Letters / Isles not ready for more power
I note in the report on today’s Shetland News (Constitutional future; SN 14/5/12) that, in relation to the visit this week by Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, Tavish Scott (speaking on behalf of the North Isles LibDem MSPs, for himself and Liam McArthur) states:
“We advocate more powers and responsibilities for the northern isles. Five years of nationalism in Edinburgh has been five years of centralisation. Control of colleges, police and fire are all being removed from the islands.
“The nationalist government now promote laws that will push up tenants rents in Shetland and could cost jobs and investment in the salmon farming industry.
“To top all this there is now growing uncertainty over the future contract for our lifeline ferry services. It is not hard to conclude that the islands themselves would be better placed to make such decisions.”
The question is – would they?
The last set of SIC councillors, and many previous sets, did not look that competent on taking particularly good decisions on what was delegated to them, or so it is currently perceived (hopefully the new lot will do better – I wish them luck), so why should they be delegated any more responsibility?
Reorganisation of control of police and fire is being done to improve efficiency and obtain better value for money, I understand.
Surely as representatives of a party which at Westminster supports measures to reduce the government spending deficit, there would be some consistency in LibDems supporting this drive for efficiency rather than just trying to find some grounds to differ from the Nats (and most other Scottish parties).
You can’t have your cake and eat it, so to save money something has to go – in this case some vaguely perceived level of supposed local control over police and fire that most voters are probably unaware of existing or bothered about anyway – and control of Northern Constabulary, for example, is already exercised from Inverness.
Further, as members of a party which supports the Union, are Tavish Scott and Liam McArthur really advocating that Shetland (and Orkney?) should leave the UK and/or Scotland and come under Norwegian rule or protection or some other definition. Just what are they saying?
Maybe there should be an extra question on this for the Northern Isles in any forthcoming referendum, to really nail this.
Why stop there? Maybe include Caithness and Sutherland as well. Maybe the Highlands could get a question on whether they want to reunite with the Irish Celts, and the Lowlands/Borders might reunite with the Welsh Celts.
After all it’s all about local democracy, just like responsibility for police and fire, isn’t it – or is all this maybe getting a bit close to anarchy?
As someone who is not a member of a political party (as Groucho Marx said: “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member”) it seems to me that politicians adopt many attitudes for cynical reasons – but this is a particularly mixed set of contradictions.
The Nats can be just as throne (and obvious) and adopt policies not for their merit but to make the Westminster government look bad.
However, despite that, it might be that the voters of Shetland should consider abandoning their habit of voting for independent councillors since it really is tantamount to voting for some anarchist party.
At least if there were candidates from parties (be they national or local parties) such parties would have a manifesto and you would know what package you would likely get if they got a majority, and those elected might consider they had a mandate to pursue what was in their manifesto.
Right now no independent councillor can implement (or be blamed for) anything they may have said as an individual since they need to exercise their power collectively.
So – no: islanders would not be better placed to take such decisions until they can be grown up enough to organise themselves into parties and tell people in advance what their policies are and allow folk to vote for a joined-up manifesto rather than some individual’s wish-list.
Robin Barclay
Sandwick & Midlothian
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