Claadehol

I see in the classifieds dogs are still being imported from the continent for adoption here. This
nonsense needs to stop.
There are countless dogs in shelters all over the UK that are crying out for adoption, check it out!
Why in Gods name are we importing them? Our neighbours in Europe need to address the problem of strays
themselves.
The UK government needs to stop this trade, people are making money out of the misery of these animals
when the problem should be addressed at source.

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 don't know if this has been said before, (I haven't followed topic), but Streamline saved me money
on postage/delivery costs.
I wanted some kitchen cupboard doors of a particular type but the company didn't deliver to islands.
so I thought I would buy locally, they would order. They gave me a quote.
The price had grown substantially......
So I went back to company, (after checking with Streamline), and asked them to deliver to Streamline
base in Aberdeen. No problem.
I picked up three 720mm x 600mm kitchen cupboard doors at their Lerwick base and saved about £90.
It was only three small cupboard doors, patterned melamine surface chipboard.
Enough said!

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.

A previous contributor pointed out that in the past a bounty was paid out by the council to help reduce the population of feral polecats but this was apparently stopped after an year or two for presumably financial reasons . Judging by the millions Orkney has secured there is money available for such schemes and if the council or some other interested party could obtain even a modest sum from these sources they could restart the bounty scheme offering say £10 per polecat handed in this would go a long way to help reduce their number thus saving loads of ground nesting birds as well as domestic poultry . It would also be a way of putting a bit of cash the way of some enterprising country folk and if cash was forthcoming from external sources the whole thing would be cost neutral to the council or other organisation who would run the scheme .

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!

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

The Mousa Broch has quite a leaky roof too. Did you have anything to do with building that broch, brochbuilder?

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.

In spite of the efforts of so many to keep the sides of our roads the way they should be, the *heads
in our society still seem to take pleasure in dumping stuff out of the car window. I have been counting
the plastic bottles on the way home tonight, dear oh dear!
I think we should attach cameras to hydro poles in bad areas and try to collar these antisocial idiots.
A suitable punishment might be to dress them up in prison attire and make them clean the sides of the
roads every Saturday for a year or two. Start maybe at Lerwick and get a cup of tea in Cunningsburgh if
the road is clean. If not start again.
It would help to have a regimental sergeant major type to hit them with bits of wood from time to time
for motivation purposes, though that may be frowned upon.
Just an idea of course, but hey! we need some action here, and without the bleeding hearts brigade.

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

The preparations and plans were laid much sooner, certainly, and that's not to the credit of anyone involved, but it was 1st Jan '73 when the fuse was lit and our souls were sold with the signing off on the deal.
 
I'm getting pretty close to the stage now of no longer caring about who gets unloaded, EU, Westminster, Holyrood or the SIC, we just need two from the four gone as a matter of urgency.
 
Four tiers cost a bankrupting fortune to just maintain, and by the time they all stick their oar in to everything, a bigger dog's dinner couldn't be created if they set out specificaly to make one.

Well said, Brochbuilder, and with dignity too. I always like to see both sides of an argument laid down. We should never be closed off to other opinions and ideas. It is up to us, as individuals, to read and hear others arguments and decide whether we feel them relevant or indeed logical. Only two things in Human existence have created change...      ...Talking and conflict, unfortunately most change has been created through conflict. I'd always prefer talking, personally with fighting as a very last resort. 
 I personally don't see the need to arm ALL police officers, but agree that a few well trained, and well vetted officers should carry firearms. I said that in my first post on this subject. I have personally seen too many police officers acting brutishly toward members of the public, to believe that the majority are trustworthy enough to be given such powers.
 However I welcome your views.

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.

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.

In spite of the efforts of so many to keep the sides of our roads the way they should be, the *heads
in our society still seem to take pleasure in dumping stuff out of the car window. I have been counting
the plastic bottles on the way home tonight, dear oh dear!
I think we should attach cameras to hydro poles in bad areas and try to collar these antisocial idiots.
A suitable punishment might be to dress them up in prison attire and make them clean the sides of the
roads every Saturday for a year or two. Start maybe at Lerwick and get a cup of tea in Cunningsburgh if
the road is clean. If not start again.
It would help to have a regimental sergeant major type to hit them with bits of wood from time to time
for motivation purposes, though that may be frowned upon.
Just an idea of course, but hey! we need some action here, and without the bleeding hearts brigade.

