Exciting Skye... Or Maybe Not...?

I have in front of me the 9th September edition of our local newspaper - the West Highland Free Press (it's not free, it costs 75p). I grabbed it at random from the magazine rack in the lounge. Just to give you a flavour of the exciting events that make it into print here on the Isle of Skye, I'll describe below some of the contents of this paper...

Front page headline: 'Fresh Fears For Portree Hospital'.This is a story that has been ongoing for a while. We have two tiny and ageing hospitals on Skye, and there is a proposal to reduce the status of Portree and build a new hospital to replace the existing one in Broadford. To put this in perspective... I quote from the WHFP 'There are currently seven patients at the hospital [Portree] so at present it is closed to new admissions'. Yes, that is single digit SEVEN - not seventy, or seven-hundred...!  Can you imagine how many doctors, nurses, other hospital staff (and everyone else needed to maintain a hospital) are employed to keep this hospital open?? Can you wonder that the NHS is struggling?  But then again - our nearest 'big' hospital is in Inverness... 130 miles away. How far would you have to go to your nearest major hospital? I'm glad I do not responsible for making decisions about where the finite amount of NHS money should be spent!

So, on to page 2...'Mallaig Lifeboat Called Out'... apparently a fishing boat began taking on water, but both boat and crew of two were safely rescued. Phew!

Page 5 features a large photograph of many sheep, under which is the headline: 'Large Entry of Lambs in Portree Auction Mart This Week'. Apparently they were selling for an average of £37.49 each, which is 50p less than last year. It's not much fun being a lamb...

On Page 7, under another big photo, this time of a lifeboat, is the headline: 'Kyle RNLI Planning For Another Successful Maritime Day' - this refers to a forthcoming annual open day, which (weather permitting) (!!) will include the local kayaking club, an obstacle race and rope throwing competition....
I can barely contain my excitement...

After that major highlight,  the paper lapses into several pages of semi-advertising articles about local businesses and writers. Then there's a letters page - all the usual complaints about the council not doing the right things for road safety and the state of the Scottish economy.

Finally, there follows a 'what's on' page (lots of little events at local community halls) and a couple of pages of small ads from local businesses, with the back few pages being given over to sport - no, not football here, but shinty. Every photo is of a stick-wielding male. Are women allowed to play shinty? Are any other sports played on Skye? You would not think so from the coverage here.

The West Highland Free Press website is at: http://www.whfp.com/ , and if you really want to fully immerse yourself in the excitement of life on Skye, you can have the paper posted to your home - just click on the 'subscriptions' tab on the whfp website.