Claadehol

Concerned Shetlander
 
I think you can add the Sandwater and Pettawater lochs to that area of concern. I can imagine both of these lochs will turn black for a very very long time, and if they are mixing concrete on site there will be considerable run off from that process.
 
Considering the quantities of concrete involved to provide foundations for such massive turbines I would have thought the founds would have to poured in one operation, hence mixing on site.  Maybe not, I am no expert on these matters, perhaps someone more knowledgeable can enlighten us here.
 
As an angler I am concerned about the pollution factor.

OH Dear!
 
SNP MSP Derek Mackay has dropped a real clanger. He has openly stated that giving back control of Scotland's fishing rights is a price worth paying for Scotland rejoining the EU. This is exactly the kind of thing the SNP have been trying to keep under wraps.
 
He has said this just after the lovely Nicola has paid a flying visit to Shetland to reassure us that the interests of Shetland are
in safe hands. She will be giving him a good spanking I think.
 
The fishing rights of the UK were given away by Ted Heath's Tory government, with the connivance of Harold Wilson's labour party. Leaflets sent out to every household in the country assuring us there would be no loss of sovereignty or legislative powers. These lies took us into Europe in that referendum, so let's not make a big issue about lies today. It isn't a new thing with politicians of any persuasion.
 
Anyway the Tories took us into Europe after a less than honest referendum, so why not let them take us out again. 
 
And for God's sake keep the SNP out of these islands, and preferably away from control of Scotland's fishing rights. 

OH Dear!
 
SNP MSP Derek Mackay has dropped a real clanger. He has openly stated that giving back control of Scotland's fishing rights is a price worth paying for Scotland rejoining the EU. This is exactly the kind of thing the SNP have been trying to keep under wraps.
 
He has said this just after the lovely Nicola has paid a flying visit to Shetland to reassure us that the interests of Shetland are
in safe hands. She will be giving him a good spanking I think.
 
The fishing rights of the UK were given away by Ted Heath's Tory government, with the connivance of Harold Wilson's labour party. Leaflets sent out to every household in the country assuring us there would be no loss of sovereignty or legislative powers. These lies took us into Europe in that referendum, so let's not make a big issue about lies today. It isn't a new thing with politicians of any persuasion.
 
Anyway the Tories took us into Europe after a less than honest referendum, so why not let them take us out again. 
 
And for God's sake keep the SNP out of these islands, and preferably away from control of Scotland's fishing rights. 

Please take the unwanted SNP leaflet that pops through your door and pop it in an envelope, stampless, and send it to: 
 
Scottish National Party,
Gordon Lamb House,
3 Jackson's Entry,
Edinburgh.
EH8 8PJ
 
Please let these islands remain free of the Scottish independence mania.

Please take the unwanted SNP leaflet that pops through your door and pop it in an envelope, stampless, and send it to: 
 
Scottish National Party,
Gordon Lamb House,
3 Jackson's Entry,
Edinburgh.
EH8 8PJ
 
Please let these islands remain free of the Scottish independence mania.

OH Dear!
 
SNP MSP Derek Mackay has dropped a real clanger. He has openly stated that giving back control of Scotland's fishing rights is a price worth paying for Scotland rejoining the EU. This is exactly the kind of thing the SNP have been trying to keep under wraps.
 
He has said this just after the lovely Nicola has paid a flying visit to Shetland to reassure us that the interests of Shetland are
in safe hands. She will be giving him a good spanking I think.
 
The fishing rights of the UK were given away by Ted Heath's Tory government, with the connivance of Harold Wilson's labour party. Leaflets sent out to every household in the country assuring us there would be no loss of sovereignty or legislative powers. These lies took us into Europe in that referendum, so let's not make a big issue about lies today. It isn't a new thing with politicians of any persuasion.
 
Anyway the Tories took us into Europe after a less than honest referendum, so why not let them take us out again. 
 
And for God's sake keep the SNP out of these islands, and preferably away from control of Scotland's fishing rights. 

Well said Ghostrider, well said! Everybody getting everything free is ridiculous and leads to systematic abuse and waste. As for the university education I agree wholeheartedly. How many more students do we need leaving the uni with degrees that prove useless re future employment. Philosophy degree holders who end up working at Tesco for instance.
It all has to be paid for by somebody, it aint free.....
Money saved by scrapping free prescriptions for everybody would save a fortune for a stretched NHS. Spend money on those in need and where it is needed.

