Scottish Islands

[Cismyfatarse1]

I have recently seen a video from Colonsay asking Nicola Sturgeon to allow them to ban all visitors.

You can sail to Canna, but not get off and go on the island.

Eigg asks for 14 days' quarantine if anyone on the island leaves and comes back. Or it did.

Can they do this? Aren't islands part of Scotland and therefore (now) open to all?

It makes me very uneasy. Coupled with nutters at the border shouting at 'English' traffic. It all feels rather xenophobic and unpleasant.

Some of it is downright racist ("Chinese people seen in Glenfinnan. Oh, I am so scared.")

CalMac is making it hard for people to travel, even now it is allowed.

Are we breaking down into smaller and smaller more isolated units?

And I know the title is a bit shit as neither Scotland, nor Glenfinnan are islands.

And I know the title is a bit shit as neither Scotland, nor Glenfinnan are islands.

This whole thing is getting worse, I got so annoyed at the vitriol from people in places such as Callander during the easing of the lock down that I'm now thinking "fuck them" and I wont be going to spend any money there. They didn't want people coming in and using "their" shops etc. Well you wont have any shops if people don't come and spend in them and the villages and towns will die when no-one wants to buy property there as there isn't a pub or shop etc.

Someone was complaining as people on motorbikes were travelling through, not even stopping. Now I'm guessing that these folk were probably outside the 5 mile restriction which "wasn't allowed", but it's curtain twitchery gone mad.

I should qualify that I am totally a thrawn cow.

I get that people are scared, I really do, but NS and crew really need to start being more truthful about the actual risks, whether they are high or low to allow people to make sensible decisions.

Agreed. But friends claim to be scared to travel to Dundee from the north and to London from Edinburgh. And these are supposedly intelligent people.

One runs a major tourism business but posts lots of 'everywhere is full of disease' things.

I've just taken my 18 year old with me to Sainsburys to buy his brother a birthday present and that's the first time he's been in a shop since March. He's been too nervous to go. I'm trying to knock some sense into him.

Don't forget to mention Cornwall who have had their own tiny minority protesting...

There was a tiny group protesting at the Scottish border that has already been over publicised, a handful of people (and one dog!) do not represent Scotland. I doubt the drivers on the motorway going 70mph heard anything.

Racist remarks are always wrong.

Some covid free small communities in all four nations are concerned about visitors. I am not going to try to give solutions to, or worse dismiss, their concerns, but I can understand they may have them and accept they have the right to voice them.

There was a tiny group protesting at the Scottish border that has already been over publicised, a handful of people (and one dog!) do not represent Scotland. I doubt the drivers on the motorway going 70mph heard anything.

Over-publicised? What if it had been gay people or black people or chinese or pakistani they were trying to stop? It can't be publicised enough imo and this was stirred up by Sturgeon who is yet to condemn it. It's irrelevant if anyone heard it to be honest, i'm sure the message was clear enough to those driving past at whatever speed they were going.

Yes, racist remarks are always wrong. I'm sure technically that English/Scots etc are not different races but it was certainly meant in that fashion and I still think should be dealt with as a hate crime to send the appropriate message.

Funnily enough, not of my SNP FB posters have mentioned this or condemned it.

I repeat that if you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem.

It's a disgrace and should not be dismissed as "it was only a handful/not all SNP folk are like that"

If you live somewhere where the population doubles or more every summer from visitors, but you know access to a hospital is by being airlifted to one that barely has space normally... well...

I’ve copied that straight from my post in another thread where it’s also come up.

I'm not saying that I don't understand that people feel scared and that rural areas have extra concerns, what i'm saying is that you cannot quantify any extra risk based on someones accent or where they live.

Many areas of England have had far smaller amounts of cases than areas in Scotland. So either you have facilities open and want the income or you don't. None of that gives anyone any right to protest on an open road in a racist fashion.

The risk of someone being infected is really really small but still NS and crew want to keep people terrified and stuck in their homes and have fired up a racist response to keep those dirty infectious English folk out - probably more that they have the excuse to do so rather than any actual belief that they are going to be over-run with covid carrying tourists.

Oh don't be daft, some of the areas you have mentioned are really remote, and a long way from the nearest ICU. I think communities have every right to decide whether they want freedom of movement right now, or not, as long as that's the genuine wish of the whole community.

It’s not about race, ethnicity or accent. They don’t want lots of visitors because they don’t want Covid in their communities.

You are unfair to suggest this is racism.

“Many areas of England have had far smaller amounts of cases than areas in Scotland. So either you have facilities open and want the income or you don't. None of that gives anyone any right to protest on an open road in a racist fashion.”

They’re all different things though...

Colonsay for instance, is tiny, they were trying to recruit a new GP, not sure if they have yet or not, just before lockdown... there are no other medical services on the island. Holiday cottages aren’t necessarily owned by people who live there... how do they stop them opening?

