digitaldodo

Sumburgh Lighthouse. Bulldose this monstrosity and big a modern, timber and glass visitor centre, cafe and accomodation for £1.5 million max. Instead of plowing £4m + into renovating the ugly POS!

It has been suggested that the dog is so effective at sniffin oot hash that folk are turning to harder alternatives. It sounds logical if they are determined for a non-legal high.

I'd rather see mair cops on the beat - it'll be all over bar the shouting by the time their summoned to the scene by CCTV controller.

We have paid councillors who are professional in the sense of getting money for what they do, but they are from all walks of life. They are supposed to make decisions based on the advice of the professional officials and department heads who are employed by the council. Not infrequently this advise is ignored and the councillors sometimes even ignore their own agreed policy in order to make a "popular" decision. The same local government set-up applies throughout the UK and Scotland but the SIC has more powers than any other local authority in Scotland. The council has often been accused of cronyism and funds often seem to find their way into the same old hands. Having said that, the SIC is probably no more guilty of that than any other council and probably less than some. I do worry that they are wasting "my" oil millions. Questions of cronyism aside, the SIC also seems to lack anything near the saavy that larger entities like Norway or even Scotland would show in using the oil wealth.

"what I don't have is self determination" Sheepshagger - a self-confessed bigoted right-wing extremist like you will never have self-determination. As soon as you actually do "stick your head above the parapit" and run on a public platform, instead of whingeing anonymously on Shetlink, you'll be seen for whit you are and have as much chance o election as the NF wi any decent minded population. My great great grandfather was one of the pioneers of the Faroe cod fishery - a great skipper by all accounts - his son was an acknowledged hero at sea saving the crew of a Danish schooner and one of their anscestors was an ABS (probably pressganged) on the Victory when Nelson got potted by a sniper. That's all fine and dandy, doesn't make my opinions any more valid (or theirs if they coukd spik noo) than anyone else's. On another point, as far as I can see all this about what documents of 600 year ago really mean is pure "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" stuff. It means precisely Jack S*** about the situation of today. When Shetland and Orkney was transferred/loaned - call it what you will - to Scotland it was precisely because Scandinavian power was on the wane and Scottish fortunes on the rise at the that time. The rest of the salad-dressing about dowries and redemption clauses is as relevant as fossilised mammoth s*** and has been entirely superceded by 600 years of reality. As an example - do you think we'd have heard the first word about Britian's lease of Hong Kong running out in 2000 had China been a small, weak, powerless country - apart from on some obscure bitching Chinese website? No. Now I think a bit more autonomy for Shetland in principal is a very good thing, but there is also a very disturbing number of dimwits and corrupt "good old boys" in the SIC. They also seem to have absolutely f-all business acumen including the chief exec who supposedly came from a business backgrund. The quality of leadership is something that seriously needs to be addressed here - and afore you go ranting about the SNP again, Salmond and co are light years ahead of the political representaiton of Shetland as it stands. How is a better quality leadership to be achieved?

Dagfin wrote: I don´t think it´s a good idea to turn this topic into a racial issue; sure we´re all a mixture of everything. Recent DNA Research shows excatly what the Sagas have suggested earlier, that Faroe islanders genetically are probably just as much gaelic/celtic as scandinavian. This because the norsemen brought gaelic wives and slaves to the islands with them: http://www.nature.com/ejhg/jou.....1578a.html Indeed the first â€norse†settler in Faroe mentioned in the sagas, was called "Grimr Camban", the name itself indicating a mixed norse/gaelic origin. Here, here, I endorse that.

"I know of a hell of a lot of very talented Shetlanders who have left because they can not find an outlet for their talents in Shetland this was backed up by Dagfinn who tells of a similar situation in Faroe, you only seem to have read the second part of his statement about them returning when that opportunities were given to them with home rule." No you said that they had to go overseas (not the UK) which is what I disputed. They could surely find the opportunities within the UK that they can't find in SHetland without home rule. On another point, I think Shetland, and for that matter Scotland and many parts of the UK are very ill served by the powers that be regarding economic conditions like interest rates and policies such as the CFP. As such, Britain is run very much to suit the city and the South East.

