View from Orkney: ‘UK is failing – why wouldn’t we want to join Norway’

“Britain seems to me to be failing at the moment. Why wouldn’t we want to be part of Norway?”

That’s one of the views expressed by residents of the Orkney Islands, the archipelago with 5,000 years of human history that is considering breaking away from Scottish governance and the UK – and exploring its historic ‘Nordic connections’. Councillors on the Orkneys have voted to back a motion to explore the future governance of the islands, that lie some 20 miles north of the Scottish mainland.

Council leader Councillor James Stockan – who proposed the motion – insists it is “not about joining Norway”. Nonetheless, The islands were under Norwegian and Danish control until 1472 when they were given to Scotland as part of Margaret of Denmark’s wedding dowry to King James III of Scotland.

Read more… Orkney Islands could break from Scotland after ‘dreadful failings’ by SNP

And it seems some on the island would like to see this historic link restored. The plan to explore governance changes has come about due to growing anger about what islanders see as a raw deal.

Stockan says they receive less funding per head from Government than fellow island authorities in Shetland and the Western Isles. However, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman told journalists there is “no mechanism for the conferral of crown dependency or overseas territory status on any part of the UK”.

But it seems that hasn’t stopped islanders, who are known as Orcadians, from eyeing-up their Nordic neighbours. Christine Austen, 55, is the manager of The Stromness Hotel.

She told the MailOnline: “We need to be better managed. And who better than Norway, which is impeccably well run, to help us?

“I was trying to get people over from South Africa to work in the hotel and train people, but you have to jump through blazing hoops to get them in. At the same time I’m reading about the billions England is spending housing migrants who simply cross the Channel unchecked.

“Look, Britain seems to me to be failing at the moment. Why wouldn’t we want to be part of Norway?”

Meanwhile, Local businessman Stephen Kemp told the BBC: “Most of what we have here is Viking.”

“I’m confident there’s some mileage in self-determination. Orkney folk are different. We’re outward looking and that comes from being islanders.

However, he thinks that the Norway proposal is a pipe-dream. “It’s driven by years of frustration at not being listened to, by Holyrood [the home of the Scottish Parliament] and Westminster,” added Kemp.

Keith Brown, 77, a former banker who moved to the islands from Wales in 2006, told the Mail on Sunday: “It is true that we are rather ignored up here. The way of life here, the nature, the beauty, is truly special and must be preserved.”

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Orkney MSP Liam McArthur said people on the islands “certainly feel angry”, but he added: “They may also be concerned at the time and resource that could be taken up exploring different constitutional models, particularly when council resources are already under real pressure due to Scottish Government cuts.”

Council Leader Stockan told the BBC: “We were part of the Norse kingdom for much longer than we were part of the United Kingdom.

“On the street in Orkney, people come up and say to me when are we going to pay back the dowry, when are we going back to Norway? There is a huge affinity and a huge deep cultural relationship there.”

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