Tavish Scott: Better informed as a man of the people BRESSAY'S fire fighters were called out this week. As with the Fort William crew who fought an enormous blaze near Corpach the local team at home have had to extinguish flames that were out of control. Two fires were started on the Shetland island by crofters to burn off dead grass and heather. Controlled muirburn is an important part of heather management. Heather that gets too long does not provide a natural habitat for wildlife. Even worse from a crofters perspective, is that sheep won't eat it through the winter months when grass is scarce. So every few years heather hills are set alight. There is considerable skill involved. The wind has to be judged and people have to be around to keep an eye on the burn and extinguish any areas that burn out of control. It is satisfying work. Within a matter of months the green shoots of recovery can be seen emanating from the blackened hillside. Ewes are soon grazing fresh, sweet new grass. This and other pre-lambing chores have been at the forefront of the mind these past few days. Work outdoors has been aided by the fourth week of calm, sunny days. Shetland has had a simply beautiful spell of weather. Lerwick harbour is choc-a-bloc with oil boats of every size and description. Petrovac who are building a new gas plant for the French giant Total at the Sullom Voe oil and gas terminal have floated an enormous accommodation barge into the harbour. A meeting of Shetland's tourism businesses discussed the availability of beds for visitors. Oil work means business tourism. It is often difficult to find a hotel bed in Aberdeen through a working week. So too with Shetland. Oil companies and contractors have taken long-term options on B&B's and guest houses. Total are building a four-star hotel near the oil terminal and plan to fill it for the first four years. So visitors to Lerwick encouraged by the scenery in Ann Cleeves" televised crime novels may struggle to find a bed. Normally Shetland is buffeted by south-westerly gales in April. But not in 2013. The good weather has pushed me outside. I have found myself strangely distant from the every minute cycle of broadcast and internet news. Catching Radio Shetland at 5:30pm and a quick bite of the 10pm television news bulletin has been enough. The news junkie in me has been sated. Not because of boredom with the world's happenings. We watched President Obama missing basket after basket on ITN the other night. But it is a reminder that there is a whole world that politicians do not see and usually forget. People go about their working lives without the need to have the news channel on all the time or the mobile scanning twitter. I am a better informed representative by forgetting 24-hour news channels and talking to people. That is how you hear the craic about a crofter's heather burning that went awry. Tavish Scott is Liberal Democrat MSP for Shetland