Letters / Hysterical rant
Jonathan Wills’s hysterical rant on Radio Shetland’s public platform last night (Thursday 7 August) regarding Sustainable Shetland’s democratic right to appeal to the supreme court, enhances his reputation as a political dinosaur completely out of touch with fairness and real democracy.
The small number of people he quoted as objecting to the Viking Energy project is based on nothing other than his own disillusioned fantasies. There has never been any serious, robust or democratic attempt to ask the whole Shetland community what it’s views were / are on this despite requests and demands for some kind of referendum and therefore no accurate or even reasonable figure exists.
He said that the SIC’s decision to support the project was a democratic one and that Sustainable Shetland were acting in a disgracefully undemocratic fashion (or words to that effect) This huge and vastly important decision was not arrived at with any meaningful democratic process and was a product of the arrogance that some elected members (Dr Wills particularly) hold, that if I am elected I have the democratic right to do or vote any way I like without referring to my constituents. Wrong, Dr Wills, and this is not democracy but a direct example of elected dictatorship.
Anyone on the SIC then or now should have put such a massively risky, costly and oh so potentiality destructive industrial development to these isles, to the whole community in a vote, referendum or some such mechanism. Had we had a proper democratic process to determine the wishes of the whole community, we would have been able to say pretty accurately how the “for – v – against” figures were and then move on with the wishes of the majority. A far more difficult situation to fight against which is why democracy works if it’s done with integrity.
There are far more people against this risky and destructive industrial desecration of a wonderful unspoiled environment than the silly guesstimate Dr Wills came out with.
My opinion on why our elected members decided to use their arrogant elected mandate and avoid a process to establish the support or not, was because in their heart of hearts they knew the Viking wind farm would be voted down but we will never know.
Vic Thomas
Clousta
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