Excerpt from politicshome.com
Representing 32 islands, Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael has a truly unique constituency; as he tells Gabriella Bennett, logistical challenges are only half the battle.
Nobody could accuse Alistair Carmichael of giving up easily. If more than 20 years of representing the wind-battered constituency of Orkney and Shetland has taught him anything, it is figuring out a plan B when a curveball is thrown.
“I have done it every possible way,” says the Liberal Democrat MP of his journeys between the 36 inhabited islands within the Northern Isles.
“I have gone by ferry, taken commercial planes, smaller islander planes such as the 90 second flight between [the islands of] Westray and Papa Westray, hitched lifts on the mail plane and fishing boats and arranged speed boats or private charters.
“I think that is the thing that would surprise people most about this job. If I am going to Foula, right on the edge of Shetland, then that is going to take a whole day of travel. I land on the airstrip, find someone who will give me a lift to the top of the island, and then walk back down the island going from house to house.”
