What ails NHS Western Isles?
Wow. A lot has happened since I last posted a news story on here. I spent some years teaching and then I went back to local journalism – where I started out in 1998! I have been working at the […]
The Case for a Community Cable
On the 16th of October this year, the lights literally went out on community energy in our isles. The subsea cable that links Skye to Harris, supplying our power from the National Grid but also enabling the export of power […]
Court points to need for further land reform
Readers… it’s been a long time. So long, in fact, there were times that I wondered if I would ever find my way back – but of course I was always going to. Especially when there is news to explore. […]
The Game Is Changing
Readers, an update today on the community wind farm campaign. Firstly, the interconnector is dead. End of. Ofgem’s statement that the case for an interconnector cable (be that 450MW or 600MW) to the Western Isles “had not been met” tells […]
Time for Plan B
The news, when it came, was on Messenger. “See Heb News. LWP fail in subsidy bid…” It was Friday and the list had been published of the renewables projects which had been successful in securing subsidies to develop under the […]
Land Court shocker as evidence not required
There has been a development in the battle for the rights to develop wind farms on the common grazings land around Stornoway. The news came, at the end of the last week, that the Scottish Land Court had ruled in […]
Seeing it through to the end
Nearly three years ago, I brought you the story of a group of crofters who were taking on the might of the multinationals by applying to the Crofting Commission for the rights to develop wind farms on their common grazings, […]
Listening on another level
A few days ago, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon declared a Climate Emergency, during her speech to the SNP conference. She pledged that Scotland would “lead by example” as our obligations to the next generation are “the most important we carry”. […]
Thoughts on International Women’s Day
A massive, celebratory, shout-out, this International Women’s Day, to all those women who strive for better, who go against the grain, who stick their heads above the parapet and generally dare to live their lives in a way that does […]
Audacious and ambitious: Stornoway does War of The Worlds
“No one would have believed in the last years of the Nineteenth Century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space. No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinised, as someone with a microscope studies […]