LAST week's Groat featured two prominent stories on the theme of why "local' is better than "national" or "Highland-wide".
On the front page Northern Constabulary held forth on why we should not support a Scotland-wide police force, and pages three and five sported stories on the theme of the Gaelic road sign row, which is often cited as a reason why Caithness should have more local power in the face of these terrible edicts from Inverness.
On the one hand, as someone from Caithness, I can see the merit in supporting power being held locally, whether that is in local government, the police or the health service. But on the other hand, who doesn't know of excess bureaucracy or incompetence that is being hidden in the county in order to keep jobs here?
Dounreay isn't the only place where, in years gone by, people sat around navel-gazing at the taxpayers' expense. But is it still happening today?
The truth is that we would probably rather see people sitting around doing nothing here in Caithness and getting paid for it than risk the jobs going south, and someone in the south sitting around doing nothing and being paid for it.
But changes have taken place in the county and it hasn't been all bad. Look at what happened to Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise when the enterprise network in Scotland wasn't seen to be up to the mark the whole network was severely pruned by the Government for not being effective enough. Meanwhile Dounreay has been under budget pressure for some time now and there is a lot more pressing work to be done on site nowadays than the analysis paralysis and making model Daleks that happened years ago.
Neither of these things were the end of the world.
Now the axe is hanging over Northern Constabulary, and how long can the Highland Council justify the size of its administration presence in Wick or, indeed, Inverness?
The Caithness Heat and Power (CHaP) fiasco demonstrated that there is more to scrutinising the Highland Council than looking at the councillors, as the officials have responsibility as well.
Maybe in these times of financial pressure we should be a little more discriminating about which public sector jobs we really want to support with our taxes, and how much of the private sector we should reward with public sector contracts.
In Caithness, there are some private businesses that do extremely well from being awarded public sector work. Good for them if I was in that position, I would do the same. But I wonder if the public really know how much is being spent on these contracts, instead of being told about the cost of a Gaelic road sign.
Meanwhile, back in the realms of law enforcement, I can fully understand why the local police have issued an interview saying that they don't support a single Scottish force. I would imagine that being sent to police a Rangers v Celtic match isn't exactly the most desirable thing for police officers here, let alone transferring their families from the beautiful Highlands and Islands to a city in the central belt to do a stint there.
But from the point of view of a member of the public, we hardly know our "bobbies on the beat", let alone why they should stay part of Northern Constabulary. I am none the wiser after reading about the local police's view in last week's Groat. I am not convinced that the general public feel anything about the mooted single police force.
Severe cuts in policing are to be expected with the cut in Northern Constabulary's funding, but would the single police force be any worse? The honest answer is that I don't know, and I haven't seen enough real evidence either way to make me respond to a consultation about it.
It is unfortunately the case that the public don't really see the "friendly bobby" any more and the connection between the public and the police is not what it was decades ago, as you rarely see police walking around or having the chance to talk as an everyday thing. The end result of this is that there may not be public sympathy for Northern Constabulary's stated position against a single police force.
One thing the single police force will never have, though, is the hysterical row over Gaelic road signs still going on at the council. It's a case of Gaelic road signs in Caithness today, peats for school dinners tomorrow and no TV on Sundays.
We have our own identity and language here in Caithness and it is quite simply a black-and-white issue of Norn... and the Queen's English... and Scots... but definitely and absolutely no Gaelic.
When it comes to Gaelic in Caithness (how could these two words co-exist in the same sentence!), local councillors get more worked up than they do about other issues in the county such as the schools review, the state of the roads, social work services, the standard of council housing stock, waste disposal and recycling, CHaP and the new Wick High School.
It's almost like the Gaelic row is a distraction to fill the absence of opinion about other important issues in the county. And better still it allows the finger to be pointed outwith Caithness.
Well, next Friday is Friday the 13th and it's being billed not just as an unlucky day, but Take Personal Responsibility Day.
Phil Olley (www.philolley.com), who claims to be a specialist in professional and personal focus, says Friday 13th is time to "stop seeking to blame and complain" and take personal responsibility for having a brilliant day.
Mr Olley claims: "Our blaming and complaining culture is not only becoming a pandemic but is damaging us, our friendships, our relationships, careers and even businesses.
"All really successful people begin by taking one fundamental step to realise and believe they are responsible for their own success whether that's business, showbiz, sporting or personal success. The top three per cent of successful people know that in the end it's down to them."
Alas, there is nothing on Mr Olley's website about how to manage the relationship between Caithness and the outside world, so we will just have to blunder along as best we can, taking personal responsibility if only for one day.
n Corrina Thomson can be contacted via Facebook.
