Wind farms
It looks like Eishken is getting the approval on Thursday as Cllr Annie MacDonald is apparently laying out the red carpet for Jim Mather and is in charge of organising his flying visit. (Not that the Council supremos know very much about the visit, as the Civil Servants are being uncivil playing their cards close to their chest).
A planned visit to Arnish in the afternoon will allow our MSP to continue his self-proclaimed 'regular contacts' with the facility which amount to one actual visit and two refusals, but that should prove interesting as many of the new employees of Bi-Fab lost their jobs in Arnish thanks to our MP and MSP opposing the very windfarm that they are now there to celebrate. This is actually a better record than our MP, Macavity MacNeil, who has visited less and refused more.
MacNeil & Allan or perhaps Allan & MacNeil
MWT, meanwhile, are quietly fuming (correctly) that they have been hung out to dry at the last elections and are planning their revenge.
Looks like both sides are gunning for the elected representatives......
Of course, I got expelled from the SNP for saying the policy that they are about to espouse (once again, although it never actually stopped being party policy except in the Western Isles for a few months) is correct, and the policy that they were trying to be elected upon was bollocks, and lo and behold it looks like I was right and they were talking out of their ballot boxes. Tis their loss.....
A planned visit to Arnish in the afternoon will allow our MSP to continue his self-proclaimed 'regular contacts' with the facility which amount to one actual visit and two refusals, but that should prove interesting as many of the new employees of Bi-Fab lost their jobs in Arnish thanks to our MP and MSP opposing the very windfarm that they are now there to celebrate. This is actually a better record than our MP, Macavity MacNeil, who has visited less and refused more.
MacNeil & Allan or perhaps Allan & MacNeilMWT, meanwhile, are quietly fuming (correctly) that they have been hung out to dry at the last elections and are planning their revenge.
Looks like both sides are gunning for the elected representatives......
Of course, I got expelled from the SNP for saying the policy that they are about to espouse (once again, although it never actually stopped being party policy except in the Western Isles for a few months) is correct, and the policy that they were trying to be elected upon was bollocks, and lo and behold it looks like I was right and they were talking out of their ballot boxes. Tis their loss.....
12 comments:
What a farce
With the ferries booked with tourists who cannot afford Europe it looked like not only a bumber season for the tourist industry but a chance for stagnant house sales to pick up. Like it or not the Islands need new arrivals to maintain the population and it is estimated that one in 50 visitors will return to live.
Now....I think the tourist industry will have a huge boost for the next 2 to 3 years as we market the islands as 'Last chance to see'. Then we will be condemed to an industrial nightmare as the construction process which will affect all of Lewis and even Harris begins for 2 years. To approve Eishken is a green light to the Beuley-Denny, the interconnector and convertor station at Gravir. Pairc, North Lewis one way or another and then on to defile the tranquility of Harris as they outward expand. Dont forget their are now TWO cables planned for Gravir. So if you think it is a great hoot in Harris to see Lewis suffer wait till they commence the causeway and its industrial might and later the pylons to blight your peaceful world.
Then the tourists will be gone, the landscape gone, jobs created in short time plenty gone, population no arrivals youth continue/rush to go, continued departures and the downward slide. Delete sheep insert turbines as the ruination of Hebridean life.
Of course Toad of Toad Hall will have plenty of money to waste on himself and his cronies. The English owner of Eishken will extract cash like a running river and the dont forget the ENGLISH company SSE will rip of their share.
But the communities like generations before can continue to sit at the ends of their crofts with their hands out to the new Lairds of the Isles for a little bit of cheap cash - what a price.
I'm off I have decided.
7:13 You don't half talk a load of tosh!
Orkney and Shetland both have wind farms and whopping great big oil facilities. The tourists continue to go there and the level of tourism is increasing despite the extra distances and costs involved.
SSE isn't an "English" company. It is a PLC; the share holders come a wide spread and probably include those companies running your pension plan.
You are right, it is a farce because the council lack the skills, will and most certainly the balls to do anything.
The islands as they are, are not sustainable. Things have to change. If creatures don't change, evolution will takes care of them. The same applies to the islands. If it carries on, it willbe a tourist attraction, in the same way that the indian reservations are in the US. Then again that won't bother you because you'll be away (probably in England).
I agree with 7.13.
Completely.
And with the other cove - Shetland made sure that they passed legislation (I think their council moves swiftly to stop the oil companies taking advantage) to ensure their island wasnt blighted - and they only have one oil depot Im sure...