No, we won't agree because you don't seem to see that "never trust a Scoty" - in other wirds, you couldna very well trust me very far, and half my family not at all - when you ken neither - is is both ridiculous and offensive. I won't say "never trust an Englishmen" because I know that's just daft and some are excellent folk. Enough said.

Na, you started the slangin match, got the opportunity to retract yr twattish remarks but chose to repeat them in red ink. Then you alleged that Shetlanders had left the UK because there was not the opportunity for them to express their talents which is a ludicrous idea that I have never heard onybody else express. Dagfin made the reasonable but different point that Shetlanders might return to work in Shetland if there were more jobs resulting from independance/autonomy , to which I agreed. By the way, de deckies might have been better tellin de "never trust a moron", but that wid hiv required some self reflection.

Ya Derick, judging by the complete s***e dis guy has been scattering all ower dis grate sight I kinda get the impression you'd only hae ta remove a scale or twa to reveal a swastika. Tell me this sheepshaper, does this 500 years o abuse mak you mad?

"It is my impression that there is at present a "nation building" process going on in Scotland. An emphasis on internal consolidation, scottishness and so on. It is also my impression that it centers first and foremost on celticism and norse heritage might be seen as inconvenient in this process." Na the Nats are being careful to be all-embracing and broaden the definition of Scottish away from tartan, bagpipes and Mc surnames - and quite right too. It is certainly not a "nationalist" movement centered around Celticism and I cannot understand where you'd have got that impression.

"I wouldn't of taken offence with some Norwegians slagging of brits but with your scottish ancestry you did digitaldildo. " I didn't take offense, but i did think it funny in the way you do when you hear someboady talking out the hole of their e**e, and just in case you missed the point they were lumping Shetland in as "Brits." "I remember a lecturer at college telling me that I should speak gaelic and refusing to accept that it was not spoken in Shetland, he took offence that I refused to acknowledge my "celtic/gaelic heritage" a bit like you are now." I couldn't gie a toss what you think about that, but I certainly did take offence at your Scoty remark. Incidentally, if you don't hae a drop o "Scoty" blood in your veins your the only man in Shetland that doesn't. But you seem mair like a trow right enough.

"However, whenever the local faroese government has taken over fields of responsibility from danish institutions, in accordance with the home-rule agreement, more educated faroe islanders living in Denmark, have moved back to Faroe, to man the newly established faroese institutions, because they now can get a professional career at home." I can see the sense and logic in that though it differs in principal from migration because of the economic conditions, unless you mean the specific economic conditions of an admin job being created that wasn't there before. In your view, could Faroe be prosperous without support from Denmark? given that the Faroe fishing industry is (I believe) relatively more important than Shetland's.?

I think a fair amount of folks in the US have respect and fondness for Brits. I'd agree wi that, but politically speaking its a "you say jump and I'll say how high" relationship. It does not reciprocate.

Sheepshagger - Mass exodus of talent fae Shetland because of being part of UK, this I have never heard of, what planet is du on? There's plenty o talented folk here but for some reason, they are not interested in being on the political stage, or maybe they're then "past it" by the time they decide to graduate to the council. My argument stands that you would not want to give the present lot ony mair power than they have already. As for "views coloured by genes" - I didn't know your views were pre-programnmed by yr genetic coding. what are you? a racist? (don't answer). Na, my views are coloured by observation. As far as twisted sprootle goes - there's plenty o it from the UK but just as much emanating from your keyboard. I like Norway as a country and hae friends there, but stop well short of the knee-jerk, slavering, creepy adulation that some Shetlanders express. Of course a lot of Norwegians have a fondness for Shetland, the Shetland Bus etc. but I've also frequently heard Norwegians speak of Shetland as just another part of the UK/Scotland with no apparent knowledge of Shetland's Scandinavian past.

