h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Residents of the Isle of Lewis are objecting to Cal Mac's plan to institute Sunday sailings. Whilst one in six residents have signed a petition against the plan, Cal Mac say they have received many requests for the service.

The newspaper report can be read at http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1858295.0.0.php

What do forumites think? Is this an example of locals preserving their way of life in the face of commercialisation or is it the religious intolerance of a minority imposing their demands upon everyone else?

The latter. I have no romantic "traditionalist" ideas about religious people forcing others to live their lives according to their beliefs and that is clearly what is happening here.

what really bugs me about this kind of religious stuff is that they are free not to do any of the things that offend them, but if people want to move around on a Sunday, and don't have religious objections they can't.

And the religious ones then wonder why people resent them

what about "dry towns" where the residents have agreed to have to alcohol sold (anywhere within the town)? That seems reasonable to me if someone wants to have that for just their town. Seems like they should have a vote on it.

I'm all for local communities deciding what they want to do (within limits, but this isn't anything gross IMO). I love the idea of Sundays off and I'm not even religious.

I should add that something like no ferries on a Sunday is only going to work in a culture where that makes sense. eg if you tried banning public transport on a Sunday in a place where lots of people had to get to work on a Sunday then obviously that's not going to work (although I think the solution there is to ban working on a Sunday ).

New Zealand used to shut on a Sunday. And we even managed to have nice, enjoyable lives back then.

Why Sunday? Why not Saturday or Friday?

Let's shut everything down three days a week so the Muslims, Jews and Christians can all be happy.

Let's shut down everything Moonday, Twisday and Thor'sday, for goodness sake.


BTW, I love it when Theists start calling atheists hypocrites for having a nice dinner with friends and exchanging gifts at Christmas or doing Easter Bunny things on the *Sun's*day following the fourteenth day of the moon whose fourteenth day falls after the vernal equinox † and yet they don't feel at all hypocritical about going off to Church on *Sun*day or *Saturn's*day or *Frigg's*day.



________________

† yes, I know the determination of Easter is even more obscure than I've laid out here: 'The rule has since the Middle Ages been phrased as Easter is observed on the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the day of the vernal equinox. However, this does not reflect the actual ecclesiastical rules precisely. The reason for this is that the full moon involved (called the Paschal full moon) is not an astronomical full moon, but an ecclesiastical moon. The difference is that the astronomical vernal equinox is a natural astronomical phenomenon, while the ecclesiastical vernal equinox is a fixed March 21. Easter is determined from tables which determine Easter based on the ecclesiastical rules described above, which approximate the astronomical full moon.

In applying the ecclesiastical rules, the various Christian Churches use 21 March as their starting point from which they find the next full moon, etc. However because Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches use the Julian Calendar as their starting point, while Western Christianity uses the Gregorian Calendar, the end point, the date for Easter, may diverge.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter


Why?

Kea: you should have posed that one on QIm but you've been and gone and explained it, far too clearly.

It's unfortunate, but things get done by those who shout loudest, not by the sensible majority.

QI, even.

If a town wants to be dry - they can get all the town members to vote on it. The ferry - well if nobody is being forced to use it or work on it, that's fine.

I don't mind things being closed on Sundays (or any other day) to be honest. What I do mind is being told it's "for families"* and that they like to give their mother/grandmother/daughter a rest by going out for dinner... because they want a nice family life.

I wonder about my and his family life (not to mention the waitresses and pan-bash guys who often work 7 days a week)...

*(and I have been told this, with a straight face, many times - even by people who know our family circumstances)

Shucks - when I was growing up, NZ seemed to pretty much shut on a saturday afternoon never mind Sunday.

I have friends on Lewis and have spent some time there, as well as living on Arran (which did have a Sunday service).

Sundays are quite nice on Lewis - very few cars move about, there are no lawnmowers or roadworks - it's very peaceful. I was only a visitor however and don't really know the full impact.

I would be interested to know how many of the born & bred Islanders support a Sunday service. On Arran, much of the call for change came from locals and it was the incomers who wanted everything to stay as it was. The most Luddite were those with holiday homes. They understandably wanted their rural retreat to stay the sleepy backwater they had fallen in love with whilst the locals wanted the same level of services as the mainland. But Lewis Islanders and Arran Islanders are very much a different breed. On Lewis, I suspect the drive for change comes from incomers. If you work Mon-Fri, the weekend is the only time you can leave the island to visit friends or shop and it would be impossible to do a meaningful return journey in one day. There's also a world of difference between growing up with restrictions and suddenly having restrictions placed upon you when you move somewhere.

If it is the incomers behind the call for a Sunday service then I'm afraid I have little sympathy. If you move to a different culture, the onus is upon you to adapt to local conditions.

Just spoke to one of my Lewis mates. As usual with real life, things aren't as clear-cut. Some of the locals do want to see a Sunday sailing and some of the incomers want things to stay as they are but the bulk of the move for Sunday sailings seems to be coming from incomers and people off the island. Whereas the petition to maintain the status quo is limited to people resident on the island, the supporters of Sunday sailings seem to come from further afield.

Why and Im speaking from ignorance here [insert obvious quip here], why dont the people of the island just ask for it to be pedestrianised on Sundays?


Can they do that? Perhaps if enough of them ask for the islands way of life and pace of life to be protected in this way people can still get too and from the Island on a Sunday while little else has to change.

Progress ,like shit, just happens, but Im not one for people zooming round in metal boxes left, right and centre just because its possible I think we should plan "progress" as much as we can.

Im not fussed about whose asking for it or arguing against the Snday ferry for me its more a case of those in the majority do what they have to do in a way that is fairly sypathetic to the needs of the the minority where reasonably possible.

Personally I would love to see shops closed on Sundays.

I think we would have a healthier society if we had one day of the week free from the demands of Mamon and the global economy.

I also think a community should be able to decide local bylaws, and that traditions are important.

on the other hand, those of us who leave the house at 7:30 and get home at nearly 7pm don't have much time to spread our (so called) wealth around...

It's a difficult one. (here nothing is allowed on Sunday, technically I'm not even allowed to hang out my washing. So everything has to be done on Saturday, including zipping the Gruesomes round school activities. If policy makers want to help me with that I'm all for it.

I leave home at 07:00 and get home at 20:00 ~ but I work 5 on 5 off (roughly) and I also work Saturdays and Sundays.

Perhaps in this modern multicultural society of ours we should designate two non-religious day as the 'weekend'.
Problem is that there are so many services that need 24/7 cover, someone has to work on those days.

Funny how Bob forgot about that when he designed this little blue/green planet. Naughty Bob.

so the bulk for sunday sailing is for those who want to get to the islands and the bulk against it for those who are happy to stay put on the island?

Why not compromise and just have services that go *to* the island but none that go back again on a sunday?