Letters / The best choice for alleviating energy concerns
Shetland has experienced the worst rate of fuel poverty in the entirety of the United Kingdom, with 96 per cent of Shetland’s residents now being fuel poor. Energy was, thus, already a huge issue for everyone in the Northern Isles many years ago. This was before U.S. President Donald Trump’s wholly unnecessary and brutal illegal war in Iran caused household energy bills to skyrocket throughout the UK.
Now, though, the pressing energy concerns of our rural and island communities have been exacerbated significantly. This makes it exceptionally important for Shetland to make what I strongly believe to be the best choice of the political party representing us, as well as the best choice for our next MSP in the Scottish Parliament elections.
With energy absolutely needing to be a top priority for our present and future politicians, they must be those who I think would handle this vital issue with resounding success. That’s why I have unwavering confidence and trust in the Liberal Democrats, regarding the energy concerns that must be alleviated quickly.
At the Scottish Liberal Democrat party conference on 21 February, Alistair Carmichael MP passed a motiontitled: ‘Communities missing out on renewables wealth’. Both he and Emma Macdonald worked together to “move the dial on action to cut islander energy bills”.
It is now party policy for the Lib Dems to advocate for a halt to “Shetland renewables until there is real community benefit”, which there certainly hasn’t been anywhere nearly enough of lately. We have seen a plethora of new large-scale energy developments being proposed for onshore and offshore locations all over Shetland.
These are passionately opposed by the public of Shetland, and it certainly doesn’t help that the Shetland Islands Council has no powers to stop these energy projects, with these levers lying far away from the Northern Isles.
Sadly, islanders live right next to these monstrosities that are destroying the landscape, yet are unjustly receiving a significantly worse deal on energy policy in the process. This is largely due to our centralist and urban-centric governments in Westminster and Holyrood that are making these poor decisions for us.
The Labour-led UK Government scrapped zonal energy pricing eight months ago, causing an end to hopes that people living alongside these “large-scale energy projects” would be “charged less for their electricity”.
As well as this, the SNP-led Scottish Government have now clearly broken their 2017 pledge to set up a not-for-profit, publicly owned energy company, which was supposed to result in cheaper bills for everybody, particularly low-income customers.
We also shouldn’t forget about both the Labour government in London and the SNP government in Edinburgh cruelly cutting winter fuel payments for pensioners in 2024. Yet again, this short-sighted decision-making impacted Shetland especially acutely. Not only is this a highly remote and rural island community, but we have got one of the oldest populations in the entire country.
Plainly, then, both of our governments truly don’t understand the unique challenges that faraway communities such as ours face with energy concerns. This clearly shows how neither the Labour Party nor the SNP can or should be trusted to deal with Scotland’s many profound energy issues ever again. As a result, I would strongly advise you not to vote for either party in this election.
I am, however, incredibly proud to support the Liberal Democrats, a political party with a visibly stronger track record on this very serious subject. They already have bold and ambitious plans to make “homes warmer and cheaper to heat with a ten-year emergency upgrade programme”. This would begin “with free insulation and heat pumps for those on low incomes”.
Additionally, I wholeheartedly consider Emma Macdonald to be, by far, the best candidate to alleviate energy concerns as our next constituency representative. With her vast experience in communicating and negotiating with government ministers on this issue as our council leader, I firmly believe that Emma is best placed to deal with these profound issues herself as the next MSP for Shetland.
In this highly influential position, she has advocated “for a Shetland Tariff for years to reduce energy costs”. This is how Emma believes “there’s a way that community benefit could be used to put money back into people’s pockets”. It would “help reduce their energy costs, and we must focus on delivering that”.
Her position on this highly contentious issue of deeply unwanted infrastructure projects is, and has long been, crystal clear. Emma believes that there should be “no more consented developments until we get community benefit that allows people to make choices around putting their heating on and keeping themselves warm”.
As such, I am adamant that Emma Macdonald and the Lib Dems are, easily, the most capable and the strongest choice for Shetland and for Scotland in May, when it comes to finally turning around this highly regrettable situation with energy policy.
Bertie Summers
Former MSYP for Shetland