Well Capeesh, I seem to remember the last SNP man we had here in Shetland was a clan chief who owned, (inherited), a rather large estate in Perthshire. As an ex Etonian he would have been quite happy in the House of Lords.
 
Of course his pedigree was hushed up as much as possible for obvious reasons.
 
Are you suggesting he is/was the only one? 
 
As for the free prescription charges, this encourages vast amount of waste, it should be free for certain cases but not all. The same applies for the free buses, that's certainly handy but people who can well afford to pay should pay. Common sense needed here, these things fall on the taxpayer eventually and only increase the deficit. 

What could be a problem here is a big proportion of the traditional liberal vote going to Labour or the Greens, just as a protest against some previous policy matters. This could well result in a major victory for the SNP who are desperate to increase their power to include the northern isles.
We may well get those Gaelic road signs eventually as the SNP have already planted them in areas of Scotland with no history of the language. We have more people speaking Chinese here than Gaelic, either language would be an unnecessary ridiculous addition to our road signs.
Keep the SNP, the kilt, the sporran, the bagpipes, and the clan chiefs and tartans where they belong, on the Scottish mainland. 
The history of Shetland shows we have little to thank Scottish lairds and lords for.

Well said Ghostrider, well said! Everybody getting everything free is ridiculous and leads to systematic abuse and waste. As for the university education I agree wholeheartedly. How many more students do we need leaving the uni with degrees that prove useless re future employment. Philosophy degree holders who end up working at Tesco for instance.
It all has to be paid for by somebody, it aint free.....
Money saved by scrapping free prescriptions for everybody would save a fortune for a stretched NHS. Spend money on those in need and where it is needed.

It doesn't need to be, and arguably shouldn't be an either/or scenario, but that unfortunately is what everything has become in the 21st C. - If you're not with us you're against us mentality rules.
 
All of these things are good, but in proportion, moderation and where appropriate. Free prescriptions are fine and well for life saving drugs and for folk who cannot afford to pay. For everything and everybody, not so much. Free and subsidised nursery places have their place too, for low income workers and for those currently unemployed with a firm offer of a low income job, but difficult to justify for most of the rest. The public purse should first and foremost buy in nursery spaces from commercial enterprises where they are available, and should only provide them where demand outstrips supply. Costs needn't be extortionate, they needn't even be excessive, the public purse knows how much it would cost them to provide such places themselves, all they need to do is offer commercial providers a price less than that amount, take it or leave it, and everybody is happy, and better off.
 
Free education is great, but when it extends to every Tom, Dick and Harriet over 16 getting it on demand, its gone too far. A good basic education from 5 to 16 should be plenty to set everyone up to start out in life, over 16's should only be getting free education if they have a demonstrated talent for the subject, and/or there is a shortage in a particular field.
 
Don't get me started on crofter's livlihoods and the Scot's Govt. They've left nothing to destroy after the way they've carried on these last 4 years.

Well Capeesh, I seem to remember the last SNP man we had here in Shetland was a clan chief who owned, (inherited), a rather large estate in Perthshire. As an ex Etonian he would have been quite happy in the House of Lords.
 
Of course his pedigree was hushed up as much as possible for obvious reasons.
 
Are you suggesting he is/was the only one? 
 
As for the free prescription charges, this encourages vast amount of waste, it should be free for certain cases but not all. The same applies for the free buses, that's certainly handy but people who can well afford to pay should pay. Common sense needed here, these things fall on the taxpayer eventually and only increase the deficit. 

What could be a problem here is a big proportion of the traditional liberal vote going to Labour or the Greens, just as a protest against some previous policy matters. This could well result in a major victory for the SNP who are desperate to increase their power to include the northern isles.
We may well get those Gaelic road signs eventually as the SNP have already planted them in areas of Scotland with no history of the language. We have more people speaking Chinese here than Gaelic, either language would be an unnecessary ridiculous addition to our road signs.
Keep the SNP, the kilt, the sporran, the bagpipes, and the clan chiefs and tartans where they belong, on the Scottish mainland. 
The history of Shetland shows we have little to thank Scottish lairds and lords for.

I see the planning application has been refused.
Common sense has prevailed
Great to see that David can beat Goliath
Well done Broch builder

Women have always campaigned for equality, equal pay etc. with men. Well equality means retirement
at the same age surely.
It's a pity they haven't lowered the men's pension age to that of women, but then I suppose men have
never raised a fuss about that inequality.
We just managed to grin and bear it.