Well all I can say is that I do not know a single person who will benefit personally from the windfarms going ahead but many of them will suffer in one way or another. Some have businesses that might take a dent, others stayed here or moved here because of the fantastic quality of life and that includes the landscape.
However I do know of a few councillors and business people who have plant, haulage etc firms that will benefit.
As for the cash coming to the communities, well what have we had for our money so far, keeping in mind that our existing budget far exceeds the windfarm cash.
If we had some decent strategies for development instead of putting all our energy into pleading for cash then maybe we would have an island to be really proud of, instead of the one we have, where people seem to think windfarms and pylons will be an improvement. What a crying shame.
9.35
You clearly need to get out more and Shetland is hardly it. Britain is covered in these monsters and the only ones happy with it are the daft greens and urban left (with the exception of the Hebredian left who contrary to most of Alba want the turbines for petty greed).
Name me a main land area where there has been genuine population growth and economic boom. Equally an area that did not contest their presence. Even today Stirling is in Europe fighting the pylons.
You want to rejuvinate the economy ask Brown for one of his new 'Nucs' to be built at Arnish, hundreds of jobs to be had for dozens of years - no profit to a selfish few however.
In 20 years time if you too are still here you will be looking around (other than at turbines and pylons) asking where every one went. Presumably you think you will be making a few bob personally out of this.
I shall be gone but why south to even more industrial waste lands?
I've said it before:
The cheviot, the stag and the black black oil; and the forestry, and the tourism, and the turbines. We have a long tradition of submitting, incomprehensibly, to authority that will sell us down the river, which might just be a pill we have to swallow for the sake of living modern lives here, but the tragedy is that it is all, ALL, for the benefit of someone from somewhere else for whom we are nothing more that a backward colony to be exploited.
I'm really torn, between wanting to be off too, and wanting to fight to the death.
9.35 Must be councillor Annie again or Mr Toady himself. SSE was once known as Southern Electric. They still operate as Southern Electric down south...have a look at their website in the 'about us' section and see if they don't fly the cross of St George. The share holders probaly do come from a wide spread and they are the ones who will benefit from the scam that is wind energy. Pensions went out the window when Mr Brown became chancellor. SSE wan to put a windfarm on Shetland under the guise of 'Viking Energy'...how original. PLC or not PLC...they're not 'fing Vikings!
And if you want evolution up here, you will also have to get of some of the age old customs of nepotism, bribery, extortion, corruption, tribalism, jingoism, bullying and hypocracy. I do wish there was a spell check on this site.
Anyway back to the two Buoys, at least one of them was partly elected on an anti-windfarm ticket so it will be interesting to see what he has to say for himself when Jimbo makes his announcement. As for the Barra lad...he does wear some very nice suits.
Interesting to compare how on the mainland they have refused the converter station at their end saying, "It will have very far-reaching, damaging effects to the local community, the environment and employment in the area" (P&J), whilst at our end ...
What loosers we are!
2.10
Jump to conclusions much, do we? Where did I mention the environment? As for me being quasi-religious... hilarious.
By "we" I mean the resident population of the Highlands and Islands who, in general, have for 200 (or is it 800) years been remarkably willing to sell off resources for peanuts today, so that others may benefit on a grand scale. In some instances a community will grow up and get round to protecting itself, but in the WI, we are so enthralled to tradition and authority that we roll over to be screwed, and then just get into a little squabble about it.
Really, a very immature culture, relying on the tools of tyrants (nepotism, jingoism, etc - see the list recently posted elsewhere) to replace integrity in leadership, taking responsibility and informed decision making. (I'm not saying there's much of this in politics anywhere else, of course.)
I do agree that we have exported people who've mercilessly exploited other places - isn't that always the way.
(and incidentally, your making a supposition about what I, whom you don't know, would do in a wholly imaginary situation, hardly 'proves' anything.)
I would have bet about 5 quid that Jim Mather would not make any announcements today...and guess what? I bet the grovel-o-meter will be switched of and that meal at Digby Chicks has been switched to a sandwich in the airport lounge.
Laugh...I nearly bought my own beer..
Let us not forget, of course, that 'wind farms' are useless. They do not 'replace' conventional production; they cannot provide baseload; they cannot provide 'on-demand' electricity.
In fact, you will simply have to keep all your conventional stations running, as usual, with the added joy of feeding in a completely unreliable stream of electricity whose sole contribution will be to destabilize the grid.
Excellent--the lunatics are in charge of the asylum.
I'm minded of that tag about 'selling your birthright for a mess of pottage'--and anyone who supports these windfarms is apparently doing just that.
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