Claudias

When I first came to Unst,a few years ago,my local shop charged me 6/9d for a gallon of premium (98 Ron) petrol. £0.35 per gallon. Yesterday,the same shop charged me £5.03 for a gallon of unleaded (93 Ron). I wish that my income had gone up by a similar percentage.

i would love tae ken why du is so insanely frightened o folk asking for answers, rather as jist blindly following summat? any comments? I simply asked for an answer. Are you insanely frightened?

I would love to know why Peeriesookie and Sam are so insanely jealous of Sakchai. Any comments

Audi TT Quattro 3.2 at £29,000 is much better than the beamer.

Thanks Tomblands. A good suggestion but,there are some excellent pictures on some of these threads so,instead of using my Firefox I stick to Safari. A click in the sidebar is sufficient panacea.

Please don't let my selfish comments deprive you of a source of income. I can live with it.

Moderators, Could you please get your advertisers to reduce the frequency of flashing on their sites.The quick flashes make me giddy and I can only read posts at the bottom of pages if I left click on the sidebar. A minor annoyance but mine own.

On chat forums it is possible to "ignore" posters. On Skype one is able to 'Block" contacts. Would it be possible to add such facilities to these pages so that we can be our own censors?

I considered segatrix a troll from his very first post.

Well said JustMe.

A solution to the Unst problem:- Depopulate the island. Cover the surface with aero generators. Fill the seas with tidal and wave generators and make it a real power centre. Then it could truly be said. 'This is not just for Lerwick but for the whole of Shetland'.

New Magnie wrote"Your point about Unst folk only welcoming incomers if they're well heeled retirees, on the other hand, is iredeemably ill informed - not to mention insulting. I must apologise for the way that piece was worded. 'As long as they are retirees and not competing' should have read 'especially if they are retirees and not competing'. There was no mention about being well heeled. Asylum seekers would be equally welcome. Unst has welcomed many thousands of incomers over the centuries,most especially over the last fifty years and will no doubt continue to do so,if allowed. There must be a tinge of bitterness however in people who see the created jobs going to incomers whilst they have had to leave the island to survive.

Shetlander wrote. Yes there have been failures but what about the recent successes in Unst? The Brewery and the PURE project for example? And no, SE and the URT can't have any influence over the SIC and other public bodies but partnership is going to be the key to success in Unst and the URT do have a role to fulfil in making sure everyone works together. The success of Valhalla Brewery is down to the desirability of the product not to any influence of SE or URT whilst the PURE project has not yet proved itself to be a commercial success. Judging by the number of times that the wind turbines are down for repair,it will need 100% efficiency to make them viable. We will have to agree to disagree on the need for partnership. If SE and URT have little influence and entrepreneurs have to develop their own ideas and seek their own finances,what need for partners?

Fifi Wrote Whatever happened to the animation studio? The rump of it existed as Aaberyowe for some time but their site has not been updated since 11/06/2003. Seeking www.aaberyowe.com brings no results. elizabethjohnson@yahoo.co.uk was their director. She is now chairperson of Iate.

[quote="shetlander"SE and the URT do certainly have a role to work with public agencies like the Council to take forward ideas raised by folk on how their operations could change to benefit Unst (basing the ferry there or decentralising office based jobs for example) but at the end of the day the Council has to have the political will to change those things themselves – which neither SE or the URT have any influence over. I do think both have a role - but short of those suggestions and the work they are doing at the moment I’m just not sure what other practical things you see either SE or the URT being able to do. SIC had two houses built in Unst to house ferry workers. They stood empty for months and Unst crew were paid to stay at home because the Yell crews resisted all efforts to change the situation. That move needs more than political will. The forerunners of the URT listened to the blandishments of an entrepreneur who was going to turn Unst into the animation capitol of the North. They helped to channel more than £!M into the project. Where is the success in that story? Recently,money was ploughed into obtaining property and employing staff to start a college in Baltasound. The idea was good but it didn't appear to have the backing of the education establishments. Where has that gone? It is all too easy to throw money at projects and to create well paid posts filled by people who have no more experience in the local situation than the average citizen. Most of them are average citizens. If SE and URT have no influence over SIC and can not create industries they should be abolished. Or will you claim that these jobs are creating employment?

Two conflicting statements there. The members of SE and URT are being paid substantial salaries to gather the ideas put forward. Are they not then tasked with trying to bring some of these ideas to fruition? Or,do they merely offer advice to the ones with the ideas. They are hardly likely to be able to offer training and the financial assistance seems to be limited to pointers to funding sources. If we have to ensure that our own ideas work and apply for our own grants why do we need SE and URT?

Another fine idea. We could get asylum seekers to bring their own flocks. If they are not allowed to gain paid employment this would allow islanders to make the cheese. Gains all round. I propose that JustMe is employed as a consultant to SIC Planning.

I am an interested spectator,not an investigative reporter,so I am not going to name names or report concrete facts. However,I was at a meeting, several years ago, to discuss the setting up of an Animation Studio where the persons tasked with the rejuvenation of Unst stated quite clearly that the project was being set up to draw qualified incomers into the island rather than to cater for unemployed local people. What happened to all the money invested in that project? Since then,Shetland Enterprise and the Unst Response Team have expended thousands of pounds without coming up with any ideas as worthy of consideration as JuasMe's idea of bringing in asylum seekers. Creating a couple of posts to think of ideas is merely throwing good money after bad. SIC and Blackwoods between them formulated the plan to move to Unst and Frank Strang seems to have his own ideas without any prompting.

Site is now back up. My results -4.88 / -4.62

I did hope that starting this link would generate a call for the mobile unit to be brought to Shetland to test the feasibility of the project. But,typical SIC, money is no object,we must have our own,so full steam ahead. Let's see how long they last before being vandalised.

I like to sleep in a bed and am prepared to pay extra for the exclusive use of a cabin but was horrified to find that, last time,I had been allocated a four berth cabin,thus depriving three other people. When I queried this I was told that it was standard practice. No wonder beds are scarce.

Three Mams. Lucky guy.

I'm getting dyslexic too - mistaking genre for gender - sorry.