation (aka Lerwick.) or at the edge of the world..
 
Edge of the world, I've been here 3+ years, and haven't made a friend yet !
 
I can quite imagine some places to offer accommodation, at least until they are so busy that its suddenly profitable to rent out said places to paying customers, so for how long, is a bit of an unknown.
 
Usually as you get nearer to Lerwick, accommodation becomes more scarce.

 

Yes the problem I have always said with Mr Hill is that it is the right message but the wrong man delivering it. His antics have only managed to portray him as a nutter in the eyes of most Shetlanders, thereby taking away from his own cause. 
 
 
I hadn't seen this particular piece before, very interesting. 

The historical argument is relevant whether people like it or not but even without it there would still be a case to be made for autonomy. 


I hope this election has opened peoples eyes a bit. A common complaint is that all the candidates arguments boiled down to the same thing, beg Holyrood for more money for XY & Z. The votes Ryan Thomson achieved shows that you don't have to be part of a major party to make headway. Perhaps in the future people would be more open to a local party which can offer a truly alternative choice and set of ambitions than just going cap in hand to uncaring bureaucrats and ministers in Edinburgh. 

The thing is Stuart Hill is right but its easier for them to just mock him and portray the man as eccentric or daft.

There is a book in the library called STOLEN ISLES by STUART HILL. I have read it and found it most interesting and would say that anyone interested in the history of Shetland should read it. It is at times a bit heavy but if you stick at it by the end you will have learned some thing and most definitely had your eyes opened.