Jobs for the islands
It is excellent news that the supply chain for the proposed Lewis Wind Power scheme has secured all the construction work for the islands.
With all the jobs and work going to be guaranteed for the islands, which politician is now going to campaign on a platform of "No jobs for the islands!" - apart from the MP and MSP who already are?
With all the jobs and work going to be guaranteed for the islands, which politician is now going to campaign on a platform of "No jobs for the islands!" - apart from the MP and MSP who already are?
14 comments:
No it's not excellent news - far from it. For a considered view read Peatstack on Island Blogging. Businesmen are only interested in profits and politicians sadly seem to be blind to that. Wind farms will destroy the long term future of the Islands which is tourism and services - not heavy industry.
Angus
You are assuming again
Assuming there are sufficiently trained or willing islanders who want the work
Assuming that there is not an enormous influx of itinerant labour who do want the work
"It is excellent news that the supply chain for the proposed Lewis Wind Power scheme has secured all the construction work for the islands."
What a load of bollocks, Angus! Where in the Gazette article - or anywhere else in any press article - does it state categorically that "the supply chain for the proposed Lewis Wind Power scheme has secured all the construction work for the islands"??!! You are trying to hoodwink the general public...again! Didn't you do enough of that as Planning Chairman in the council? Do you have to resort to lying now?
You are trying to give the impression that an enormous amount of work is GUARANTEED for Arnish when no such guarantee actually exists! I notice that "Good P.R." Hodkinson has interjected his usual bland and supposedly-meaningful-but-actually-non-committal bullshit again. It's embarrassing the way you kowtow to these people.
And you wonder why people fight these schemes in their thousands?!
I don't know how Angus campbell can be the spokesman for Renewable Energy - he has a big vested iterest in the coming of the wind farm developers - after all he will tender to supply all the fuel!
excuse me, anon 9:12, aren't you the one who is being presumptious? Assuming that their are no qualified people who are on or who WISH TO RETURN to the island just as soon as their is work that doesn't involve being a hairdresser/shop assistant
Anti wind-farm protestors:
A residual element left behind from a by-gone age of CND, anti globalisation and anti progress (sums up the SNP really).
Stagnation will kill these islands, innovation and thinking out of the box, using our resources will help us prosper.
Another point... where do people get the idea that windfarms will harm tourism? I have yet to come accross any evidance for this since the debate began. Evidance does not suit the SNP though, blind romantic faith in a flag does.
Would 'les' be ex-SNP candidate, and anti-windfarm campaigner Les McNulty? Isn't he a small businessman? Shouldn't he have declared an interest?
Angus,Didn't you give a briefing to the SNP that warned about them being painted into this very corner, as being opposed to jobs for the islands? Didn't you tell Angus MacNeil the same? Didn't he ignore the possibilities and run with an ill thought out policy?
Anon 2.23pm - I take it as a personal insult that I should be confused with a politician! I am a mere ordinary mortal who fell in love with the Outer Hebrides a few years ago. To Laudrup - given the choice to spend my hard earned holiday money on seeing the natural countryside or miles of turbines you should be able to guess which I would choose. If the massive wind farm goes ahead I will not be holidaying on Lewis again and there will be thousands of others like me. That's a promise and there is your evidence.
Les
Just a few points
Whoever you are, the company that pays your "hard earned holiday wages" wouldn't be able to if it didn't earn profits, this is a fact of life
I would like to know how much of your "hard earned holiday wages" actually get ploughed back into the local economy or are you someone who only spends money in the co-op whilst here.
You may decide one year to holiday somewhere else and fall in love with that, what would happen to the local economy then?
I suggest that you move up here, if you love it so much, and try to get a job or run a business and experience the reality of it first hand. Then you might understand how important any job is to the Islands' future.
No you just want your scenery for one or two weekser year regardless of how many people have to struggle to make that happen for you.
So the jobs are guaranteed, are they? How many, 400? Nope, 50 to 70. How much benefit is yon windfarm going to bring to Lewis? £5m per annum. Beads and mirrors - in plain English, an insult.
Sunny Side ... so you don't want tourists spending money in the Co-op, you don't want tourists renting self-catering cottages or paying for B&B, you don't want tourists buying petrol from the local filling stations? You would rather have a handful of short term jobs than a thousand tourists returning year after year?
I do love it up there and actually had (still have) plans to move there and open a gallery but until the windfarm issue is sorted I cannot commit. The windfarm will drive tourists away and, like it or not, that will mean less money coming into the islands. Those who will lose are indeed the people who struggle to keep tourists coming - I am grateful to them and would love to continue to support them. It looks like you would rather have an industrialised wasteland in 25 years time. In your scenario I can't win. If I come up there and take one of the windfarm jobs I am taking a job away from an islander but if I come up to set up a business that depends on tourists you are happy for me to struggle.
Evidence please........rather than "it will spoil the scenery in my view" I happen to think they are beautiful structures which add to the landscape. However thats my opinion not evidence.
anon 7:32
where do you buy your insults?
I'd like one of them to sell on!
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