blue beetle

1.24m people voted for the SNP out of a population of 5.51m at the general election. Does not look like a mandate for anything to me. The whole thing has far more to do with Nicola's ego and the hope that people will vote yes because they don't like Boris. She knows as well as anyone that he will be gone soon and that window will be forever closed.

Scotland has a huge hole in their finances which has to be topped up by the English every year. Which is also where the money came from via the EU for all the so called benefits of membership we keep hearing about. The SNP are not keen on salmon farming , oil, gas, fracking, or fishing. except to give away our grounds to the EU. They seem to want to turn our farm land into some sort of theme park. Our heavy industries are a shadow of their former selves . The defence basses would all have to close and the holy grail of reentry into the EU will be vetoed by the Spanish because of Catalonia. Not to mention the fact that they do not need another economic basket case added to their now dwindling budget. Scotland is also the sick man of Europe and the drugs capital of well the world with all the extra social costs that comes with it. There is probably more but i feel ive made my point. And the question i have to ask myself is where is the money going to come from to pay for independence. Also the clamour for indie ref 2 is mostly being driven by a hatred of Boris johnson. But he is a here today gone tomorrow politician . And Scotland it seems to me will be struggling to balance the books long long after he has gone. Oh i forgot to mention Scotlands share of the national debt.

I see the SIC are consulting on whether the street should be car free for most of the day. Well they have made it people free and damn near shop free so I don't suppose car free will make much difference. Link - http://www.shetnews.co.uk/news/17166-sic-explores-da-street-going-car-free

At the Voe show a couple of years ago there was a stand selling fried small whole haddocks , They were fresh tasty cooked to perfection and for the record I ate six, There was also the usual burger/sausage fry up going on. As I observed the two food outlets I was amused and as a Shetlander ashamed by the size of the queue at each outlet. There was three people waiting for the fish . All from Whalsay by the way and at least sixty waiting for a burger. So in my opinion if the Voe show crowd is any reflection of the eating habits of the rest of Shetland They are wasting their time.

I see the Shetland times are struggling with this discovery as well. Hidden away on page 5 all aboot dir FOE pals moaning , While the front page is full of "Ghastly" wind farm headlines. Well whats it to be fossil fuels or renewables . Mak your minds up bairns. Nearly as bad as greenpeace charging all over the ocean in a diesel powered ship protesting aboot oil exploration.

Yun lot are never happy. We would all freeze or starve to death if they were in charge. I wonder if they have ever looked at a globe. Scotland is a very very small country. And only a very small bit of it is populated. I cant see how Scotland has ever done anything to cause global warming . And more to the point give,n its miniscule size there isn't much that Scotland can ever do to slow global warming down. The hypocrisy of our MSP,s is also laughable. Wittering on about renewables and co2 emissions one minute and welcoming this gas find the next.

Its very important when you turn 50 not to get " Old farts disease" I have observed that the people who behaved the worst when they were teenagers tend to suffer from it the most.

I don't claim to understand the politics of it all and I know you cant turn back the clock . But personally as a small boy living in Whalsay in the seventies it was a huge thrill going to Lerwick for a day. There was nowhere more vibrant and welcoming than commercial street . You could get nearly anything you wanted and the shop keepers were known to one and all. We always seemed to be welcome then unlike now. I for one try to avoid Lerwick now unless I have no other option and if I do have to venture past Grantfield I still do all I can to avoid the street. The powers that be really couldn't have done any more to destroy the desire to shop in Lewick than if they put up barbwire fences. No wonder the shop owners are struggling. Its very sad. And none of the faceless destroyers are ever held accountable for their decisions.

I cant believe it Tinkler was last. Surely there,s been a mistake. Im shocked.! How could the people of the west side reject a man of such vast knowledge on any subject you care to mention be rejected . What a loss to Shetland politics. Oh well jonny willy will be pleased. LOL.

All im saying is that piers which are used by many different industries are vital for the on going success of the wider Shetland economy. Using the fact that a few scallop boats havnt paid their dues for landing at a derelict pier as an excuse for not maintaining an essential part of our islands infrastructure is quite frankly pathetic.

So let me get this straight magnie ii. We should close down our fishing and aquaculture industries worth the last time I saw figures £504million pounds to the Shetland economy per year not to mention 2600 local jobs that depend on good piers just because of a few thousand pounds of unpaid landing dues. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater and knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing. You should have a job at Sellaness

Maggie Sandison seems to have no idea how the major contributor to the Shetland economy ie fishing, mussel farming and salmon farming works. If the SIC cant balance their books it isn't the fault of the aquaculture industries .Its more likely because they employ far to many pen pushers like her that sit around all day dreaming up half witted ideas that drain the SIC.s coffers like we are seeing along the esplanade right now. The fishing industry and all the other spin off jobs that result from it are the wealth creators of this community. And good piers are the life blood of these industries. Maggie should go to work every day wondering how she can build the new Scalloway fish market extend the Collafirth and Whalsay piers build a new pier at MidYell and Ronas Voe aswell as improving the Grutness pier etc. We would all be better off if the millions wasted at the North ness had gone into improving our piers. As some one said earlier on here if the SIC cant get into that mind set they should pass the job over to someone who can. Because without the money that comes from the sea we are finished.

Skerriesinthewilderness, The arguments for/against salmon farming were held 30 years ago. And if you take a look in every voe in Shetland loch in Scotland and fjord in Norway the people who write these type of articles lost.

I used to work at the Browns road factory. I unblocked the red dye brine pump many times each day. I also ate the kippers straight from the kiln each night for tea. They were free and I couldn't afford anything else. The herring we used at the time were from Canada due to the North sea ban at the time. They were far bigger than North sea herring as well. I was 16 then im 54 now so no harm was done, My father is 80 and never had a fag out of his hand for more than a few minutes apart from sleeping for the last 65 years. Compare that to the people who look after themselves and still get cancer there doesn't seem to be any rime nor reason to who gets cancer and who doesn't. But for the grace of god go I.! As they say.

Slightly off topic. Despite these troubled times political turmoil and falling markets (Including the SIC,s little stash) we can always depend on the England football team to cheer us up. They have managed to leave Europe twice in one week. What a bunch of losers. LMFAO... Go Iceland .!