Letters / Proles have opinions too
As a member of the Shetland proletariat I must express my distaste at the latest tactics of the Windfarm Supporters Group.
The idea of sending local businesses a letter of ‘support for the wind farm’ which can be signed and returned to the CT trustees with the clear inference that their employees are in agreement is pretty low and undemocratic.
To quote Richard Gibson of the Windfarm Supporters Group, it is important to get the views of Shetland’s “wealth creators” across to the trustees.
Does he doubt the ability of these esteemed wealth creators to pen their own letter expressing their views?
Worse still, is he inferring that the views of the remaining majority are of less importance or perhaps should be ignored altogether?
Maybe he thinks that the Great Unwashed of Shetland are not capable of forming a valid and worthwhile opinion which could also be presented to the trustees for consideration.
I for one do not wish, or require my employer to represent for me on this matter. In fact I am pretty sure that he (and most other business owners in Shetland) would not be crass enough to attempt to do so.
Employees have as much right to an opinion as employers on this and any other issue in the islands and it is to be hoped that the trustees appreciate this.
Rightly or wrongly the last council chose not to hold a binding democratic referendum on the VE wind farm.
They also chose, wrongly in my opinion, not to trigger a public inquiry. So if public opinion is of any relevance to the new trustees in making a decision how are they going to gauge this?
They could consider the number of local, paid up members of Sustainable Shetland, the group opposed to the VE development. Considerably more than the Windfarm Supporters Group could muster I suspect.
Or they could look at the results of the public consultation meetings held up and down the islands. In excess of 70 per cent in attendance were opposed to VE.
Or they might consider the number of objection letters as opposed to the number of supporting letters received by the Energy Consents Unit in relation to the VE planning application.
The desperate attempts by VE to grab £6 million from charitable trust funds in the days prior to the recent election do not inspire public trust or confidence.
It is to be hoped that the new trustees are not bounced into making a rash decision before they have had time to assimilate and consider all the necessary information.
For example, despite the propaganda from Bill Manson, the recent tariffs ruling is bound to have big financial implications for the project.
Finally, I have no doubt that the Windfarm Supporters Group are aware of the recent banking crisis. However, they do appear to have missed one of the important lessons learned.
Through the banking debacle it has clearly been proved that many of the so called ‘wealth creators’ in this country are not necessarily individuals of the greatest integrity, not necessarily the most competent at making good financial decisions, and generally appear intent on feathering their own nests with excessive pay and undeserved bonuses.
Maybe it is not wise to hold them in such high esteem?
Vic Drosso
Weisdale
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