Claadehol

I think they should still allow the disabled access by car. Anyone else who doesn't feel able to walk from the car park, should have a long hard look at their life style. The car parks aint far away!

This whole thing smells a little, well! more than a little actually. This fiasco brought a lot of worry and stress to HNP management and employees, and for what exactly? How about some "freedom of information" here? Who was responsible for this deal with English developers in the first instance and who stood to gain substantially from this deal? When was it known that the deal had fallen through, or was there a deal drawn up in the first place? Can we have a statement from the developers, explaining their role and naming their initial contacts? How much has this fiasco cost????? and have HNP received a letter of apology?

PaulB...Ermine is the skin of the stoat when it turns white in the winter, nothing like the multicoloured fur of the polecat/polecat ferret or for for that matter albino ferret.

otters have been here since at least viking times.

The roof's gone noo Davie right enough, but it lasted a while. I can mind when it was tight.

Significant leak at lighthouse tearoom I remember speaking to a veteran and well respected builder at the end of last summer. He was involved with the lighthouse project at one point and was absolutely appalled at the standard of some of the work carried out. I didn't take a great deal of notice of his comments at the time, but judging by what I have just been reading here, his criticism seems well founded. This project cost over £5,000,000 for christs sake, surely it could have stayed watertight at least for a few years. Where was building control on this one? And don't bleat about the Shetland weather, we should know how to cope with that. And by the way the Mousa broch is still standing, no computers, no laser levels, just good civil engineering skills back then!

For the sake of the ground nesting birds in Shetland, removing the feral ferrets altogether would be a great thing. The council put a price on their heads at one time and the numbers were certainly being reduced as a result. However, in their wisdom the council decided after a year or two to call a halt to the programme. That was a mistake, as the numbers soon recovered. The hedgehog is also an alien species as far as the northern isles are concerned and they should also be removed. They also do great damage to ground nesting birds by eating the eggs and the nestlings. This is a problem for many birds, skylarks, meadow pipits, ringed plovers, lapwings, etc. Hedgehogs were removed from part of the western isles not long ago for exactly that reason. They have been introduced by misguided people, another big mistake. Considering the quantity of predatory birds, crows, ravens, several species of gull, and the skuas, the last thing ground nesting birds need are introduced predatory mammals. Hedgehog numbers have plummeted on the mainland where they belong, they need help too. So when going south for a holiday take one with you, it would help both causes.

Is it also possible that certain shoals of mackerel are genetically programmed to come back to certain geographical areas every year and so if you remove a whole shoal there are none to come back to that area. Certainly, with the vast nets used now on pelagic boats it is possible to remove a whole shoal from the equation. Therefore if the fish are programmed this way, and many shoals are taken from around these isles, there wont be many to come back. That leaves the huge numbers still out on the high seas and very few here in comparison to what I can remember. Perhaps it doesn't work that way! Just thought it a possibility. One thing I do know however is that Norway has vast amounts of money involved in salmon farming, a lot of it around these isles, so their scientists are unlikely to produce any damning reports. They also have a vast amount of money invested in pelagic fishing boats so obviously they would be delighted to see a big increase in mackerel quotas. Ties in rather nicely with that Norwegian scientific report there, doesn't it?

Davie-L.....I notice the Norwegian scientist here has produced this report in Bergen. Perhaps he and his colleagues should be declaring an interest. I cannot believe that the mackerel have multipled to the extent he suggests considering the number of huge pelagic boats on the go nowadays. I can recall mackerel fizzing right in to the end of Ronas voe, you could have drawn enough to sink a flatbottom in a short space of time. Of course you had to stop drawing. I have caught them on a fly in the shallows down below the pub at Voe, too easy with the spinner. These events are a lot rarer now, no matter what this scientist says. I doubt his words.

Some years ago in Southern Ireland they looked for evidence that salmon farming was responsible for decline of wild fish. In one particular bay the sea trout numbers had plummeted so they decided to remove cages as an experiment. After just a few years the sea trout numbers recovered. They put the cages back and the numbers crashed again..... That surely suggests exactly what many people are concerned about.

Yip! Half an hour walk mebbe....

Personally I see no logical reason why women are not allowed in UHA squads. Having said that this sexist is a little one sided. Those seeking equality fought for the right of girls to join the boy scouts. They achieved their aim, however boys are not allowed to join the girl guides unless they identify as female. Some girls it seems find the scouts more interesting, maybe boys might find the guides just as interesting...

In answer to "The Cleaner" some folk might be using the food banks to do exactly that. It may sound a little cynical, but I'm sure there are those who will say:- "It's ok love, just get the fags and the drink, we don't need tae worry, we can aye get grub fae the food bank."

