Torf Einaar Rules OK

Well I never, you wait decades for independence movements to come along in the Atlantic Isles and then three come along together.  It may shock some North of the Border but when the idea that the oil money was for the taking got out there might be disagreements about who would get their hands on the loot might attract other interests was forgotten.

The ruckus in Scotland over those from the Orkneys and Shetlands who think there are good historical reasons for asserting their own form of independence which will give them rights over large tracts of Northern waters was all too predictable.

It was John Mortimer, the writer and former barrister who observed that when it came to Probate cases those involved, once thought of as decent people to deal with, suddenly became ravening predators determined to take all or nearly all.

So if the United Kingdom is a dead duck, or rather gannet, then the squabbling over the remains, rights and benefits is not going to be a polite and certain business.  It is all going to get very rough and nasty.

If I was sat in Kirkwall or Lerwick grumbling about my taxes and how little I got from them and how that lot down there were grabbing everything they could get then it might not be easy for me to distinguish London and Liverpool from Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Were some bright young local accountants and lawyers playing darts in the public bar together they might wonder whether they would all be better off and happier making their careers in a Government of the Isles rather than having to go South to endure the idiocies of any of capitals on offer.

After all, in the internet age and with the transformation of international and other travel suddenly a whole lot of things have become much easier to accomplish.  Moreover the government machineries and political parties of the South are alien to the lifestyles and needs of the Islands.

Worse still, the grotesque and wasteful control of monies, the corruption, the contempt for ordinary people and sheer selfishness of the incessant demands of the big urban and rural corporations leave communities such as the Islands poorer and more deprived than they need to be.

So who will be the new Lords of the Isles?