Remind me what's good about living in Scotland?

[CoralPaperweight]

I moved to Scotland 25 years ago (central belt) and I've had a great life here but over the last year or so I've got increasingly itchy feet. May be a post-Covid or age thing but I'm not sure I want to stay in Scotland forever - it just doesn't seem to be as appealing to me, and even the cities seem a bit flat at the moment. Realistically, I can't disrupt DS education at the moment, he's very settled and happy so please remind me of everything that is fantastic about life in Scotland. I'm forever reading threads about people who are desperate to move to Scotland and I'm not really seeing why at the moment.

I remember going into a remote public toilets in Orkney and accidentally going into the mens instead of the womens'. (credos to Orkney Council by the way because their public toilet provision is way way superior to Edinburgh which is virtually non-existent after 5pm). The toilet maintenance person was there and I was so surprised at finding sanitary products in an isolate public toilet with barely any users in the middle of Orkney that I asked them why they were in the mens' toilets. I was impressed with his quick thinking that he replied that they were in case some women didn't feel comfortable going out for sanitary provision or were housebound, so their male partners could get them some instead. I still don't think this is the right answer, but he was remarkably diplomatic!

But yes, yet another gimmick. Its all shiny baubles but no foundations.

I don’t want free gimmicks. Instead I’d like more funding to go to local councils for improved public services (inc schools) and an NHS funded in such a way that the CAMHS waiting list drops to less that three years.

I agree. I don't actually even mind the weather that much (I know I'm in the minority😀. Whenever I do find myself getting down about the rain I remind myself that that's why we have such gorgeous green countryside. Even in less rural areas you're never far from a beautiful walk. I love how long the light nights are in summer too.

This post just shows how out of touch you are with the islands and the issues we have?

No we don’t want you to buy a second home, use it a few times a year and leave it empty the rest of the time? That’s why you are getting charged double council tax. Do you not understand the issues you will cause by doing this? I’ll give you the answer in two words “Papa Stour”.

And as for buying a property, keeping it empty then retiring to it??!!! Do you understand the problems this will cause and is causing to the local housing stock, services etc.?

I don’t “choose to stay here”. I’m Scottish. Always lived here. I love my country.

I hate what the SNP and the nationalist cause have done to it.

@EdgeOfSeventeenAndThreeQuarter lol 😄 Perhaps she’d be able to commute and work there as a retirement job enabling it to reopen as a tearoom? Or maybe she’s not aware of her relatives struggles (like all businesses) to find workers?

Honestly the entitlement is shocking when we have folk recruited to start work but they can’t find houses to rent or buy. But that’s okay, someone can keep an empty house whilst killing the community and services the permanent population need.

I'm surprised at a post claiming there's no community spirit. I live in a city and certainly in my corner of it there's a lot of community spirit. Same goes for my friend in a Highland village.
Of course not everywhere's like that but you can't write off the whole country!

The second home or buy to let is a uk wide issue - and the underlying issue is lack of affordable housing. Not against higher taxation for properties empty for years or used 15 percent of the year as some are, but in general the uk has a terrible hosing affordability issue that makes these 2'd home debates so fraught.

Can only think Europe second home ownership not such a hot potato as fewer affordability issues?

Which issues? The lack of fixed links or the fact that some people don't want them? The fundraising for the MRI scanner? Or the ones that EdgeOfSeventeen doesn't like anyone else to have an opinion on? Or are you the people who hate cruise ship visitors because they don't spend enough money in the local shops?

What a nasty little pair of bullies. You go through someone's thread deliberately to attack and attempt to belittle someone because you think that having a job and wanting to retire somewhere afterwards that their family came from is something to be attacked. Of all the ways of spending a lovely Saturday morning, you choose to do that.

Are you running a PR campaign trying to discredit anyone that doesn't fit in with your entrenched views? Because you really aren't giving a good impression of Scotland. And yes, of course you can go on about how "welcoming" you are to a random minority person or whatever but spewing that sort of nasty, snooty, miserable claptrap means that all you are trying to do really is hurt people's feelings to make yourselves feel big.

School bullies who have never grown up.

Fortunately, most people can see past that and realise that your xenophobic spewings are simply the product of your own miserable minds and not typical of Scots in general.

What an embarassment the pair of you are.

There's no point being surprised. This thread which was about an OP asking for positives has been inundated with anti-SNP posts and anti-Scottish racism. I didn't vote SNP but it makes no difference to the many positives of living in Scotland.

It has reached the stage where you cannot have a positive thread about Scotland on MN ... unless you don't post it in Scotsnet and the OP heading isn't obvious. Then you see posters sharing positives about Scotland.

But in this section - it is impossible to do so without the same posters dominating it with their political agendas.

I keep meaning to pop into Craicnet and see if it's the same. Are they allowed to have a positive thread about Ireland? Is it only Scotsnet that can't have a positive discussion about Scotland? Or is it anywhere outside England where there is a risk of a constitutionally impactful vote?

But I also take comfort that I never meet any of these people in RL in Scotland. Like you, OP, everywhere I've lived has had a sense of community from neighbours hosting parties together to having bonfires at Guy Fawkes to dropping off shopping, etc. I'm also grateful that I don't somehow have to live somewhere I have consistently posted negatively about for 8 years. Such a sad approach to life that because you're unhappy you can't allow anyone else to have a positive discussion.

