Gorgonzola Butt-cheese

Was the spanish inquisition catholics ?? they were a lovely bunch??*! Monty python springs tae mind. I have heard about the vatican, dripping in gold apparently and yet vast swathes of it's followers hardly have twa pennies ta rub dagidder. Nithin but a bunch o sordid guizers if you ask me. Budhism, the only belief I have a bit of admiration for. But still prefer the saying " he who expecteth f**k all, shall not be disappointed" Awomem!!

I dont think we can set immigration controls as such and I wouldn't particularily want to. Not as an autonomous protectorate of the United kingdom anyway. And of course it's not a problem affecting life here today. More of a concern for the future will most likely be migration away from the isles. If our primary industries dry up, then so will the construction industry and the mass exodus will begin

Yes lexander you are spot on! We have a working population who have been paying all their lives into the U.K money pot ( the one with the big hole in the bottom that sits above the E.U. Pot) But as we continue paying very large sums of tax in, it would only be correct that certain services recieve back revenue to maintain function - coastguard, health service, education etc. There is huge room for improvement in fisheries and land use ( agricultural and otherwise) Faroe, channel islands and the Isle of Man are the Island groups we should be looking to as a way to learn how things can be improved here. I also would like to see one tax break for shetland - VAT removed.

you misunderstand me njugle, I have no glee at all in predicting the failure of mareel. I sincerely he I am wrong and it is a success. And yes the lerick nightlife might be a far cry from the vegas strip or the rio carnival, but the fact remains there is a key group of young party aged people who are the bread and butter of every establishment in lerick on a friday and saturday night. For Mareel to prosper there will have to be a significant shift of where their hard earned pennies are spent. Mareels gain will without doubt be to every other licensed traders loss.

And if it is a roaring success, I would imagine it will be at the detriment of all the other local night spots, posers, flints, wheelbar, legion etc. I think you can safely say this as the "party crowd" section of society who are out there weekend after weekend are the ones with the surplus income who will be required to pay to keep the beast fed. Most other people will only go once in a blue moon.

Good to see a lot of optimism with regard mareel being a roaring success. But the bottom line is if it canna generate enough revenue to pay for itself, it will be shut doon. If schools and inter-island transportation is havin ta be cut, nae body is going tae stand for a picture hoose being propped up. Sorry tae burst one's balloons but dat is dat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtCllCJf59I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsAPmDoCA70

I still hold the media responsible for the backlash this has caused. The modern media wields huge power in manipulating the masses. You can see it clearly at work in this case. If it hadn't been streamed around the world on 24hr news and in every paper it would have stood western countries much better in their condemnation of it. Perhaps this is just an opening gambit to try and get the upcoming conflict with Iran going.

The problem here is once again mostly with the media, this nut should have been given no coverage what so ever.

Betty Fullerton as an interim convener.

Very well put ghostrider, the legislation in place for prohibition of a large number of substance's is nothing more than legislation to allow a black market to flourish.. I think some of the poster's here are unaware of just how huge this industry is. Its multi billion, its amongst the biggest in the world . It has the wealth to corrupt to the highest levels of government and it has clearly done that to remain so succesful today. I am convinced it has even corrupted our very own northern constabulary. Perhaps not directly through them profiting out of drugs but certainly in that they allow some dealers to continue to operate in turn for names of others, (an uneven distribution in the rule of law, so as to be seen to have drug busting results, yet the use of heroin in the isles remains undiminished ). Think on it this way the E.U. or various branches of that government could go to Afghanistan and buy the entire opium crop for double the price the grower's presently recieve. The crop could be turned into high quality heroin and distributed under controlled conditions to anybody registered as a heroin addict with patient confidentiality. What would happen? The black market providing profit to criminals would be gone. Heroin addicts would no longer have to exist as criminals in the supply chain, where many have to sell to others to meet the cost of their own addiction( not having to recruit new heroin users). The law enforcement agencies would be freed up to pursue harder criminals ( In fact we would find we have an excess of law officers because other drug related crime would reduce). The costs to the prison service would be massively reduced. countries to try this would save vast sums of money with this approach. Why is it not happening? 2 REASONS - Ignorance of the people Corruption of our political system You have to ask why, after 9 years of the most technologically advanced armies of the world operating against a force of peasant warrior's with no air power, no armoured vehicles and no weapons heavier than machine guns, mortars and mines, has heroin production increased by 33% Who's really making the money?

Good on the Flea ! And Sandy would need to take a few o his cronies we him out to the political wilderness at the same time.

