Islands may seek independence from UK and Scotland

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Monday 24 March 2014 22.32

Residents of three groups of remote Scottish islands, some of which straddle oil and gas fields northeast of Britain, are calling for their own breakaway votes and greater autonomy.

Islanders from Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles have lodged a petition with the Scottish parliament asking for a vote on 25 September.

That vote would comea week after a referendum on whether Scotland should end its ties with the United Kingdom after 307 years.

Local councils in the three island groups have also launched a campaign called "Our Islands, Our Future" to seek more powers after the 18 September vote, whatever the result.

New powers could include control of the sea bed around the islands.

The moves follow debate over the powers that Shetland and Orkney would have if Scotland became independent, with local officials saying that around 67% of North Sea reserves lie within their coastal waters.

Nationalists argue Scotland can be a prosperous nation with oil money to offset its relatively higher state spending and forecasts of oil and gas revenue of between 31bn and 57bn between 2012-2013 to 2017-2018.

But islanders, wary of governments in both London and Edinburgh that they accuse of ignoring their needs, are keen to control their own resources.

Tavish Scott, Shetland's representative in the devolved Scottish parliament, said Scotland does not have an economy without oil and gas, giving Shetland some leverage.

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Islands may seek independence from UK and Scotland

Shetland Islands, Place of Vikings and Oil, Question Scottish Independence

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The Scottish referendum of independence scheduled for September leaves the Shetland Islands with a question. Go to with Scotland, stay with Britain, or become independent? A petition went online recently on the Scottish Parliament website asking to hold a referendum of this very question.

29.2% of Shetlanders are direct descendants of Vikings according to a study by BritainsDNA, the U.K. Huffington Post reported. The islands were part of Norway until the 15th century and hold important oil reserves for Scotland. Catriona Murray, secretary of the group Referenda On The Islands told the Telegraph We believe that it is up to islanders to decide, and that now is the time to do so. Our own group includes supporters of all three options.

The 23,000 people who live in the Shetland Islands may not have much of an impact on the September referendum. But they do play an important role in Scottish economy. Since the 1960s, the Islands have gained strategic importantance, especially in the construction of Sullom Voe, one of Europes largest energy terminals, according to the Associated Press. Baron Lamont of Lerwick told the BBC Scottish oil would go out of the window if the islands left the country.

Meanwhile, Shetlanders continue to embrace their Viking heritage. The Up Helly Aa Viking fire festival takes place in the late winter dusk, hundreds of Vikings are marching down to the beach, bearing flaming torches, as Associated Press Jill Lawless described, Their studded leather breastplates glint in the firelight as they roar and sing. Its a scene that would have struck terror into the hearts of Dark Age Britons.

Whether Shetland stays with Britain, goes with Scotland, or becomes independent, it seems it will remain a place of Vikings.

Image via STV Scotland, YouTube

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Shetland Islands, Place of Vikings and Oil, Question Scottish Independence

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Girls Protected From Autism, Study Suggests

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Newswise It takes more mutations to trigger autism in women than in men, which may explain why men are four times more likely to have the disorder, according to a study published 26 February in the American Journal of Human Genetics1.

The study found that women with autism or developmental delay tend to have more large disruptions in their genomes than do men with the disorder. Inherited mutations are also more likely to be passed down from unaffected mothers than from fathers.

Together, the results suggest that women are resistant to mutations that contribute to autism.

This strongly argues that females are protected from autism and developmental delay and require more mutational load, or more mutational hits that are severe, in order to push them over the threshold, says lead researcher Evan Eichler, professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. Males on the other hand are kind of the canary in the mineshaft, so to speak, and they are much less robust.

The findings bolster those from previous studies, but don't explain what confers protection against autism in women. The fact that autism is difficult to diagnose in girls may mean that studies enroll only those girls who are severely affected and who may therefore have the most mutations, researchers note.

The authors are geneticists, and the genetics is terrific, says David Skuse, professor of behavioral and brain sciences at University College London, who was not involved in the study. But the questions about ascertainment are not addressed adequately.

Genetic burden:

The new study draws from the Simons Simplex Collection (SSC), a database of families that have one child with autism and unaffected parents and siblings. (This project is funded by the Simons Foundation, SFARI.orgs parent organization.) In a 2011 study, researchers found that girls with autism in the SSC tend to have more large duplications or deletions of regions of the genome, called copy number variants (CNVs), than do boys with the disorder, although this disparity does not reach statistical significance2.

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Girls Protected From Autism, Study Suggests

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Latinos Being Left Behind In Health Care Overhaul

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WASHINGTON (AP) The nation's largest minority group risks being left behind by President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

Hispanics account for about one-third of the nation's uninsured, but they seem to be staying on the on the sidelines as the White House races to meet a goal of 6 million sign-ups by March 31.

Latinos are "not at the table," says Jane Delgado, president of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, a nonpartisan advocacy network. "We are not going to be able to enroll at the levels we should be enrolling at."

That's a loss both for Latinos who are trying to put down middle-class roots and for the Obama administration, experts say.

Hispanics who remain uninsured could face fines, not to mention exposing their families to high medical bills from accidents or unforeseen illness. And the government won't get the full advantage of a group that's largely young and healthy, helping keep premiums low in the new insurance markets.

"The enrollment rate for Hispanic-Americans seems to be very low, and I would be really concerned about that," says Brookings Institution health policy expert Mark McClellan. "It is a large population that has a lot to gain ... but they don't seem to be taking advantage." McClellan oversaw the rollout of Medicare's prescription drug benefit for President George W. Bush.

The Obama administration says it has no statistics on the race and ethnicity of those signing up in the insurance exchanges, markets that offer subsidized private coverage in every state. Consumers provide those details voluntarily, so federal officials say any tally would be incomplete and possibly misleading.

But concern is showing through, and it's coming from the highest levels.

"You don't punish me by not signing up for health care," Obama told Hispanic audiences during a recent televised town hall. "You're punishing yourself or your family."

Like a candidate hunting for votes in the closing days of a campaign, Obama was back on Hispanic airwaves Monday as Univision Radio broadcast his latest pitch.

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Latinos Being Left Behind In Health Care Overhaul