Letters / Keeping our powers here
When, at a local hustings, the question was asked “Is this a two-horse race?” my answer was “Yes – me and them”.
In Orkney and Shetland this is no flippant answer. The government can show nothing more than a magazine article as proof of its authority here, so it relies on us repeatedly sending representatives at every election, to take our power and give it away once again.
In this election we have a choice for the first time – to send or not to send. We can send an MP of whatever colour, who will take our powers and sit as one of 650 others with a fat salary and a tiny voice in the vain expectation that they can get their ‘policies’ through parliament in the next five years – or we can keep our powers here and be free to pick any or all of their policies and put them through in a month.
When elected, I have not the slightest intention of pledging allegiance to a foreign occupying power. By not doing so, our power remains at home – we wake up on Friday as owners of our land, owners of our seas and seabed out to 200 miles. Our agriculture and fisheries are off the Brexit negotiating table. In addition, we have an extra £160 million in our joint economies.
The people of Orkney and Shetland are then free to decide how we want to run our society. I have plenty of ideas about that (www.stuarthill.com), but none of them includes electing me as a leader. It is not my place to tell the people of Orkney and Shetland what to do.
The world is watching. The New York Times recently published an article about what is happening here. I’ve had Belgian and English film crews following my progress and an Irish Internet radio outfit is carrying my daily campaign updates.
The final one will be their coverage of an interactive meeting at Whalsay, the main island for fishing in Shetland, on Tuesday evening.
We are a society small enough to make change, and big enough to matter. If we get it right, what we do here will spread like a virus to the rest of the world. A world of small units with the power firmly rooted at the bottom and working together to their mutual benefit will eliminate war.
One per cent of the world population control half of its wealth. The abundance of the world has been cornered by a few, who now con us into thinking we are in scarcity and need to endure austerity – while they continue to line their pockets. Scarcity breeds fear – just what the doctor ordered.
It is never the people who want war, only Big government, Big business and Big banking – all of whom profit from war and engineer the situations to promote it. No matter whether the government is communist, fascist, capitalist, or whatever ‘ist’, if the people withdraw their support, the tyrants will fall.
A world of peace and abundance is the ultimate prize in this election.
Stuart Hill
Independent candidate Orkney and Shetland
Cunningsburgh
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