The band have music in their DNA but watching young Shetlanders at festivals and events is also about recognising what has got them there with a promise of so much more. Labelling music and especially folk music an industry can sometimes be misinterpreted. But when I walked around the town over the weekend the number of visitors was notable. Economists call this the multiplier effect. In other words people who love the Shetland Folk Festival also eat in local restaurants and may partake of the odd pint whether at Islesburgh in the Club or elsewhere.

So if Shetland is to recognise the importance of the Festival it is to invest in its musical future. A local Folk Festival without local musicians is unthinkable. That will not happen. But the route into playing publicly and enjoying the experience starts at a young age. A musical family helps but natural talent emerges and can be nurtured by school tuition and support. So in all the achingly difficult decisions the newly elected Members of the SIC face music and it’s future in Shetland is part of that.

The Shetland Schools Festival is for many a first public performance? Festivals cost and funds have come from local sponsorship and Creative Scotland – a national arts body – through their Youth Music Initiative. Unfortunately some of this is now been withdrawn by Creative Scotland. They do give £80,000 to the SIC for a Youth Music Initiative but the SIC’s specific Schools Festival related role is apparently to be reduced. So the Schools Festival is at risk unless it can be done differently. Yet if ever a Festival involving children from across Shetland ticks the Curriculum for Excellence box it is surely this. Playing before an audience is about self confidence, ability and yes fun. So this is an event that builds Shetland’s future not just in musical terms.

Building young Shetlanders personal strengths are also helped by specialist musical tuition. So a core of instrumental music staff are needed. Again parents of talented pupils across Shetland are worried by staff retiring and not being replaced. So do we value music as part of Shetland life? I think the answer to that is undoubtedly yes. But to ensure that more local people and visitors here to Shetland can enjoy the excitement of Vair as the Clickimin audience did last weekend an assessment of where financial support is essential to success must happen. My plea to our new councillors is to consider music in the round and then make sensible long term decisions.

It started with the extraordinary cosy relationship between Alex Salmond and Rupert Murdoch. There can be no doubt that in exchange for the Sun’s editorial support for the Nationalists last year Salmond offered to help with Murdoch’s attempted purchase of the satellite broadcaster BSkyB. Does this matter? Government Ministers, never mind the First Minister are supposed to take objective decisions. We all know that Murdoch’s papers are up to their neck in the phone hacking scandal and Rupert and son James are the chain of command within News Corporation that own the Sun and the now closed News of the World. The UK Government established the Leveson Inquiry and a clever lawyer this week had both Murdoch’s on the ropes as he established their cosy relationship with Alex Salmond. It all stinks. Hence the shepherd’s point about mucky pens.

Just to add to this extraordinary week the Scottish Parliament was blessed with a visit from Donald Trump. He has built what he calls the best golf course in the world north of Aberdeen. It may be but it is quite a call to make in Scotland that has Muirfield, Turnberry and Loch Lomond to name but three. Trump used to be supportive about renewable energy. The Scottish Government leaked a letter this week where Trump is shown to have recognised that renewables projects can be right when sympathetically sited. This week however he became a touchstone for people who oppose not just an individual project but believe the science behind climate change is wrong or made up. It is a pretty brave line to take given the Scottish Parliament has passed demanding climate change reduction targets and all parties in Parliament broadly agree with the approach. Trump is a tour de force. When asked about the basis of his evidence he replied, “I am the evidence”.  Not much you can say in response to that.

But the issue which will run and run from this week will be Murdoch. The Leveson Inquiry in London will take evidence next month from politicians including Cameron and the discredited Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Vince Cable was removed from his job overseeing broadcasting policy because to his credit, he stated his opposition to Murdoch. It is difficult to see where that leaves Hunt. Salmond is to be called to give evidence in London too. He will of course deny any wrong doing despite the evidence of the emails that were published this week. But in the aftermath of the Leveson evidence the SNP refused to put any Minister or MSP on television or radio to argue Salmond’s side of the story. All you need to know I think.

Not that a rural Parliament would make a blind bit of difference. One of the barmiest ideas to emerge from the Scottish Government in recent weeks is exactly that. There is precious little justification or rationale for this notion. The Scottish Parliament has lots of rural MSPs. Since last May most are Nationalists so this proposal appears an admission that they aren’t at all good at their jobs. Since last May rural Scotland has seen ever greater centralisation of powers in Edinburgh by the Scottish Government with cuts to the Air Discount Scheme and the financial future of the University of the Highlands and Islands being determined by the Education Minister. It is debatable whether this government would  pay any attention to a Rural Parliament. What is noticeable in Holyrood is that no Nationalist ever steps out of line. Once the policy has been decreed from on high that is the position and the backbenchers are there to vote for it. No Government policy like cutting ADS or controlling fire and rescue and local Police from Edinburgh is ever criticised by a Nationalist. So a rural Parliament would be toothless and pointless.

