I was born, bred and currently live in the 'most depressing place in the British Isles' according to the Birmingham Post - although on the web they have changed the title of the article.
Much of the falsehoods and half-truths that are represented within the article are reported to have come from Roger Casemore, allegedly an academic, and someone that came to Shetland to set up courses in Counselling and Psychotherapy as a director of the University that accredits the courses. Surely that makes it fairly abhorrent that he takes reasonable statistic and twists it into something that it isn't - and what it isn't is unique to Shetland. 26% of Shetland inhabitants have had some mental health symptoms - which is what would be expected as that is in line with national figures.
Now, it is fairly obvious that he has taken a dislike to Shetland and yes, our weather for example can be absolutely shocking. But when you consider that we are on the same line of latitude as Alaska then its maybe not all that suprising - in fact it could be regarded as surprising that our weather is actually not all that bad in comparison!
So what can you take from the article?
Well, Mr Casemore doesn't like Shetland. Apart from that? I would take nothing at all, as untruths like us being in the Arctic Circle and that we suffer 'emotional poverty' when in fact we have a much higher degree of community spirit than many people on mainland Britain will have experienced makes the article in its entirety unreliable at best.
