Community / Is Shetland ready for more autonomy?
Appeal to share your views via a Shetland News survey
LAST WEEK first minister John Swinney surprised many when he said during a visit to the isles that his government was open to giving Shetland Islands Council “much greater powers” to determine the issues that matter to local people.
He went as far as saying that discussions had “intensified” about giving the isles greater autonomy and added that he was a “believer in decentralisation”.
The leadership of the SIC, in response, seemed less enthusiastic by Swinney’s move.
Political leader Emma Macdonald, who also is the local Liberal Democrat candidate in next year’s Scottish elections, insisted current discussions with government centred on fairness and equality rather than autonomy.
And Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael said that it was “a bit rich” for Swinney to talk about island authorities being best placed to make decisions on local issues when over the last 18 years the SNP government had “centralised control of just about every public service imaginable”.
So, what is this about? Is it just a bit of political posturing with no real meaning?
Or has the first minister indeed thrown the door open to more autonomy and the SIC is too scared to take it? Or is it a clever political ploy to rattle the cage of the Lib Dems’ candidate?
To look at it more positively, what is it that could possibly be at stake here? And if the first minister’s proposal is for real, how could a greater level of self-determination be achieved?
We read plenty of comments on our social media pages that all Shetland needs to tackle pressing issues is more control over her destiny, but is that true?
We would like to hear directly from you, our readers, to find answers to some of these questions.
Is Shetland ready to be handed more powers and if so, what powers could that be and to whom should they be devolved?
Please take a moment to share your views via this short survey:
https://www.shetnews.co.uk/surveys/autonomy/
We will leave the survey open for two weeks until 12 September and once we have sorted through all the responses we will report back.
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