"Yeah as I'm alwis said niver trust a scoty" Sheepshagger crawl back under your steen. I'm half a "Scotty" and I wouldna let you lick the S***e aff o my shoen. However, not to get too off topic. Would anyone seriously like to give the present councillors any more power than they already have? They are certainly incompetent and if not provably corrupt, very lackadaisical about the rules governing public life. I don't know if there is a big enough pool of talented and visionary individuals in Shetland to form a successful government, - you're struggling to get descent representation at the Scottish parliament (check some of the New Labour central belt reps) and some of our cooncillors make the SP duds look like burning wizards in comparison. As for the folks who learned the Ladybird book version of Shetland history "if we could ging back ta Norrawa again somehoo it wid aa be better" brigade I witnessed a rather instructive tableau in the lounge t'other night - a bunch of Norwegians banging on about "you Brits this, you brits that" tarring Shetlanders wi the sam brush that we normally reserve for the "arrogant and superior" SE of England - they wir surely totally unaware of the "special relationship" that's supposed to exist between Shetland and Norway, Odd eh? But maybe like Britian's special relationship wi the USA, it's just a one-way thing.

Not if there's a shed load of oil, control of the middle east and America's continuation as the world's number one economic and warfighting power at stake......

Since the beginning of the "surge" on 1 Feb "coalition" casualties have risen to 3.16 per day - the highest in the 4 years since the invasion was "won". But this month they have risen dramatically to an average of 5.11 per day - a bit worrying for the coaliton as we are 11 weeks into the surge that was supposed to put an end to the insurgency. Check out http://icasualties.org/oif/ if yer interested in the crunched numbers.

Dunno if reducin departments is for good or ill, but regarding the idder proposals - onythin that strengthens the democratic element in government is a good thing, I'd say. If people care enough to put forward a large petition that's democracy in action.

Is there not a creeping spirit of prohibition in this country? The ever so PC Scottish Executive is going to ban air guns in a couple o years time unless the police can come up with a compelling case for why they souldn't be banned. That is surely muckle sphincter aboot. The onus should be on the Executive to prove the need for a ban. I've seen the same thing at the cooncil where the presumption seems to be that you should need to prove that you need XYZ rather than that in a free society it is your right to do your will unless there are compelling reasons otherwise. The public drinking ban in Lerwick has raised little fuss - maybe it's a good thing - but it won't have much influence on people getting drunk and fighting which they will continue to do so anyway. Has there been much problems with people getting glassed in Lerwick? The identity card is just taking things further down the route to a police state. When that particular genie is out of the bottle, there will be no putting it back. And however hellish the state becomes there will be no chance of resistance when the authorities know what you had for breakfast on any given morning, never mind where you are going, what you are spending your money on or who you are associating with.

Da only wie at da Scots dinna vote SNP (sorry Derek, it's easier writin English) is that they have been drip-fed the lie that they are useless, supplicant crap for the past 300 years. The situation is analagous to a mentally abused wife who is afraid to leave her lazy, bullying husband who tells here continually that she is lucky he does not boot her out in which case she could not possibly exist on her own! Of course the poor woman is waiting on the cad hand and foot, sorting out trouble he has caused with their neighbours, finding the ocassional oil gusher in their back yard and would be far better off divorcing the lazy, useless sod. We hear continually in this independance debate how strong the English economy is. I have yet to understand what it is based on, how a country that produces nothing and exports nothing can have a strong economy. I suppose it is the funny money economy that consists of electrons flying round in City of London computers and the means to continue fleecing Johnny foreigners long after they have excaped from the commonwealth. It is little wonder depression and alchoholism is so prevalent in Northern and indigenous cultures world-wide when they find themselves over-run and then subject to a deluge of propaganda to the effect that they are fundamentally useless and that they should be eternally grateful to their conquerors who have delivered them from the darkness. You can believe that if you want - I reckon I can achieve most things I set my mind to and have every confidence most of my countryfolk can do the same, given the right encouragment. The weakness of the Union and Westminster government for Scotland and rural areas in general is perfectly illustrated by the mess that has been made of the fishing industry - a pawn that has been continually sacrificed at EU level so that Tony and his predecessors could get deals on issues more central to their concerns. Another example is the strong pound - a byproduct o the desire to keep the whole house price house of cards (couldn't think o a better way to put it) from crashing down - but pretty disastrous for Scotland which remains an exporting economy - just - in spite of the hostile trading conditions foisted on it by London. I'm no economist but it strikes me the UK economy is the classic house of sand, British liquidity is based largely on loans on houses that are valued at several times their actual cost to build - I think when the situation becomes overheated to that extent you are in deep, deep doodoo when it becomes unravelled. Britain in 20 years time? My guess is it will bankrupt and riven by the kind of political extremism nobody will benefit from.

