– Shetland: Going, Going, Gone!

6,000 years of Shetland’s unique cultural heritage is right now being sold off to the highest bidder.

I feel like I’ve woken up in a post-apocalyptic future. Suddenly all common-sense and humanity has disappeared and I’m in a MAD MAX movie. Right now the most important news dominating our local press is not about how Shetland desperately needs a new hospital, doctors, dentists, vets, builders, plumbers, electricians and every other trade that makes ordinary life possible. But how we should spend that precious public money on making travelling between islands a few minutes quicker. Shades here of the HS2 rail link. I’m talking about the latest hair-brain scheme from our über-leadership (a secret mafia of local business, MP & MSP plus well-placed members on Shetland Islands Council), who have decided to press ahead with yet another massive construction project, this time to replace four inter-island ferries with tunnels. No surprise really. Now the Viking wind farm project is winding down, they are obviously eager to repeat their success at making themselves so rich. Except this time it will be Shetlanders paying the price. In more ways than one.

Regardless of the estimates currently being touted, which can only be guesses at this stage, it is going to cost a hell of a lot. It has to, in order to make the project worthwhile for all those who will benefit financially. And as with the wind farm, completely out of proportion to those it will directly benefit, approximately 2,000 islanders with cars. But apparently that’s fine. The mafia aren’t interested in providing essential services like building a new hospital, or even providing a basic health care service, because they don’t use those themselves. Just like they aren’t worried about all the other pressing needs of Shetlanders that aren’t being met. No, this is far more important.

They intend to finance this by raising a loan, probably from central government, which they blithely claim can be repaid solely through tolls. Excuse me? Any functioning adult could tell you that is total tosh, the tolls will not even cover the running costs. No, this will end up like every other one of their vanity projects, subsidised by yet another drastic cut in public services (already at breaking point), and an increase in the Community Charge (already far above what most people can actually afford).

It’s what they aren’t telling us, however, which is even more worrying.

For example, the social cost.

The tolls (after the initial opening period) are definitely going to cost the islanders a lot more than the current ferry charges. They will also be faced with spending more on fuel, to drive through them, especially as none of the tunnels will be as direct as the ferries (the Bressay one will have to emerge in Gremista or even further north). With budgets already stretched to the limit for many households (especially the elderly and those on low incomes), who are juggling the highest electricity tariff in the UK and a Community Charge at least 50% more than it should be (SIC is infamous for spending public money on everything but essential services), this means that they will probably have to make fewer inter-island trips (which means a lower toll income too). Those who used the ferries as a foot passenger or cyclist will of course no longer be allowed to travel.

At the moment each island has enough of most services to be reasonably self-sufficient, but when the tunnels are open they will be gradually all be relocated to Lerwick, including the schools and health care. The small shops will also suffer as the wealthier switch their shopping to Lerwick. House prices will inevitably rise too with the improved access. Eventually, only those who are on a good pension or have a well-paid job will be able to live there.

The unique culture of each island will also disappear. Which is tragic at a time when virtually everywhere else in the UK has been sanitised and exploited to death. They also attracted tourists for this reason, as well as those who wanted to settle there permanently. Unst in particular (the most northerly habitable place in the UK), which has been compared to Alaska for its friendliness towards those who can no longer find a place to fit in anywhere else. This will all go when they are linked by road.

The construction period will also be a lot longer than for the wind farm, so once again there will be convoys of heavy lorries dominating the roads. Which in turn means more precious public money spent on repairing them.

The lifeline passenger and freight ferry service to Aberdeen, which connects Shetlanders to the mainland, especially the specialist hospital services there, and brings in everything we need, will continue to prioritise construction companies over the islanders. The shortages we have had to endure since the pandemic will become the new norm.

If none of the above sounds bad enough then there is worse, the massive and permanent environmental cost. Yet another example of how phrases like green, sustainable and Carbon Zero Shetland end up meaning nothing when the choice is making money.

Compared to the Viking wind farm project, which permanently destroyed a vast swathe of the main island and forced thousands of native species to disappear permanently, this will cause the death and extinction of a lot more. Every single one of those being far more important to our ecosystem than any one of us. It will also have the same effect on all the other places where the materials have to be mined, machinery manufactured, then transported.

In just four years this relentless profiteering by the Shetland mafia has dramatically changed a once relatively natural and unspoilt landscape into a dystopian nightmare. Gone are the rolling moorlands, carved up by the miles and miles of new roads to access the turbines. And above those the once clear horizon now littered with futuristic skyscraper turbines and pylons carrying their power off to the mainland. What next?

We have to stop these profiteers before it has all gone. Find ways to live differently. Following the old economic model simply means more devastation. Crofting is a possibility, even if it has lost its way with a dependence on handouts and the greed of a few wanting to own everything. We just need to want to preserve what little is left and a solution will present itself.

A way forward is to understand what kind of people these mafia are. Exceedingly rich for starters. Enough not to need the NHS, or even live here permanently. They certainly don’t need to use ferries or buses. They don’t shop in Shetland. Nor do they have to wait more than two years for a builder to come and repair their leaking roof. And when it gets too bad here they will simply move somewhere else to exploit.

Usually when someone says something negative about Shetland the immediate response is to tell them that if they don’t like it here they can go and live somewhere else. Sadly MSP Beatrice Wishart and MP Alistair Carmichael still have too much invested in their jobs to do that. But if they are truly concerned about the ferries not being good enough, can I suggest that instead of tunnels they do something positive for a change, instead of chasing photo-opportunities, like convincing the Scottish parliament and Westminster that Scotland needs a proper ferry service.

Like the one in British Columbia (Canada), which is very similar in geography to the Scottish Highlands & Islands, but with even more islands served by ferries (no tunnels). But instead of having lots of different private companies all running separate routes, the government created a public company to manage them all. Scotland should follow their example. British Columbia Ferry Services is now the largest passenger ferry line in North America, operating a fleet of 41 vessels with a total passenger and crew capacity of 27,000, serving 47 locations on the BC coast. This would not only make the service a lot more efficient but actually save money, instead of wasting it.

Finally, in order to put an end to this madness, can I propose that we return some semblance of democracy to Shetland, and instead of letting the mafia running everything do the following. Remove the pointless system of councillors (instantly making a saving on their wages & expenses), who let’s be honest mostly represent themselves. Wind up the charities who distribute the oil & gas revenue (Shetland Charitable Trust/ Shetland Arts/ Shetland Amenity Trust et al), for the same reason, transferring that to the SIC. Then each year SIC prepares a list of all the projects they and anyone else would like to spend money on for the following year, along with the costs, and send it to every person in Shetland over the age of 14 to vote on. The ones receiving an outright majority will go ahead, the rest dropped, on the understanding that the cost incurred never exceeds the current SIC balance. No loans, ever. How can this be any worse than the way the mafia has been running things?

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