Stop Killing Us

Photo by Neil Thomson

You can tell the world is getting smaller because we’re having more and more intrusion by government. About 75 years ago the only time you’d see government was when you were called up to go to war or you needed to get a passport to leave the country. Today they are involved in every single part of your daily life. The British and Scottish Government take their laws to a ridiculous level. The Labour government has an agenda. Certain single issue pressure groups and environmental zealots have an agenda to turn these places into reserves and to preserve some ridiculous idea of what the island used to be and want to lock them in that time. They impede progress for the islanders by trying to preserve it. But what they’re doing is destroying life here. Everything is changing but we adapt to the environment we are in. If you try and lock something in an imaginary picture in your imagination you are interfering with nature and you will destroy it. The way it’s going I can imagine a time when people can’t live here anymore due to interference by the state and the environmentalists. The only people living here will be working for the state as tools of the state. Instead of the government exisiting to serve the people, the people will exist to serve the government. And that is not a living community. People here have to live with nature and nature has all sorts of checks and balances in itself and it develops its own way of adjusting. Ignorant people interfere with that balance with no understanding of the consequences. We have to live with the consequences of ill-considered acts and legislation. Actual truth is ignored in the search for power. One of the problems is the geese. Geese have been given protective status and, consequently, they have grown in numbers. So now they are feeding on the corn that is grown for the winter feed for the crofters’ cattle. Because they are protected there is little that can be done in practical terms to protect the crops. The fields are stripped and the farmers are left with no corn. The geese are increasing in numbers because they are well fed. But soon the farmers will stop growing the corn because it is pointless. The numbers will increase to well beyond sustainable levels. This will mean that you will see hundreds of geese starving to death at the side of the road. Tearjerking documentaries will be shown on TV. This will all be through misguided decision. They will blame disease or global warming or some nonsense but it can all be traced back to Scottish Natural Heritage’s decision to protect the birds. They will have ended up killing them. They are killing a pure and beautiful part of the country that has nature in all its wonder in abundance in favour of new legislation and “forward thinking ideals”. This is plainly rank stupidity. BARRA COUNCILLOR DONALD MANFORD