Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company

Speaking at stage 1 in the debate in the Scottish parliament on the Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill, Beatrice Wishart emphasised the importance of crofting to Shetland and the rest of the Highlands and Islands, and the need for wider reform.

The Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill makes changes to areas of crofting law, including the enforcement of crofters’ duties, the powers of the Crofting Commission, common grazings, and the Crofting Register, and it merges the Scottish Land Court and Lands Tribunal for Scotland.

Alistair Carmichael has welcomed the decision by the UK government to abandon proposals for the mandatory use of digital IDs.

It has emerged that First Minister John Swinney was not told that the 333 metre very large crude carrier Marinera, formerly the Bella-1, and the 127 metre US coastguard cutter Munro were to come to the Scottish waters of the Moray Firth for bunkers and stores for the Marinera.

The sanctioned Marinera had been passing between Shetland and Faroe, heading for Murmansk, when it diverted to west of Faroe to rendezvous with a Russian submarine where it was boarded by US forces and taken under US command.

The leaders of three islands councils have said that they were delighted with the positive engagement they had had with the Scottish government, which resulted in the announcement in the Scottish budget of an islands accelerator model which will invest hundreds of millions of pounds in the three islands communities.

There has been a general welcome in Shetland to the announcement that the Scottish government is to remove peak fares on NorthLink, to take effect from the new financial year starting in April, with the cost to the Scottish government estimated at £5.4 million over the next three years.