Letters / Savage attacks on our living standards and wellbeing
The imminent closure of the Scalloway swimming pool should come as no surprise to anyone. Due to the lack of sufficient funding, my pool, like many others in Scotland, has been chosen to receive a taste of ‘sustainability’.
The quite absurd mantra of ‘sustainability’ – “we must live within our means”, “we must tighten our belts”, “we are all in it together”, and of course, “we must balance our books”, is another beauty – is spewed out continually by right wing media gurus and other ‘financial experts’, and it serves to give a veneer of respectability and responsibility to what in effect are savage attacks on our living standards and our wellbeing.
The brutal truth of the matter, though, is that Shetland has steadfastly voted for austerity in the last 15 years. Our MP Mr Carmichael being such a staunch champion of austerity, that he felt the need to lie to the electorate to keep his seat.
Lady Paton, the sitting judge, called it a blatant lie. This austerity, this tightening of our belts, has resulted in a mere handful of families and corporations rapidly accruing unimaginable, untold wealth, whilst we get our toilets closed, our services cut and the loss of our swimming pool.
We also have the tragedy of arguing amongst ourselves, as to how many poor asylum seekers should be humiliated, imprisoned or deported.
Our BBC, our ITV, and other media outlets, our ‘influencers’, continue to maintain a steady flow of questionable and irrelevant output, creating the mainstream narrative, but as the great economist J K Galbraith put it, “taking the conventional view protects us from the painful job of thinking.”
Shetland’s people have in excess of £900 million in reserve.
Ian Scott
Councillor for Shetland Central
Scalloway
‘Outrageous’ and ‘shameful’: Scalloway pool closure stuns area’s councillors
