Letters / It’s ‘dir oil’
There will be ‘Home Rule’ for Shetland the day the Liberal Democrats flit their constituency office to a small island in the north end of Papa Sound.
If Shetland can’t live within its means today with the all the government subsidies and oil revenues we receive at the moment then we certainly won’t if we try to ‘go it alone’.
No UK or Scottish government will continue to subsidise NorthLink or the Air Discount Scheme for an ‘independent Shetland’.
If Shetland was to have ‘Isle of Man status’ we would have to leave the NHS and fund our own health, social and education services and there would be no EU subsidies.
As far as I know all the oil in UK territorial waters belongs to the oil companies and, (unless Stuart Hill is right,) we have no more right to tax it independently or use it as a ‘negotiation lever’ than any other county in the UK.
In the 1970s the oil industry needed Shetland more than we needed them; in a Home Rule situation the reverse would be true.
Unfortunately it’s ‘Dir Oil’ no ‘Wir Oil’.
So with a population of just 22,000 on an island group where the biggest single employer is local government, no subsidies and no oil taxes, perhaps Tavish Scott will tell us how exactly he would build a self sustaining Shetland economy.
Allen Fraser
Meal
Hamnavoe
Burra
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