Yes, "she" is fully aware of all of that. However, since "she" specifically mentioned buying a ruin to do up while employing local tradesmen because "she" is saddened at the number of ruins there, but has chosen not to do so because not only people like you make "her" feel so unwelcome and the tax is so high, perhaps you can explain how attitudes like yours are going to target the problems you describe?

Can you also explain why you are so viciously attacking me on here? Its really quite strange to be quite so venomous.

Inheritance tax is much higher in most of Europe (its 60% in France) so the housing market is less fuelled by independently wealthy people having enormous lump sums to outbid other buyers. Theres also less zoning, more self build and less domination of the market by large housebuilders making vast corporate profits leaving rural areas where no large companies want to build between a rock and a hard place.

You’re barking up the wrong tree m’dear. I am in fact a sooth-moother - integrated in the community.

you can whine all you want about these horrible people not wanting second homers - but would you be so excited about your rural retreat if hjaltland built 400 houses next to it?

the very reason you hanker for this wilderness is because it isn’t built up and “ugly like the central belt” (oddly I’ve not noticed any of the central-belters pick up THAT snidey gauntlet).

I'm really not interested in who you are or where you come from. This is a far bigger issue than you.

Its clear your aim is to try to silence by discrediting or upsetting anyone so much that they are intimidated into no longer posting alternative opinions to your own extreme political views.

It is not a wildnerness, I do not "hanker" for it, I do however have a large number of family members there whom I visit frequently and am close to, and it would have been the obvious choice to plan for my retirement there after a life spent working in a part of the world I don't particularly like but which is necessary to do my job.

You have been fortunate enough to do a job (I presume) which has enabled you to live in a very nice part of the world but you don't want to share that privilege with others. The islands in question is suffering from depopulation - I mean obviously its beyond your concept that people might actually be talking about some of the small isles rather than mainland, but as you were...

Actually I work for the council in a job I’m way over-qualified for on literally the lowest wage I’ve earned since I was at school and did Saturdays in Tesco.

for some of us, there’s more to life than money. Eg shedding bitterness.

too bad buttercup, my lineage goes straight back to Mary, queen of Scots - yet despite my nice email Linlithgow council won’t hand over my birthright.

I'm also privileged enough to have lived and worked all over the world for 20 years - so yeh, amma right smug cunt.

for the record - I can see muckle flugga from the garden so once again you’ve made a daft assumption - but crack the fuck on.

totally spot on. reason i rarely come on scotnet. no-one allowed to bring any balance at all without being accused of supporting big brother or other such nonsense. some of it is so outlandish it does make you laugh at times though😅 mean, if there hadn't been some tampons (supposedly) in a men's toilet in orkney we could have funded the entire school system. another thing that's the SNP's fault - even though it was Labour MSP Monica Lennon who introduced the Period Products (Free Provision) bill

Well, I was coming on to post how much I’m looking forward to coming up to Scotland next week to visit family and friends.
Excited to be doing some of my favourite walks in the most beautiful places, enjoying excellent seasonal Scottish produce surrounded by Scottish accents and good humour.
I’m praying that the ferries will be running though.
Am I allowed to mention that ?

Ach there's no space for facts when they have a political agenda to push whether those facts are about period poverty, hospital waiting times, which party first mooted self-id in the UK . . . or the overarching facts that don't change regardless which party is in power eg free access to museums, a globally renowned arts scene, some of the best shopping in Europe and a population that consistently tops polls for being amongst the friendliest and most welcoming.

It's weird because it doesn't influence voting patterns as can be seen by the recent results. It just makes those posters seem miserable and disingenuous; and makes MN seem very London-centric.

Nice to see some positives about Scotland at last

Goodness me @AchatAVendre you’ll give yourself a hernia if you carry on like that. Best of luck doing up an old ruin, there’s very good reason why people don’t renovate them in Shetland unlike the rest of Scotland. And many of the were abandoned for good sanitation reasons and replaced with newer houses closeish by - Ian Tait’s book explains and sellifirth is a good example.

Yes we are looking for people to move to the islands but not retirees, same as many rural places across the UK. You must surely be aware of the issues?

And to get back to the thread on of the massive benefits of Scotland is the easy access to the countryside from cities and the lack of urban sprawl. Also how less busy the roads are.

Well, perhaps to save any other Scots who might want to move to another part of their own country the bother, you could lay down the rules james:

• what age group is banned?
• what they are and are not allowed to do (are they allowed to work in areas of skills shortage?
• If retirees aren't "wanted", what happens if they are in their late forties and only wishing a change of pace, not to stop working?
• Who sets these rules?
• What happens if you transgress them, buy a ruin, miraculously renovate it using modern technology, work, pay tax and so on? Can you expect a visit in the middle of the night from the rules committee? I think I'm well aware of Mr Tait's book Or better still, might you just be ignored by any snobs?
• What happens if I inherit a part share of a property on the islands (as is likely)? Must I distribute it between the local Soviet.

tbh I agree with much of what you are saying, I don't think its fair that people come and buy up property excluding locals but I don't agree with the way you're saying it. And since these islands used to be Norse, I cannot understand why all of what I am saying is perfectly normal in Norway but not in Scotland. Or why can Norway provide its citizens with such lifestyles but Scotland cannot? Obviously, tax is higher but what else is different. Both have similar population sizes after all.

Given that the SNP have a dubious foothold at best on where we are discussing and have never actually managed to return an MP or MSP, where are these communist policies coming from?

Sorry no idea where the "james" came from in that post!