View across the Outer Harbour of Stornoway

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Tuesday 9 August

Overcast today, but mainly dry and less windy than yesterday. Was watching more TV footage from yesterday's rioting across London and other parts of England. And looking at Twitter a minute ago, there are more messages going round organising more "meets" tonight, in other words, further rioting being organised. I have reposted those tweets, minus source, for the attention of the local police Twitterfeed. Let's hope everybody informs the police of any such "meets", because we can all do without that sort of mindless nonsense.

The Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) has called for the annual guga hunt from Ness (in Lewis) to Sula Sgeir to be banned. Guga is the dried and salted meat of gannet chicks, 2000 of which can be 'harvested' on Sula Sgeir (45 miles northeast of Lewis) for consumption in Ness. It is held to be a local delicacy, described by some as looking like a bicycle saddle and requiring diesel to boil them. The chicks, which stand about 2 feet tall, are clubbed on the head, before being plucked, singed in a fire and torn in four for salting and drying. They are then shipped to mainland Lewis for consumption.