Letters / The saviour of Shetland’s future
Hannah Mary has rolled the dice and they’ve come up six’s, the ferry motion has passed and we are on the board. Now the process will play out, and we will see how government can work for Shetland if the right people are playing the right game on the right table.
What is the difference, why is it happening now when it didn’t happen before?
Some people are saying it’s because there is an election coming, and certainly that is a factor but only in as much as Hannah Mary is standing in the election.
Some say the Lib Dem’s have become complacent and lazy in their inertia. I was told recently that the Liberals have held Orkney and Shetland for all but 17 years since 1832 with a couple of Tory MP’s in the intervening years.
The complacency and inertia must be running deep now. Lib Dem leadership must have thought nothing could possibly go wrong, Shetland will always vote Lib Dem, no matter what. But why has so little happened? Why have they achieved so little in our name?
Is it because they dare not rock the boat. If they don’t do anything, nothing can go wrong, and Shetland will keep voting them back. But if they stick their head up, and it doesn’t work out for them, they might attract negative attention, and then they might lose.
Is that how we want to continue? I doubt it.
What does Hannah Mary do that is different – she fights for Shetland on the appropriate platform, and the platform that offers the best future for Shetland. She could have joined the Lib Dem’s, almost a guaranteed seat for her, but not at the table where the difference is made, not at the table where her voice must be listened to, and not at the table where change happens and fights are won.
She chose to fight, fight for Shetland, for Scotland, and for independence on a world stage that will take Shetland out of the box on the map of the UK and place it firmly in its true position, as a strategic and foundation stone of the diverse nature of Scotland as a Northern European nation, and a renewed bridge between Shetland’s current Scottish neighbours and her older Scandinavian origins.
So what do you want? Do you want a new chance, a chance to make a difference, a chance to connect with the world on our terms, a chance to be welcomed by so many whose eyes already light up, and whose welcome already deepens in warmth when they ask if your are from England, and you reply “no, Shetland” or “Scotland”.
Give your vote to Hannah Mary Goodlad in May 2026. The saviour of Shetland’s future, for a seat at the table, and a chance to take control of the direction that we go from now on. No one else is making you this offer, and no one else can.
David Meddes
Scalloway
