Shetland to seek independence from Scotland
 

followed by Orkney

This story seems to have gone under the radar ..bit of a blow to wee Nic

Shetland Islands Council has voted overwhelmingly in favour of looking into ways of obtaining financial and political independence from Scotland.

Councillors voted 18 to two in favour of the motion seeking "financial and political self-determination".

Funding cuts and centralised decision-making by the Scottish National Party (SNP) were argued as reasons to explore independence.

Steven Coutts, the council leader, said "the status quo is not working" as "devolution and the Islands Act have not made any tangible difference to the quality of life".

He added that the Scottish parliament also feels "remote" to Shetland, which has a population of 23,000.


Plans intend to look into the option of Shetland being governed as a Crown Dependency, similar to Jersey and the Isle of Man, rather than becoming an independent nation.


This would mean they would be able to retain the revenue from oil in their waters, something that would negatively impact on Scotland's finance if the independence was obtained.

https://news.sky.com/story/shetland-...tland-12068826

:omgno:

Sturgeon's nightmare! Orkney to follow Shetland in demanding independence from Scotland
NICOLA Sturgeon now faces Orkney demands to secede after civic bosses admitted they would "seek self-determination in the event of any future constitutional change".

https://www.express.co.uk/news/polit...ds-snp-scottis

No, she needs the Whole of Scotland
to stay together, so she can try to separate from us.

Time to invade and wipe out the rebellion

They are ready for you
armed with Pitch Forks

Give them independence you nasty totalitarian state

LT on a shetland pony leading the charge

Shexit

Gesundheit

Give the people a vote, if they want to leave, they want to leave.

If Shetland was an independent nation of 23,000 and kept all of its oil revenue it would be the richest country in the world :joker:. I say let them go for it, it would become like a tiny super-advanced Scottish Wakanda and would probably end up driving Scottish tourism as a replacement for lost oil revenue (as Shetland is fairly small geographically, so any Shetland tourism is likely to come via Scotland) :hee:.

In all seriousness though I actually do fully support devolution options for islands. "Island Life" is a very specific thing and very different to how mainland communities operate, and they are NOTORIOUSLY mishandled by councils areas that cover both mainland and Island areas (e.g. Highland & Island council, Isle of Arran being covered by North Ayrshire council, etc.).

I think these communities should at the very least have full-devo options on local spending.

No thats not on land
it belongs to the UK

i lived in Shetland for 3 months one summer and it is completely different from the mainland, i would imagine Orkney is similar, so I would support them

Plans intend to look into the option of Shetland being governed as a Crown Dependency, similar to Jersey and the Isle of Man, rather than becoming an independent nation.

They don't want 'independence' they want self governance.

Orkney is sort of like Shetland-lite. It's not "as" Island-y as Shetland but as I said, really all Island communities have a very different feel to mainland life, and are affected by very different location-specific issues.