A capital perspective?
The impressive, peaceful march in Lerwick on Friday, demanding the reopening of the Scalloway pool, brings to mind the old prejudice held across Shetland against the ancient capital. What informed that damning perception?
There is something inevitable about the new looking down on the old. To become the new capital, Lerwick had to matter more, therefore Scalloway less.
There has been a xenophobic element too. Just as Lerrick Scotties were looked down on, Scallowa’s were too. When the herring fleet was expanding, Scalloway had more Scotties in it than it does now. Back then it was felt necessary to keep them in their place.
There has perhaps been a religious element too, with Scalloway, which had Burra’s pub on Blackness pier, being known as the Village of the Damned. A difference in denominations may have dominated that perception. But perhaps it has other roots.
One point of local pride is that when Black Patrick was taken away, Scalloway folk gathered together to take the roof off the castle. By doing so they did the people of Shetland a great service. They prevented his ilk ever returning to dominate them again. But the readiness of Scalloway folk not to just sit back and take it may well have informed the damning way they went on to be viewed. Many who have opposed injustice have learned this to their cost.
Folk in power fear one thing. They don’t want the rest to remember how much they can achieve when they determine to unite to set things right. To hold their positions, the high up may feel it necessary they tell themselves only their views matter. However, for public servants to be worthy of trust and respect, the very opposite is the case.
Just as those who used it feel the Scalloway Pool is theirs, so too should Shetland feel about Shetland(‘s) Charitable Trust. 5,000 signatures in favour of having the pool open show they plainly don’t.
It shouldn’t prove necessary to take the roof off Shetland Charitable Trust for fairness to prevail, but some structural reengineering there, to permanently bring more light into the minds of the trustees, is plainly long overdue. Depending on your point of view, that might rank as a capital perspective.
Peter Hamilton
Edinburgh
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