Seems strange there's a whole lot of emphasis put on the fantastic efforts made during the springtime clean up if kids are allowed to litter all over the school. Well, maybe it doesn't happen now, what I witnessed was some years ago. I wonder if there are any ex teachers from the Anderson who would like to comment on what I witnessed, they must have seen it. Maybe there are some present day teachers at the Anderson who can tell us that there is a better school policy now, and are happy to condemn the lax attitude of a previous head.

I recall speaking to a janitor at the Anderson high school some years ago. I was doing a job there and the bell rang, then all the kids came out to the tuck shop. They stood around in groups eating crisps and drinking juice, etc. then finally the bell rang again and they all dispersed. I was astonished to see everywhere where the kids were standing was a mess of crisp packets sweet papers, etc. It had just been dropped at their feet. I spoke to the janitor: "Does this happen every day?" He replied: "yes, we have to clean it up!" Apparently, when the janitor had first started, he tried to tell a young lad to pick up something he had thrown on the floor. The lad replied: "I'm not picking it up, that's your job!" The janitor had tried to force him to pick it up and wound up being reprimanded. So he just accepted the fact that the pupils could do as they wished. No wonder they threw stuff around on the street. I wonder if the pupils do the same now in the new school.....

This was headed "United Kingdom" so I really don't quite understand why support for France should enter into it. Is Capeesh such a strong supporter of a united Europe and ever closer ties, that by extension he/she now considers France a member of the UK.

Another great win for England and the UK.......Makes you proud doesn't it?

England seem to be doing rather well in the World Cup, we must pull together as a nation to support them.

Most of the lefties I meet want to stay in the EU, reckon leaving the European family is a disastrous idea. So they must be happy with Ted Heath's bold step into Europe. Even the SNP seem to think it was a good decision by our Tory masters, they want to stay in at all costs. Brexit is going tits up anyway, all the parties are split, might as well accept, once you're in you canna get oot. Brussels are doing their utmost to make sure of that.

Thankyou for that Audi, and I'll go along with you on that. As I said I've been hauled in in the past but never blamed the police for that. I knew what I was doing and so did they, but it certainly wasn't their fault I got pulled. They were just doing their job as far as I was concerned, I took a chance and got caught, my fault entirely. Why some find it necessary to cause a ruckus and bad feeling when it's their behaviour at fault, I fail to understand. CCTV cameras and mobiles are doing a good job exposing the morons on both sides of the fence in all sorts of situations and that's got to be good. Some seem to see the cameras as a big brother thing, intrusive, etc. etc. But hey! I don't care if they want to video me buying underpants in a chain store or staggering home from the pub if it helps to keep the streets safe. The hoodlum can't lie convincingly if he's on video and neither can anyone else.

Well audi-ya-do, I've been hauled in by the police a few times, I never gave them any flak, nor did I receive any, seems to work both ways. We are very lucky indeed in this country with the police force we have. Having seen police in action abroad I can state that categorically as a fact. But hey! nothing is perfect.

I wonder how polite, courteous and understanding George would be if placed in situations many police are put in every weekend. Faced with drunken idiots fighting with each other, then having a go at police when they intervene. Foul mouthed imbeciles chanting and taunting those that they view as the enemy simply because they represent law and order. Refusing to listen to reason then kicking and lashing out at the officers when they are detained. Oh yes! I'm sure George would be able to handle the situation just by talking and reasoning with these individuals, exercising his high level of social skills to such a degree that the situation is under control immediately. Or is George on the other side perhaps, he seems to despise the law for some reason. Seems to think everything is the fault of the state, no onus to be placed on the individual who wants to do as he pleases. A pity we need tasers or pepper spray, but that's not the fault of the police. The future looks bleak for this country, it's a worry!

But that is the reality George, and it's not the honest and goodhearted citizen that tends or asks to get tasered. Nothing is ever perfect but we need to give our police the support and the equipment to keep us and them safe. It's easy to criticise those on the front line from the comfort of an armchair.

Various ways of looking at this, but we have to remember this country has changed dramatically since we just had the friendly local bobby. Police are now meeting dangerous situations unheard of just a few decades ago. Apart from the terror threat and the odd nutter with a blade, we also have the binge drinkers at the weekends who turn violent and the police have to try and calm them down. Police are injured every weekend by these idiots and you may say that's part of the job. Well why should the police be sworn at, spat at, punched and kicked while trying to do their job. As far as I'm concerned they should give them a warning and if that has no effect, then they should be tasered immediately. They only have themselves to blame.

So Stuart Hill is in the news again,another failed court case. Right cause perhaps but certainly the wrong man. How much exactly has this liability cost Shetland in police time, court costs, and it has to be said rescue services? Quite apart from legal costs accrued by individuals caught up in his campaigns. It seems he has fenced off land at the Cunningsburgh pier so he can rebuild his shelter for the Mary Celeste. He has signs up warning people against trespass on the sovereign territory of Shetland. That territory also includes the Cunningsburgh shop I think. When are we going stop giving this clown the oxygen of publicity?