I can see quite a bit of common ground here, even with those with the most opposing views. If any of you have not watched the 3 part channel 4 series " our drugs war" I would suggest you do before you post back here. For me the evidence for decriminalising drugs is overwhelming, and as shetland peat mentions their are countries like portugal and holland where this has already happened. The situation within those countries since they changed their approach is further positive proof that blanket prohibition does not work. And to SJP17, you are correct that methadone has a very poor success rate at curing heroin addicts. But the methadone producers are making a good profit and that is perhaps the main thing. Curing heroin addicts might not be good for their business? And the most damming point on methadone - Is the fact that several of the drug deaths in shetland were caused by this very substance when taken along with alcohol. That is a fact. the most lethal drug combination in the Shetland Isles over the last few years were supplied by licensed traders and the national health service.

Well we do live on an Island 60 dgs North, rough sea and uncertain transport timetables will always be part and parcel o' it. I watch the boat head south last night and she wis diggin her nose intae a lump or twa. I wid think there will be a good few spew bags this morning.

yes i thowt twartree folk wid lik dat een

Yes that's all fair comment new magnie, it may well be the least imperfect system that modern civilisation has operated under. But should we accept the areas where it is failing us on that basis? And by the way I am not a spokesperson for this new movement nor at present a member of. I am sure as the movement grows it's manifesto will evolve as more ideas are gathered from it's growing number of supporters. Perhaps one day there will be a statue of Stuart Hill at the market cross. The Bernardo O'higgins of the Shetland Islands.

I have no real knowledge of the shetland movement Ghostrider. What type of fresh start would inspire you ?

Just watched part 3 of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvtSEy57PvE&feature=channel Our drugs war.

That's very well put EM, I fully understand what you are saying. Would we be in agreement to say at present we suffer from to much government? - Local, Holyrood, Westminster, Brussels and U.N. Yes I realise that in hoping for changes here at our local level, that the bigger powers above will still be there and that we have to continue to deal and interact with them for many of the different functions of modern civilization. I would say that the U.K.(the electorate) should be given the decision:- to continue with our current status as an E.U. Province, and then greatly reduce the number of msp's & mp's Or to opt out like Norway and Switzerland, and then pay off all the mep's and just have a small number of delegates to attend their functions. I am a democrat and would accept the majority decision on that one. But of course all these parliaments are jobs for the boys of the political class and none of them are in any hurry to dismantle any part of it. Cause there all doing too well living of our backs! We just pay an ever increasing amount of money to an ever increasing number of politicians who individually have less power to do diddly squat. We need to look to Faroe and their relationship with Denmark and the E.U. And if Shetland could work under some similar sort of relationship with it's parent country, that to should go to the vote and again I would respect the majority decision. I try to look at this fairly realistically.

What would you suggest EM ?

Its not just about Stuart any more beach caster, and from what he has started a new way forward is going to be offered to the folk of the community. I for one have never been represented and have now lived through labour/conservative/labour/condem government at U.K. Level Labour-lib/ snp at Scottish level. I am fully convinced their is no difference what so ever from these mainstream parties, they all endorse E.U. control of our lands and seas and we are slaves to that system And of course we suffer with a local council that is rarely aware of the difference between its anus and its elbow. I dont agree about the whole starting a new nation thing, but i am sure there can be a new way forward where nobody loses out (by that I mean the present U.K managers and their E.U. Boss) and we the people here can enjoy a bit more equality and be freed from much of the unworkable regulations imposed on us from faceless buereacrats from afar. The faroe islands and the Isle of Man and other similar Island groups enjoy far greater levels of autonomy than we do,. From what I am aware they happily co-exist with their parent country or protectorate. And I am hoping the new movement will establish links with these Island groups to seek a new and better way forward for our own Island community. In the new man Daniel Gear I see some one of truth and principle to represent the people in an honest and open way. What I am hoping for now is that Daniel himself and hopefully a few more like minded souls alongside him will stand at the next local elections. Whether anyone likes it or not we luckily still have that bit of democracy left, perhaps its the only bit we have. So lets have less of the snidely remarks and a bit more open mature debate. After all why shouldn't we endeavour to try to create something better for all the people. That is what communities should be about, not just accepting that this is the way it is so thats the way it always will be.

The world is full to bursting point with people selling pointless crap. You go to any country in the world and you will find a shop dedicated to selling memorabelia to tourist's. If Stuart wants to offer for sale item's to the "online" tourist, well as I see it that's entirely up to him. And the power remains in the hands of the buyer, you dont have to buy it. Back to the conference, well it may not have had a big attendance but the movement has begun and I hope it will be developed to bring credible people forward to stand for election at local council level.

So you didn't enjoy the conference EM ? Surely couldna have been as bad as a car crash?. I know, off topic .

I did join in Gibber, I am infull agreement with Arabia Terra's statement, BOTH sides have committed atrocities. You are clearly very biased in defending Israel.