What would be much more useful would be to give local government more responsibility. Whatever the decisions our Council take at least they are accountable to the people of Shetland as we will see in early May. But a growing defence of a councillor now a days is that they have no financial responsibility because the Scottish Government control the purse strings. At one time the Nationalists declared an end to Council’s having to follow Scotland wide spending decisions. But the reality is that when the Nationalist Minister says jump, Councils all now say how high. That is not local democracy. It is the approach to local administration that Michael Forsyth wanted back in the 1990′s where councillors would meet to rubber stamp central government targets and policies. At some stage there will be a huge kick back against the centralised state that is Salmond’s Scotland.    

And we could all do without the Government propaganda machine. This week the Nationalists got into hot water over Edinburgh Zoo’s giant pandas. Their failure to consummate a friendship was a national disappointment. But hardly surprising given the media attention. But the Nationalist Government have been buying space in every  newspaper including the Shetland Times saying the pandas were loaned by China. Completely untrue. Your taxes are paying for these pandas. Remember that when paying the ferry fare this weekend.

The staff also arranged a bus at Holmsgarth the next morning to take those with cars down to Sumburgh. So 10 out of 10 for the airline. A little co-ordination may be needed with Loganair staff in Aberdeen. Over the bacon roll as we entered Lerwick Harbour I heard that no such offer of a bus to Sumburgh had been made at Aberdeen to Shetland bound passengers catching the boat. So apart from that glitch, Loganair illustrated that in such circumstances they do try a lot harder than most airlines to help Islanders get home.

In passing I could observe that arriving in Orkney at lunchtime and leaving at midnight on the boat left some time for other entertainments. Enough said. But matters of state were discussed. There is a lot of interest in the current constitutional battle between London and Edinburgh. Many Shetlanders and some Orcadians I met at the weekend believe that we should use this period to develop our approach to the future of our Islands. It’s not as some have mischievously suggested about what happens when Scotland actually votes.

This is about thinking now about the powers the Islands need to develop our economy, culture and identity. Because the governments in London and Edinburgh certainly are not going to do it and nor should they. This is not about the current SIC and the decisions they make. Agree or disagree, I would rather we had local decision making even if a particular decision looks barking mad than being ruled by a central belt, centralising Scottish government. 

Music is one of Shetland’s exports to Scotland and the wider world. At Brae High School, with MSYPs Nicole Mouat and Emily Shaw this week we debated Mareel. A week earlier I enjoyed the Shetland Schools Music Festival gala concert at Clickimin. Adding to this mix I’ve had lots of discussions with teachers, parents and young musicians over music tuition. I hear that music places are now restricted in some schools. Brae’s young minds made a good point. They put all these aspects together. Why isn’t there an approach to the development of music in Shetland which builds on school tuition, a Schools Music Festival and the soon to be opened Mareel. Many argued that £10 million for an arts venue for far too much. But the overriding concern was to make it work. That needs a strategic approach to music teaching in the classroom and then performing on stage. Let us hope that a new SIC take that exciting possibility forward.

There is a lot to be said for a mid-winter festival. It breaks up the monotony of the lengthy North Atlantic winter; it creates a tremendous buzz in the town and the local economy as pubs, restaurants, hotels and taxis boom for a week in January. Up Helly Aa also asserts the Islands independence of character and spirit. This years tremendously successful festival had more TV crews and photographers than a taxpayer funded press conference in Edinburgh Castle and had the even greater advantage of better pictures.

Burning a galley is in the blood of a Shetlander. There is little more powerful than the galley burning and the singing of The Norsemans Home.The moment encapsulates spirt, friendship, community and a strong smell of paraffin. I wasn’t the only guizer asking for a new blend to be used for steeping the torches as eyes poured with water from the smoke before the burning.

So a current Scottish Government proposal that could change the range of courses available in Shetland needs some careful assessment. Shetland College have just submitted their response and make some important observations about local circumstances and what our Island economy needs.

Unfortunately the Scottish Government wants a centralising approach which would lump us in with the rest of the Highlands and Islands. As all colleges have less money which inevitably means less courses, the Government believes that school leavers should simply travel to another college for the course. That will work in large urban areas with good public transport and therefore makes a lot of sense. But in island Scotland this centralising approach will not deliver more for less or even the same for less. Less will be less. Shetland College is the provider of vocational courses. A reduced college curriculum means that local school leavers will simply have no choice. Transport costs mean school leavers do not have the mobility of young people in and around Inverness. That’s before accommodation is considered. It’s why Shetland College needs to have as full a range of courses as possible.

Shetland’s submission also makes a telling point about local jobs.The ancient professions of law, accountancy and learning mean a university degree is taken in one of Scotland’s big cities. The vocational choice for local school leavers is therefore more important than ever because Shetland has a far lower number of law, accountancy or academic jobs than Glasgow or Dundee.