Dear Orkney News,

Councillors in Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles are congratulating themselves on their negotiations with the Crown Estates. Apparently powers are to be ‘devolved’ to the islands. The first question that should be asked is “Do they have what they are purporting to give and if so, can they prove it?” There can be no harm in asking the question. By not asking it, we conspire in the unrelenting effort by the UK and Scotland to make us ever more dependent on them.

The ‘Our Islands, Our Future’ group is apparently conducting these negotiations. The very existence of such a group is a means of negating Orkney and Shetland’s legitimate position. Combining with the Western Isles ensures that any aspiration by the group is reduced to going cap in hand asking for favours on the basis of being islands, instead of making a legal claim, which only Orkney and Shetland can do. Orkney and Shetland are betrayed by this group, but councillors like to have their egos massaged.

The Sovereign Nation of Shetland has made a claim for the allodial title of the whole of Shetland, including the seas out to 200 miles, or to the median line between us and another state. That claim is not disputed by either the UK or the Scottish government. The Crown Estates are pretending to give us something that is already ours.

It is well known by now that the Crown’s shaky claim to authority in Shetland is based on a magazine article and that, when challenged, no court has heard any proof that Shetland (or Orkney) is part of Scotland. The only thing supporting that authority is the fact that we continue to elect representatives to their governments in elections which, in the absence of proof that Shetland and Orkney are part of Scotland are completely illegal.

When the people of these islands wake up to the enormity of the deception perpetrated on them over the past 550 years, they will not accept anything less than full independence.

Note: Allodial title is the ultimate title in land. It allows of no lord or superior.

Yours,  Stuart Hill, Shetland