Scorrie

And I'm pretty certain that any waste water that goes back into the sea is scrubbed first, as happens at SVT. I could be wrong, though. Anyone off the rigs got any comments on that process?

Could you elaborate on the 'toxins' in our farmed salmon, please?

Ah, but they could be thinking in Gaelic....... Anyway, I don't think any private outfit should be just 'given' any contract. That's just cronyism. Pity we can't get commercial operators such as Brittany Ferries interested, they've got their heads screwed on and are used to running longer distance ferries.

Sturgeon hasn't got a snowballs on that one. I've a measure of respect for her as she appears to be one of the few UK politicians of standing that hasn't gone into a tailspin over this. However, the SNP now have a sizeable headache. They cannot go direct for EU membership without first getting a positive outcome in an Indy ref - and that is no longer a clear cut vote. There will be a sizeable portion of Indy voters (myself included) who voted 'Yes' last time as we believed we would have a good trading relationship with rUK as fellow members of the EU. This will no longer be the case. Scotland would have to comply with whatever the EU decided regarding trade with rUK. And if the EU decide that they are going to do what the 'remain' campaigners used in EU Project Fear - threaten to punish the UK for leaving - then Scotland has just binned its major trading partner. In a time when all the 'bonus' money from oil has disappeared. Plus vector in the fact that some new EU members have had to jump through massive fiscal hoops to get into the EU, they will not allow any soft options that allow Scotland to join on more favourable terms than they had. And then there's the 'Separatist' issue for EU countries that have trouble with states wishing to split off..... Basque and Catalonia for example. Spain has already threatened to veto an Indy Scotlands application Scotland is not well placed for an Indy ref right now - and Nicola knows it. She needs to know what line the UK is going to take next. I believe that only when the SNP have a clear idea on where exactly the UK is heading - and how the negotiations begin to shape up with the EU - will they decide when to hold another referendum. But, then again......

Being part of something does not always equate to being informed upon the subject. eg: Going to church doesn't necessarily make you a good Christian.

So, just "some" of the 17 million Leave voters knew what they were doing. I presume then, that just "some" of the Remain voters were equally well informed?

Do you seriously believe that over 17 million UK voters are nothing more than brainwashed racist 'Little Englander' Sun readers? Oh dear.

How did you manage to count all those boats and identify their nationalities back in 1973?

Well, if they want to save some money on their arms budget, we've a massive pile of unwanted air rifles they can have......

And there's the chance that a lot of pro Indy Scots may reconsider their position if it becomes apparent that Scotland may have difficulties trading with UK if they decide to go Indy and join Europe. They will have to negotiate trade deals with the UK as part of the EU - and they may not get what they want if Brussels decide to start pulling their chain...... We live in interesting times.

I was surprised by the large wedge of 'Stay' votes in Shetland, I expected more to be in favour of leaving. Shows what I know

Sorry, I can't help you with that but I can give you a word of advice: Make sure that your pet will not be left running loose with a load of other animals and make sure the person looking after them will actually be there and not going out to work. We had one chancer on Yell whose idea of dog sitting was to go out to work all day and get their husband to nip home and let the dog out at lunchtime........ plus there's one guilty on Mainland regarding the first bit, don't know their names, though.

They'll have brought in consultants to consult upon whether they should bring in consultants to consult about a potential consultation with the public...etc....etc....

Why would it be a security issue?

I believe that's someone up on holiday from Scotland. Possibly a member of a volunteer rescue group.

Stand by for da Scorrie ! Nowt to do with me.

Is that all! i hear a waiter in tails greets passengers on boarding the Bressay ferry with complimentary caviar and truffles on a silver platter. Exactly. Another example of the SIC chucking money at those close to Toon at the expense of decent services for those on the Outer Isles. B*&%$rds.

I've had many, many excellent meals on the Toft to Ulsta ferry. A superb range of chocolate bars and crisps, plus langoustine, roast suckling pig basted with red wine, braised Shetland lamb and 16oz sirloin steak are all available from the vending machine. This coupled with the hand-crushed coffee beans, Assam tea, Pouilly Fumee, Bolly and Chateau Clerc Milon 2010 available from the drinks machine lead me to believe that this ferry is the finest dining experience available anywhere in the world. Just make sure you can eat and drink it all in 14 minutes........

I spoke to my mum as you asked and she said not to talk to strange men.

WTF?

Forgot to add (too late to edit above post): Overall, not the best piece of driving I've ever seen, but it isn't really up there with the complete feckwits that one sees upon Her Madges' highways. Bear in mind that we all make errors of judgement and get a bit impatient at times.

The guy overtaking ballsed it up. It looks like his original intention was to pass both cars in one hit but, to his credit, realised it was too dangerous and had to hit the brakes to tuck in behind the lead car. If his intention was only to pass the first car, then his assessment was still crap as he had to brake sharply to complete the manouver - he's reduced the space in between vehicles to a dangerous level and forced the camera car to decelerate to create safe distance. If that was one of my students carrying out an overtake like that, I'd be going over the basics with them whilst beating them over the head with a copy of the DSA Driving manual...... Stone chip? TBH, that could happen at any time. But I'd be a bit p%ssed off as well if I got the screen hit in the situation we're talking about.

It's interesting to compare figures with ferries doing similar runs elsewhere in the UK. For example, in July I can go from Portsmouth to St Malo on Brittany Ferries (which is 12 hrs steaming, so near as dammit the same as Lerwick to AberDhabi) in July for £240 for a car +1. Which is the same figure that Capeesh comes up with for the RET price. Admittedly the fares vary depending on the day of the week at this peak holiday time, but bear in mind I can also pay £185 to travel today (Lerwick to Aberdeen is £173 today) or pay just £94 for car +1 in November on Brittany ferries (L-A: £136 in November). I know that Brittany Ferries certainly had subsidies many years ago, but I believe that this was knocked on the head as it gave them an unfair advantage over other cross-channel services. Don't know what the situation is now.

Really?

I don't think it will happen. Otherwise all and sundry would be able to go back and chop out posts where they got something wrong/made and ass of themselves etc. The whole forum would then be littered with the unintelligible bare bones of threads - it would be like reading a book where someone has ripped out random pages.