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A key test for Shetland’s political leadership

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A stormy sky with wind turbines in the background.
In this opinion piece Green councillor Alex Armitage challenges the council’s leadership in their approach to negotiations with the renewable energy industries and argues that a tougher stance is needed for Shetland to maximise the benefits
A group of wind turbines.
Managing director of local energy consultancy Voar, Daniel Gear, shares his thoughts on navigating Shetland’s resource ownership in the wind and hydrogen age
Shetland’s Labour councillor Tom Morton offers his views on the replacement Fair Isle ferry project, which has been awarded around £27 million from the UK Government but faces a 2026 deadline.
Following a visit to the isles earlier this year climate activist Tessa Khan offers her views on the need for a rapid and just transition away from fossil fuels, and the role Shetland can play.
A week after the Supreme Court found the Scottish Government has no powers to legislate for a second independence referendum, isles MP Alistair Carmichael argues that the case for constitutional reform to turn the UK into a modern democracy has never been more pressing.
In April 2020, we asked Tresta resident Carol Jamieson to share her thoughts on the early days of the pandemic, at a time we were all experiencing the first weeks of the lockdown. Now, exactly two years after Shetland’s first Covid cases were confirmed, she says she is a different person.
As world leaders gather in Glasgow for the COP26 UN climate summit, Celestine Verdcourt-Lawrence of Shetland Eco Youth calls on governments to stop pretending and start working seriously towards a net zero future
Buses in Shetland will soon be fitted with a new smart ticketing system. Photo: Shetland News
This week the Scottish Government confirmed that under 22s will receive free bus travel from January next year – but at this stage transport on ferries for islanders is not part of the plans. One of Shetland’s two members of the Scottish Youth Parliament, Jonathan Dorrat, gives us his view
Following news reports of racist graffiti appearing on some crumbling Cold War buildings in the southend of Shetland, Peter Hamilton puts pen to paper to reflect on the many forms racism, sexism, transphobia and discrimination can take.
Chief executive of Hjaltland Housing Association and vice chair of the Shetland Fuel Poverty Action Group, Bryan Leask, is urging the incoming government to make tackling Scotland’s ‘shamefully’ high levels of fuel poverty, particularly in rural and island areas, a top priority
SIC convener Malcolm Bell
Frustrated with the limitations of local government in Scotland since devolution, Shetland Islands Council decided earlier this year to look closely at the options of clawing some back political powers from Edinburgh and thus reviving local democracy. Here, council convener Malcolm Bell sets out the case for self-determination.
Councillors approved the refreshed policy at the Lerwick Town Hall on Monday. Photo: Shetland News
Ahead of Wednesday’s council meeting, modern political history PhD student Mathew Nicolson argues that the latest bid for self-determination reflects grievances with centralisation and the continued erosion of local government powers rather than the desire for full autonomy.
Here in Shetland we have a climate crisis and we need our council to declare a climate emergency, write Anderson High School students Isla Johnson, Laura Bisset and Celestine Verdcourt-Laurenson of Eco Youth Shetland.
The focus on building a 600Megawatt subsea cable is preventing investment in local renewable energy projects, writes James Mackenzie, the outgoing vice-chairman of Sustainable Shetland, the grassroots group that opposes the Viking Energy wind farm.
A mocked-up image of Viking turbines as they would be seen from the north end of the Lang Kames.
Pete Bevington is one of the organisers of Lament for the Lang Kames, a ‘funeral procession’ being held on Saturday for “all that will be lost if Viking Energy goes ahead as planned”. He explains why the procession – coffin and all – is taking place.
Wind farm in Shetland
Hillswick based journalist and broadcaster Tom Morton has been supporting the Viking Energy wind farm as a community project for many years. Now, with local control of the project and community benefit lost, he has changed sides.
I often delight in boring my students with the unique social, cultural and political status of Shetland, but the debate around (Lerwick) Up Helly Aa leaves me feeling ashamed, writes former Brae resident Karl Johnson.
Lerwick Up Helly Aa gets under way. All photos: Austin Taylor
‘We are not adverse to change because of gender issues. We oppose it because Up Helly Aa is part of our culture and heritage and we love it the way it is’, writes Linda Hughson.
WE ARE living in unprecedented times with record defeats, cabinet resignations every other week and a woefully ineffective and disunited Labour opposition, writes SNP Highlands and Islands list MSP Maree Todd.
SIC leader Gary Robinson 'ferry fares reduction will be delivered' - Photo: Hans J Marter/ShetNews
FORMER council leader Gary Robinson explains why buying Shetland Charitable Trust (SCT)’s property arm SLAP was the right thing to do for the council and why public buildings should never have ended up in the ownership of the company in the first place.
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