Letters / Is Ms Goodlad’s pledge credible?

Contributed

5 February 2026 10:33

SNP candidate Hannah Mary Goodlad has pledged to “push for a Shetland Energy Act”, giving Shetland protections similar to the Cairngorms National Park. It would put Shetlanders in control of energy developments, with a guaranteed share of the profits.

Sounds wonderful. But is it credible?

Visiting Shetland last August, SNP leader John Swinney said, “Come with your shopping list” (of increased local powers), prompting Ms Goodlad’s subsequent pledge.

However, having introduced him at the December launch of the SNP’s new energy policy for independence It’s Scotland’s Energy, Swinney told her straight: “Your part of the world, Shetland, is at the very heart of Scotland’s energy story, from the first years of oil and gas […] right up to today and the beginnings of our second energy opportunity.”

Boom, boom! The “beginnings of our (Scotland’s) second energy opportunity”.

The policy boasts of vast, planned expansion of renewables, to six times what exists now, i.e. to nineteen times Scottish winter maximum demand!

That has to be installed somewhere. If not in Shetland, then where?

Sadly, Shetlanders aren’t the only ones who have had enough. All over Scotland (notably, the Highlands and Borders regions), community councils are banding together to fight, en masse, against renewables developments, demanding local control.

Are we to imagine Ms Goodlad will be able to secure Cairngorm status and local control for Shetland without all these other largely SNP areas demanding and being awarded the same?

Given the SNP’s 19 year record of relentless centralisation and their plans for vast expansion of renewables, the likelihood of them handing planning control to Scottish councils, or, even to Shetland, alone, is vanishingly remote.

So, is Ms Goodlad’s pledge credible or just the latest piece of SNP election gaslighting?

Alas, if it ever reaches Holyrood, it will be pronounced ‘dead on arrival’.