I remember the letters flying in to the Times re the moving of the library to St.Ringans church building some years ago. The reason being apparently that the old library building had had its day and was now condemned.
An expensive refurb in St Ringans produced the new library, but the public were less than impressed. Apparently there wasn't enough room for the books and that's quite a priority for a library. 
Complaints poured in and several sites were suggested for a new library.
Meantime it was suddenly decided that the old library building was actually ok and wasn't condemned after all.
I remember some wag suggesting that a good site for the new library was in the old library, and as it was nearby, the books could easily be moved.
However, the council had now decided to use the old library as council offices so another refurb was required for this purpose, new ventilation, heating, etc.
Now that the council is able to use some of it's new state of the art building, the old library can be refurbed yet again and we will have a brand new old library back in operation soon.
I didn't make this up, honest!

JGHR I would also like to bring a little balance here.
I worked at Irlam steelworks,  Manchester, at the end of the 60s and beginning of the 70s. I was involved in the calculation of the production figures, from ingot to bloom and finally to rolled billets.  Ted Heath and his cronies closed the place making thousands redundant. 
 
There were various reasons for closure but I would suggest the main was the way this nationalised industry was run, and the lack of accountability.
 
When the blast furnace was operating various additions had to be made to the cast in order to produce different qualities of steel. So many shovels of aluminium, manganese, etc.
There was a couldn't care less attitude which caused loss of a great deal of money. A cast of steel might be planned such as a high quality killed steel, but because the guy shovelling in the additions into the mix didn't care too much, after samples were taken of the finished cast  it had to be downgraded to a low grade balanced steel. This kind of idiocy caused the loss of a great deal of money.
 
This attitude, plus the quantity of men clocking each other in and out, and those sneaking off to the working men's club up the road, was certainly partly responsible for the closure.
 
The men closed the steelworks themselves. 

JGHR I would also like to bring a little balance here.
I worked at Irlam steelworks,  Manchester, at the end of the 60s and beginning of the 70s. I was involved in the calculation of the production figures, from ingot to bloom and finally to rolled billets.  Ted Heath and his cronies closed the place making thousands redundant. 
 
There were various reasons for closure but I would suggest the main was the way this nationalised industry was run, and the lack of accountability.
 
When the blast furnace was operating various additions had to be made to the cast in order to produce different qualities of steel. So many shovels of aluminium, manganese, etc.
There was a couldn't care less attitude which caused loss of a great deal of money. A cast of steel might be planned such as a high quality killed steel, but because the guy shovelling in the additions into the mix didn't care too much, after samples were taken of the finished cast  it had to be downgraded to a low grade balanced steel. This kind of idiocy caused the loss of a great deal of money.
 
This attitude, plus the quantity of men clocking each other in and out, and those sneaking off to the working men's club up the road, was certainly partly responsible for the closure.
 
The men closed the steelworks themselves. 

I don't think Iru Bru and shortcake would be compulsory in an independent Scotland. And if they were, at least it would be good news for denture manufacturers.

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.

Women have always campaigned for equality, equal pay etc. with men. Well equality means retirement
at the same age surely.
It's a pity they haven't lowered the men's pension age to that of women, but then I suppose men have
never raised a fuss about that inequality.
We just managed to grin and bear it.

There is an aerosol up here, he has been vandalising cars in Lerwick.

The tourist industry is becoming quite valuable these days Urabug, and Toft gets a high concentration during the summer months. Their pleasure waiting at the Toft pier, looking out for otters etc. would be severely compromised with piles of stinking salmon nets stored nearby. Not on your doorstep though eh! Ideal at Toft eh! Ask some of the ferry crew how ideal it is!

Considering the quantity of hoops the private individual has to leap through to say:- extend the porch, build a shed, put up an agricultural building, build a private dwelling house, etc. one has to wonder when something of this magnitude seems to slide through to a late stage relatively quickly, and without any consultations with any of the affected parties.
Considering the multi-million pound  international company involved here, one has to wonder what kind of lubricant has been applied to the wheels.
A cynic might assume fighting this is a lost cause.
I'm not that cynical yet.
Yet! 

Re Wheelsup comment!
That price is understandable when you consider the salaries that CEOs of charities seem to consider
perfectly reasonable.
Apparently the CEO of the Cats Protection League commands a salary of around £140,000 a year. The
SSPCA around £180,000 a year, I could go on.
Charities have lost their way, some without a doubt are a racket.
I would suggest puppies coming from Romania, rescue dogs from Spain, are all part of the same.
Needs to be stopped, and let's make a start here.