(Please see UPDATE at end)
Frankly Highlands and Islands Enterprise Innse Gall should know better and be ashamed of themselves for this flagrant effort to ramp up the subsidy junkies of the Western Isles in a spurious effort to 'create' more jobs.
Now I have no strong objection to economic aid being provided to areas of the country for specific purposes where, one would hope, this could act as the seed for genuine economic growth. But we all know that in this case that this is unlilkely to happen - not with many objectors in those self-same Western Isles objecting to the exploitation of one of the few major natural resources they have, by the creation there of a massive wind farm which would provide a significant amount of electrical energy for export to the Central Belt of Scotland and help to defray the economic subsidy the area (indeed the whole of the north of Scotland, in one way or another) already receives. These people are not prepared to help themselves, far too often, but they want the taxpayer to continue to pay out money for their upkeep. This also seems like a pretty blatant attempt to screw yet more money out of the Scottish Executive ahead of the upcoming local and Scottish Parliament elections in May. Frankly I'd tell them where to get off except that unlike so many of those other subsidy junkies (our MSPs and local politicians) I'm not seeking election or re-election to anything! So this blackmail might just work.
(PS/ On Thursday 29MAR07. I just noticed a pretty lengthy visit to my little blog this morning, whilst consulting my site stastistics, from the 'Highlands & Islands Enterprise' server. Welcome! I do hope you enjoyed my little tirade - and 'Have a Nice Day!')
UPDATE: (Sunday 08APR07 10.05 RST) I wonder now if this has any connection to moves by the local council to start Sunday ferry services to Stornoway on Lewis, from Ullapool? Are the suggested subsidies a 'carrot' to the island's religious zealots (aka bigots) to persuade them to accept Sunday sailings?
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