The concerns of people living in remote places shouldn’t be conflated with protests at the border.

no, travel is still very much restricted in Scotland, as is mixing households. The islands are not open, and rightly so.

The anti -English racism at the border was dreadful and NS should have condemned it publicly. Scotland needs to bear in mind it is not the only part of the UK with hills, lochs/lakes, castles and coastline and English tourists, and their money, can go elsewhere if they feel they are unwelcome. I know I would.

Its not the islands that need to worry.

Its Grampian, Fife and Tayside where there has been a slight increase in cases per 100,000 people in the last week. I don't know how significant but any increase isn't good.

Dumfries and Borders have seen a decrease since the 'cross border' infection in the past week.

Yes I also think you're being unfair calling it racism etc. We don't care WHERE you're from, couldn't give a fig. It's the fact our community doubles in number every summer. We just don't have the infrastructure to cope with that should the shit hit the fan.
Our local hospital (and by local it's 75miles away) managed to double its itu beds to a total of 14 during lockdown. 14. That's it.
We have 1 ambulance, again 60 miles to the next one. You can imagine if they are both en route to the hospital at once! Most GP practices are Dr's down as we can't recruit and haven't been able to for years. The clinicians we do have are just as likely to need to shield or self isolate as others.

I have immediate family members who work in hospitality, my household relies on visitors to our beautiful community. I get it I do. But I understand the fear and if we could limit the amount coming that could help. I don't know what the answer is but berating us for being scared isn't it.

west the prevalence in the community is negligible, everyone now knows what to look for and should then isolate and we apparently have test and trace now. People know about hand washing etc. Any outbreaks should be known about quickly and isolated. You can't always count on everyone to do as they are asked, but most people will meaning that outbreaks if they happen should be dealt with quickly. I honestly do get that you are scared but I think that fear has been kept at a level that doesn't exist and if people don't begin to trust then the danger from mental health, lack of business and dying of the infrastructure is going to be worse on the islands than anything that the lock down has caused.

I too don't know the answer but I guess the limits can only be imposed by only having availability of resource for half the people. Easier for a larger hotel to be limited to 10 rooms instead of 20 but what you do about non local owned self catering I don't know.

Personally the only folk i'm critising here are the knobheads on the border.

The racism comments were directed at those at the border telling English people to go home.

I've had my summer holidays for this year. I've been working full time from home and DH is NHS and couldn't change his dates, we were still in a 5 mile limit for leisure purposes and had closed a lot of carparks to stop folk coming here.

Our much needed holiday was mainly spent doing DIY, i'd love to be able to go and enjoy some serenity and scenery other than my street but holidays are over now :(

I know@WaxOnFeckOff, I'm lucky (or not 😬) that I see the daily NHS figures. And when I'm at work I can be rational and sensible. We have protocols in place and we know what will be expected of us to a degree. But we also don't really know how we would cope because even with all the planning in the world 🤷‍♀️
But then I come home having navigated the tourist traffic and watch car with roof box following camper van following caravan and I can't help but fear for our community if an outbreak was to occur. It's the sheer numbers of visitors I think for me that's my worry. Not visitors god knows we need them, but the volume of them all at once is a worry. And we know once on holiday folk relax, have a drink let their hair down etc - that's the whole point of a holiday.
Sorry, I'm rambling!

I'm hoping that since Uni dates have been put back, that we can maybe get a few days down in the Lake District in September if DH is able to shift his holidays. We usually go at Easter but were cancelled, have had no summer holiday and whilst I am really glad that DH and I are both working and pretty secure, an extra few weeks off when the weather was actually nice would have been lovely.

I'm just a bit maudlin today as it's DS1s birthday, no longer a teenager and we'd generally go for a nice meal.

@WaxOnFeckOff your hatred for NS and the SNP always clouds your posts. It's sad really.

The risks are clear to all. We know how many are infected we know broadly how it is transmitted. What more do you want?

Suggesting NS is behind those idiots at the border is laughable.

Until recently I lived in one of these very remote communities. But now I am in the Central belt. I find it hard as I can see the issues but, on the whole, much of the fear online is ridiculous and being driven by xenophobia.

And where is the law on this? Can you stop people travelling to your area if Scotland is now open?

And, in fairness to the SNP I saw the border sign protest on Joanna Cherry's Twitter being condemned by her. NS has not condemned it (?) I don't think but it has been seen for what it is.

@WaxOnFeckOff sorry to hear that you're feeling rubbish, it is a bit crap today generally and the weather isn't helping

Aww sorry I made you sad

Funnily enough others post similar and some folk agree with me, and others don't. I don't care either way, as I've said, I don't think anyone on here is going to change the minds of the other camp.

And if you actually look, I didn't say Sturgeon was behind them, I said that the rhetoric she is stirring up has encouraged the idiots and she has yet to condemn it so.....

What more do you want?

I dunno? Haven't got a clue what you are looking for with that?