Why stop, eat it on the bus

I think the boat is actually a decent breakfast for the price with it being all you can eat on the boat. Then you just stuff your pockets with hash browns, toast and sausages and stop anywhere you like!

Does audi-ya-do drive an audi by any chance? Have the police given him a hard time for speeding or
some other "minor" offence perhaps? He seems to despise the police, I wonder why!
The police in this country face a difficult task, they have to face the drunken violent idiots every
weekend in every UK city, and get criticised when someone gets hurt. doesn't matter if it's them it
seems.
They track down all sorts of thieves and violent individuals only to see them released by the courts
with a slap on the wrists.
They chase car thieves and send them to court, see them released, and chase them again the next
weekend when they steal another car.
Police get hurt on a regular basis by drunken violent idiots when they should taser them immediately.
Why should they struggle with these people, why not just taser them after one warning. If the offender
gets hurt it's his own fault.
Police were on the front line with the nerve gas incident, and always during terrorist incidents.
If you get prosecuted for a minor traffic offence, well, you took your chances, stop bleating about
it, and pay up. Nobody to blame but yourself. Cry in your beer if you must.

So the US government are issuing an ultimatum it seems, stop shooting seals around fish farms or we
wont buy your fish!
Is this the same government that overturned the ban on importing wildlife trophies from Africa and
elsewhere, including endangered species such as the elephant?
Has this caring and concerned US government considered banning its own ranchers from shooting coyotes
that are harassing their livestock?
Is this the same US that is still using steel leghold traps that are banned here and elsewhere because
they are inhumane?
Is this the same US government that seems particularly unconcerned about its gunslinging population
shooting each other?
Fish farmers here have spent a fortune on protective measures to try and avoid shooting rogue seals,
but if all else fails have a right to protect stock, the same as a chicken farmer with a fox.
And to be blunt there is no shortage of seals around these shores so the shooting of the odd rogue
here and there is no threat to the species.
That last statement leaves me open to abuse but just trying to be fair and realistic here.

So the US government are issuing an ultimatum it seems, stop shooting seals around fish farms or we
wont buy your fish!
Is this the same government that overturned the ban on importing wildlife trophies from Africa and
elsewhere, including endangered species such as the elephant?
Has this caring and concerned US government considered banning its own ranchers from shooting coyotes
that are harassing their livestock?
Is this the same US that is still using steel leghold traps that are banned here and elsewhere because
they are inhumane?
Is this the same US government that seems particularly unconcerned about its gunslinging population
shooting each other?
Fish farmers here have spent a fortune on protective measures to try and avoid shooting rogue seals,
but if all else fails have a right to protect stock, the same as a chicken farmer with a fox.
And to be blunt there is no shortage of seals around these shores so the shooting of the odd rogue
here and there is no threat to the species.
That last statement leaves me open to abuse but just trying to be fair and realistic here.

So the US government are issuing an ultimatum it seems, stop shooting seals around fish farms or we
wont buy your fish!
Is this the same government that overturned the ban on importing wildlife trophies from Africa and
elsewhere, including endangered species such as the elephant?
Has this caring and concerned US government considered banning its own ranchers from shooting coyotes
that are harassing their livestock?
Is this the same US that is still using steel leghold traps that are banned here and elsewhere because
they are inhumane?
Is this the same US government that seems particularly unconcerned about its gunslinging population
shooting each other?
Fish farmers here have spent a fortune on protective measures to try and avoid shooting rogue seals,
but if all else fails have a right to protect stock, the same as a chicken farmer with a fox.
And to be blunt there is no shortage of seals around these shores so the shooting of the odd rogue
here and there is no threat to the species.
That last statement leaves me open to abuse but just trying to be fair and realistic here.

Cheers Windwalker, maybe the others will find a reason to laugh at some point.