UKIP Shetland are looking at Shetland independence.

Its a funny one. Faroe has very close links with Denmark, but effectively runs itself. But Faroe has a population that is double Shetland's, and I'm not sure that it has had the same volume if 'incomers' that we have had due to oil. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing - the vast majority of people that I have met that have moved up in recent years are tremendous people that moved here because of a love of Shetland - its birdlife or its freedom or the chance to get away from the rat race. Some Shetland people feel that there are a lot of people coming here for 'the good life', because housing is cheaper than down the road and we have excellent services here. I have to admit to never having met them, and I'm not entirely sure they exist, or if they do, chances are they won't last.

You see, Shetland is a very peculiar place. It has incredibly strong winds, bitterly cold winds that combine with precipitation to create horizontal rain (yes, really). We have a limited high street - we have a boots, a somerfield and a co-op - but no M&S or Debenhams. Its not an easy place to live in many ways. We can get stranded here for days with weather, which also means that there may be no fresh food supplies coming from the mainland of Britain - or we might get snowed in for a week which is easy if you can walk to the local shop, or (like people that know the place) have enough food/baby milk/nappoes/medicine to see a week through - but sometimes people newly up from South sometimes don't appreciate the problems that the remoteness combined with the weather can cause.

Anyway, my point was - Shetland has also appealed to people that want to drop out of society, and get away from 'it all' (whatever 'it all' is, as we seem to have everything we need - well, maybe apart from an ice rink and bowling alley - and I'm not sure that we would have the amount of forward thinking, go ahead kind of people that would be needed to get independence for Shetland off the ground.

And would it be a good thing if we did....?