Friday, October 20, 2017

Nationalizing Northlink? Not So Fast!

When I was yet in Scotland (and even thereafter), I wrote extensively about Scottish ferries, particularly those serving Orkney and Shetland. This week, Around Orkney featured an interview with a representative from the Rail, Maritime, and Transport (RMT) union, which is advocating for the nationalization of the Northern Isles ferry services that serve Orkney and Shetland. I have to be honest: the idea that anyone would actually suggest this sort of boggles my mind.

To the members of my American audience who may be reading this (and who may not be familiar with the term), "nationalization" means that the government takes over a private enterprise and runs it. So, for example, Social Security is a nationalized pension program. It denotes the running of a service or production effort as a function of the government.

The Scottish Government, which has been held by the Scottish National Party (SNP) for many years (see also: prior discussion of the SNP), has come under frequent criticism by Orkney and Shetland for treating the Northern Isles as an afterthought. This sentiment mirrors that in other areas of Scotland. To vastly oversimplify matters: the bulk of the SNP's voters reside in the "Central Belt" between Glasgow and Edinburgh, and those areas get budgetary priority from the SNP. As I've noted previously, the SNP has consolidated things like police control centers (about which I've posted before, and which continue). Rural Scots have regularly expressed their worries that this consolidation, which eliminates local knowledge and institutional memory, would result in diminished service. That contingency seems to be playing out through incidents such as the mistaken dispatch of an air ambulance to Shetland when it was supposed to have gone to Orkney. The trend continues in other sectors, such as Highlands and Islands Airports investigating the possibility of introducing "centralised surveillance" (which I think means consolidation).

The BBC also reported this week that despite the controversies about subsidies for the Northern Isles ferries connecting Orkney and Shetland with Scrabster and Aberdeen; and the inter-island ferries connecting the various Orcadian and Shetlandic islands; the Scottish ferry services have enjoyed a doubling of their overall subsidies in the last decade. So, it sounds as if more money is being thrown at ferries, but that money isn't getting to Orkney or Shetland.

Basically, when you add all of this up, nationalizing the Northern Isles ferry services sounds like a fantastic way to get a ferry service that takes passengers straight from the Firth of Clyde, up through the Minch, through the Pentland Firth, and on down past Aberdeen and into the Firth of Forth, and back again. But, what do I know?

Monday, October 9, 2017

Separated by a Common Language: Orcadian Dialect Edition, Part 5

In years past, I've posted not once, but twice, the words from the entire season(s) of BBC Radio Orkney's Orcadian dialect word game, Whassigo. I'm at it again, despite a shorter season during the 2016/'17 season (owing in part to some staffing disruptions at Castle Street during the Spring of 2017, the April 2017 episode seems to have been lost to history). I'm once again late in posting them, having originally intended to do so in April or May of this year; however, as I've been rather busy this year, and I got to it earlier than I did in 2016, so I'm not apologizing!

I'm not sure if this is a constant, but I've now been following the program long enough to have caught the quiz master, Orkney Islands Councillor Harvey Johnston... REUSING WORDS FROM PRIOR SEASONS! (Cue dramatic music.) This included the word "skiggan" (Norse for clear, transparent, bright, and clean) in both February 2015 and April 2016; "skreeo" (from the Old Norse for a shriveled, dessicated person or beast) in December 2016 and in October of 2017; and "rammelgoforth" (a rash and hurried person) in April 2015 and October 2017. Scandalous! A modest proposal: the august Mr. Johnston should consult the 1866 Etymological Glossary of the Shetland & Orkney Dialect to keep things fresh. And now, without further delay... The words!

October 2016
  • "snoddy" - a thick cake of oatmeal (from Old Norse for a lump of dough)
  • "misleared" - to be misguided
  • "planker" - laying out land after the end of the runrig system
  • "streelka" - a notion
  • "russey imp" - a cord made from a mare's tail hair
  • "cowtheist" - Scots word for being friendly

    November 2016
  • "cooter" - the end of a plough that digs into the ground
  • "frugsy" - untidy or messy
  • "fimro" - a peedie crab that runs about, related to a Norse word meaning "quick"
  • "tusky" - Old Norse word for stormy, foul weather
  • "sarro" - excrement, otherwise unpalatable food
  • "grunyasie" - ugly, from a Norse word meaning the snout of a pig

    "December" 2016
  • "skreeo" - a shriveled, dessicated person or beast, from the Old Norse
  • "parago" - wool of a mixture of different colors; a known term among Westray and Sanday knitting circles
  • "rillagory" - speaking carelessly or gossiping
  • "oonwandin" - something no one expects, such as the Spanish Inquisition
  • "charve" - to be headstrong, bold, or audacious, recently commonly used in Rousay, from the Old Norse word "jarfer" (sp?)
  • "peese" - a line to please or pester

    February 2017
  • "kammo" - a knock on the head
  • "ongelid" - a strong gale, from Norse "ang" (against)
  • "kulkie" - the horizon
  • "simmy" - to wander about aimlessly, wasting time; to "simmy about"
  • "camsho" - a rude, ill-tempered person
  • "baileyment" - a state of prosperity or vigor

    March 2017
  • "swarf" - to overturn or capsize
  • "tivish" - to handle someone in a rough manner
  • "swarral" - a large, inanimate object ("But not a coo, unless it's dead.")
  • "klimse" - being so dehydrated you can hardly speak, from a Norse word meaning "to be rendered speechless"
  • "muller" - a pebbly beach