Sunday 29th
April 2012
Within a few days all the candidates will know their fate. I’ve been involved behind the scenes in 7
national election counts and that’s nerve wracking enough let alone attending
one where you are actually a candidate yourself!
It’s been a very busy three weeks and I still have a
place or two to revisit and a few people to see who weren’t in when I first
called.
Shetland West hustings was held in the Whiteness & Weisdale hall
last Wednesday night and attracted a pretty good turn out from all over the
West Side. The candidates each had five
minutes to address the public and a question and answers session followed. A number of topics were brought up including
education, transport, wind farms, care of the elderly, spending cuts and
supporting the economy, to mention a few, and I’d like to thank the public and
other candidates for the polite and courteous way they conducted themselves.
As some of you may have seen, I expressed my concern in the letters
pages of the Shetland Times and Shetland News websites last Friday about the
calling of yet another meeting of the Charitable Trust to discuss and decide on
whether or not to grant Viking Energy a further £6.3M to progress the wind farm. I wrote last Friday morning:
“I read with much concern that yet another
Charitable Trust meeting has been arranged for next Monday, I presume, to force
through £6.3 million for Viking Energy.
I was hoping that the trustees, who seem so
hell bent on railroading this money through, would have listened to the arguments
put forward by councillor Grains at the last meeting and left this decision to
a new set of trustees.
This is exactly the kind of behaviour that
has brought discredit to the outgoing council and has completely eroded the
Shetland people’s confidence in our ability to manage our own affairs properly
and democratically.
I do hope that sense prevails and that
trustees see this as a desperate act by a few trustees who seem afraid to let a
new trust make this decision”.
It has since emerged that seven trustees demanded this meeting take place
in what I consider to be an arrogant, disrespectful and undemocratic attempt to
force through a decision which, in a few days, a completely new set of trustees
will have to follow through. Conduct
like this has antagonised many more people in Shetland. What a spectacular own goal! What have they
learned from past mistakes, nothing it would appear? I hope the seven trustees
are ashamed of their behaviour.
Worse still, OSCR intervened and directed that the meeting could not go
ahead as it thought existing trustees should not be thrusting any decision on a
set of new trustees at this late hour; a sensible decision which our own
trustees and officials should have reached themselves. Again, trustees and officials have brought not
only themselves into disrepute but have once again dragged Shetland’s previous
good name into the gutter by having to bear the indignity of an outside body
making decisions on our behalf.
I know it has nothing to do with our own campaign out west but I was concerned
to see a high profile candidate make a very personal attack in the press on an
equally well-know candidate. To the latter’s credit he responded in a
reasonably conciliatory fashion. If this
is the tone before the election, I fear what it’s going to be like if both are
elected to the chamber. A great deal has
been written by all candidates over the last weeks about the ability to work
together for the good of Shetland. I see
little sign of it from this pair.
On a lighter note, I took a break from campaigning on Saturday and, as
usual, joined my family, friends and neighbours in Wormadale for Da Voar Redd
Up at the head of Whiteness Voe. This
Shetland institution seems to go from strength to strength and what a pleasure
it is to drive down to the head of the voe and see no litter or plastic on the
beach. This common-sense and hard-working
approach truly demonstrates how people can work together for the good of
Shetland and prospective politicians should take heed.
Again, I’d like to thank the people of Shetland West for the politeness,
kindness and encouragement shown to me.
As a new candidate I could not have asked for more.
Lastly, whatever your persuasion, please take time and make the effort to
cast your vote and make Shetland West the highest poll next Thursday.