Climate activists, anti-abortionists, oil protesters and more. Everyone’s at it.
We do have more to protest nowadays. The Scottish Government, in its current, uncaring manifestation, is at it again, doing what it does worst – attacking the people of the Western Isles in the latest shoddy attempt to drive us out.
Take the ferries – and we wish someone else actually would, and run them properly. One of these red and white ones from Orkney was supposed to be coming down to help Caledonian MacBrayne with capacity.
As sure as eggs are eggs, there will be more disruption soon, so the plan is to have the big catamaran MV Alfred available to fill in at short notice. The Fred, however, has had its own delays after failing to get its passenger certificate from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. It’s still stuck in Belfast waiting to get its MOT.
Completing that deal must have had the champagne corks popping in the boardroom at owner Pentland Ferries. CalMac gets the Fred for nine months for a cool £9 million of our money.
Is £9 million a good deal or not? I’m not an industry expert, but Pentland Ferries itself paid just £14 million for Fred three years ago. Wow. Smart guys up there in Orkney.
Dubbed Caledonian MacPain by a Scottish tabloid, the ferry company just announced it has no ships for the Skye-Harris-North Uist triangle. All sailings from noon on Saturday are cancelled.
I wouldn’t be surprised if every boat owner on Orkney, no matter what size of boat, came and offered help. The Scottish Government is so slow in dealing with these crises that CalMac is taking the flak, but clueless government ministers are the culprits.
It’s because of them that our island businesses are struggling. A Uist hotel said a third of its usual bookings have not materialised, or have just been cancelled. Other islands are well down, too.
They should be recompensed, what with the ongoing ferry fiasco and the bizarre proposed Highly Protected Marine Areas plan, which will absolutely ruin the islands’ economy. It will result in a new round of Clearances. I think that’s the plan.
All proposals have pros and cons. Ministers should balance the arguments and decide which one is best suited in the circumstances. The cons are as important as the pros, but this lot just forget that.
Decimating the living standards of possibly thousands of people in marine-related jobs with only a tick-box consultation to push through a plan which has not been properly researched and with uncertain benefits is the action of scoundrels. Once again, the Scottish Government is clearly not listening, so we will have to protest.
“Get up, stand up. Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up. Don’t give up the fight.” Darn it, Bob Marley. Where are you when we need you?
Sometimes protest is necessary
We could take our cue from Just Stop Oil protestor Eddie Whittingham, who leapt onto the snooker table at the Crucible Theatre on Monday and threw orange powder around. People must be allowed to protest – even at a silly snooker game.
The snobbish commentators, players and some in the audience were so serious about it. “Never in 25 years have I seen such a thing,” one snorted. They couldn’t see the funny side.
Oh, get over yourselves. Snooker is just guys trying to push balls into a hole. It is completely unimportant. Chill out. The lack of humour was really quite hilarious.
Then there was a delay. So what? The tables were hoovered. That was it. No one was hurt. A perfect, colourful, memorable protest using either dried paint powder, turmeric or ground-down Wotsits.
We should see more cleverly-planned stunts like that. If it was not for the dedication of these protestors, the dozy politicians of the UK would not even be discussing the damage caused by oil and other fossil fuels. That’s my view.
I was not protesting when I suggested we were all still waiting to hear the real reason why Nicola Sturgeon had stepped down as first minister. How many arrests have there been now? As Lord Baden-Powell used to say: “Slowly, slowly, catchy monkey.” Sometimes you have to wait for the facts to emerge.
But, protest is sometimes necessary – even if only to make the lives of ghastly snooker commentators and players more interesting. To anyone else who takes snooker too seriously, remember: it’s just a pub game, best played drunk. No bowtie required.
Iain Maciver is a former broadcaster and news reporter from the Outer Hebrides
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