:19:01
We're dealing with a question each
one of us has got to face squarely.
:19:06
It's your homes, your families
and your future lives.
:19:09
- Am I no right?
- (Murmurs of assent)
:19:14
I'm no trying to read my elders any
lesson. A man must think for himself.
:19:18
For hundreds of years now,
:19:20
this parliament has met
every working morn.
:19:24
But in a thousand years,
it's never faced the problem we face.
:19:27
Year by year,
the population's shrinking.
:19:30
Look what happened to Mingulay
and St Kilda,
:19:33
islands barren now
that once supported people.
:19:35
What happened in the Hebrides
will happen here.
:19:38
You canna fight against it,
you canna stop it.
:19:41
As I see it, it's...
it's every man for himself.
:19:45
That's all I have to say.
:19:48
And I came back here to say it.
:19:54
Well, as you all know, I'm no
great hand at public speaking.
:19:58
Except in kirk, John!
:20:01
Thank you, James. Even then, it takes
me a week to make up my sermons.
:20:05
But Robbie here makes out
a very good case.
:20:08
And he says we can't fight it.
:20:10
Can't fight? You mean
you won't fight, some of ye!
:20:14
Look out there.
:20:16
Trawlers sweeping the sea
wi' their nets,
:20:20
loading their boats wi' fish
that belong to us island men,
:20:23
ruining the new spawn
wi' their damned otter boards.
:20:28
Three-mile limit.
What does it mean to them?
:20:33
A dint in the head with a lump of
coal is all you get if you warn them.
:20:36
What's the good of it?
:20:37
Restrictions, that's what we want,
that's what we'll pray for.
:20:42
The damn fools are ruining
their own game, as well as ours.
:20:45
They've swept the shore
as bare as this hand,
:20:48
you have to steam further out,
that means more coal,
:20:50
then where's the profit?
:20:52
Fight. Man, I've fought them
and the like all my life.
:20:57
I've kept a roof over my croft,
brought my children up decently.