Wednesday 27 August

Morning all from a bright, sunny but cool Stornoway. Cruiseliner Silver Cloud has arrived for its visit; its passengers are luckier than the liner that will call tomorrow, which will see a lot of wind and rain.

I am told that the people of Colonsay ran out of water when they all doused themselves in cold water in aid of ALS (motor-neurone disease). I suggest that it's better to just donate for MND, without running the risk of getting pneumonia - or draining your local water supply. 

I'll just put my head on the block and say that the story about the looms for rent embodies all that is wrong with (a) Harris Tweed in the 21st century and (b) Windfarms and community benefits. People got rid of their looms when the industry collapsed some 10-20 years ago - the output today is but 10% of what it was in the early 1990s. It'll never come back to those levels, never mind how bright or trendy current products are. Fashion changes, but the demand for HT as we knew it remains unchanged.

A windfarm that has not been built cannot generate electricity, which cannot be sold to the National Grid and cannot therefore make money. So where does Muaitheabhal Trust gets its money from at the moment? Subsidies. And a lot of the large windfarms in Scotland would never have been built if it hadn't been for massive subsidies from government. Furthermore, if the Eishken windfarm ever does get built, it will be detrimental to the tourism industry, which is worth far more than the community benefit from windfarms in these islands combined.