Thanks! but there's no need for such formality and I'm only stating a fact - neither are socialists. Gordon, Tony et all are New Tory Lite - as are Cameron etc. I don't think anyone nowadays would vote for the old Torys. So neither the US or the Soviets were acting out of concern for poor old Blighty - I'd think the Russians had more pressing concerns at the time. The German's were near Moscow and as you point out an accident of geography kept the Germans out of Britian. Stalin may have been as nasty as Hitler - that still doesn't alter the fact the Soviets trashed the Wehrmacht. As NewMagnie says, much of what went to Russia was regarded as second-rate in the western arsenal - of limited utility unless Britian had more trained pilots, tank crews etc than they actually had. Your grandfather fought in the war, so did mine - so what? So did every grandfather in Russia, Germany and Japan. What's the point - were they all righteous? I think they were mostly conscripted. Well......pretty easy to see where your bigotry lies then. I'd think Scotland has far more in the way of resources than say, Denmark. And as far as oil goes, of course Scotland could not hang onto it, unlike Norway, in a British context. When you say "ours" who do you mean exactly? Or to keep the English or vikings out. Why historic in quotes - do you think they didn't happen? He, he...... we'll see. But to get back to the original puropose of this thread...... If missiles are easier intercepted, as you claim, at their launch phase, then an anti-missile system can be of no defense to us, only the Yanks. There's clearly going to be no end to the arms race if we seek to counter every potential future threat instead of concentrating on what's really there. The UK, US France, Russia etc possess virtually every weapon of mass destruction. What the rest have doesn't amount to a piss in a pot by comparison.

That's a pretty wide ranging rant Sparks, but we still don't have either a socialist MSP or MP. Tavish, good old capitalist he. The other - don't know possibly further to the left - but not a "socialist" as such. So wonderful benificent Uncle Sam baled us out of 2 world wars? How altruistic of him. Maybe the first, but the second took Pearl Harbour to get them involved - nothing to de with Britain, unless you believe that Churchill didn't tell them the attack was coming. In purely miliary terms the Soviet's were responsible for the destruction of the German army - maybe doing 3/4 of the work there. They also suffered the biggest causalties by far. If we owe anyone a debt for delivering us from Nazi clutches it's them. Once Hitler got embroiled with the Russians, the chances of a Nazi invasion of the UK were essentially over. The Scots must be a uniquely imbecilic nation of morons if all the doomsayers who allege Scotland could not prosper without good olde ENgland to prop us up were right. What a load of b******s. Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Eireland, Luxemboiurg, Switzerland, Portugal - all little nations which are great success stories in their own right and who have prospered in the modern world - some without half the advantages Scotland has. So I'd like to know what's so special (needs) about the Scots they cannot do it? The US may be the new British Empire, but all Empires fall - even the Roman one. I'd say the high water mark of Amercian power has been reached. The 21 century will belong to China - get used to it.

Clickimin is great - as are aa the leisure complexes - wish I wisna so bloody lazy and made more use of them. The best use o money da council has ever made!