DOUGLAS Ross is a desperate man.

His Scottish Tory manifesto is a naked bid to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in Aberdeenshire, attacking the SNP 88 times in fewer pages and ditching Westminster issues altogether to rubbish the Scottish Government’s record in rural Scotland.

As ever that’s quite a cheek, when Westminster austerity of either stripe will imperil livelihoods across the north for decades – except that is, for a few ‘lucky’ cherry-picked projects.

But the SNP would be wise not to turn a blind eye to all of this.

Very real problems are mounting up and if the Scottish Government doesn’t pay attention, the next Westminster government doubtless will – bypassing Holyrood completely.

This week a Highland SNP manifesto recognised the “unique challenges” faced by Highlanders and promised “a prosperous future for everyone in the region” whilst also promoting Scottish independence.

READ MORE: SNP launch Highland manifesto with pledge to undo damage done by Brexit

That will take some doing if big domestic problems aren’t getting sorted.

Take Shetland, where locals aren’t just complaining about the poor state of inter-island ferries – they want shot of them altogether to build tunnels instead.

Folk on the northern isles of Unst and Yell are already fundraising to start that effort – so urgent is their demand for reliable, round-the-clock connection with Shetland to halt depopulation. Of course, they expect their own council and the Scottish Government to come in with funding.

But there’s a snag – the Scottish Government says new inter-island fixed links are a business case, planning and finance problem for Shetland Isles Council (SIC). But SIC don’t have the cash and islanders have been told the council feasibility process could take five years.

And so it drags on and on. And all the while, people quietly leave.

Indeed, the Yell and Unst Tunnel Action Groups believe SIC has vested interests in a ferry-operated status quo. After all, if they don’t make a profit, the Scottish Government provides a generous subsidy (£20m per annum which covers 90% of operating costs). But that ferry subsidy must be renewed annually and may not last forever.

So, islanders want to bite the bullet and opt for tunnels now and they’re furious that the Scottish Government’s “not our problem” funding rule “creates a two-tier system within our island nation of those with access to national capital funding and those (like Shetland) without”.

Islanders don’t expect to get the tunnels free. They’re ready to pay the same in tunnel tolls as they pay for ferry fares today, advocating the Faroese model which used a stand-alone company rather than local councils or the Faroese government. The trouble is that way, the council would earn nothing.

Perhaps councillors feel that a ferry subsidy in the hand is worth two tunnels under the sea. But that stops these go-ahead isles becoming tunnel test cases for the whole UK.

There’s no doubt tunnels have completely transformed the fortunes of the neighbouring Faroes since they started building 60 years ago. Now they have 22 tunnels (four sub-sea) connecting five islands with two others accessible by causeways.

READ MORE: MPs to visit Faroes to scope out idea of tunnels linking Scottish islands

It means 88% of the population is linked to the services and higher-paid jobs in Tórshavn. One tunnel, completed in 2020, boasts the world’s first undersea roundabout. Another, completed this winter, links tiny Sandoy (population 1200) via a 10.8km tunnel to the main island.

Now isolated communities are just a 30-minute drive away, and 40 new house sites on Sandoy have attracted 70 applicants.

This is the leap forward Unst and Yell want for themselves. The tunnel to Sandoy cost £150m – £125k for every islander. But they also helped finance the effort – commercial vehicles paid £20 each way with “frequent traveller” discounts.

So why can’t the northern isles of Shetland follow suit?

The answer to islanders seems to be – because they’re part of go slower, sluggish and unresponsive Scotland. And that’s why this is more than a little local difficulty. Being stuck with second-class services is a major source of discontent with the Scottish Government and thus the wider case for independence.

All parties were in support of tunnels at a recent election hustings but local LibDem MP Alistair Carmichael (below) and MSP Beatrice Wishart are already seeking money from Westminster which part-funded a replacement Fair Isle ferry and will obviously feel no pain rubbing the Scottish Government’s nose in it again.

There’s one solution – action from Holyrood.

There are many reasons to make these islands Scotland’s tunnelling pioneers.

First, the inter-island fleet is old. Two vessels are 40 years old, seven are 30-plus. A change is needed – the question is ferries or tunnels.

Secondly, a quarter of ferry posts are currently vacant, because aquaculture – shellfish and finfish – pays locals better. Indeed, the Yell harbour of Cullivoe is the ninth largest in Scotland. Who knew?

Meanwhile the single status agreement imposed by the Scottish Government means ferries can’t bump up pay to compete – though weirdly enough, tugs can. So agency staff fae sooth are running the ferries without really knowing the limits and quirks of these old vessels. That means weeks with just one ferry operating not two, frequent breakdowns, no booking facility (so fingers crossed) and the ferry sometimes tying up at 2pm because there’s no engineer.

In turn, that means constant anxiety about a medical emergency, difficulty reaching hospital appointments, care staff whose shifts don’t fit the timetable, young folk who can’t attend social events in Lerwick and owners who can’t be sure shellfish just landed can head south the same day.

READ MORE: Subsea tunnels between Shetland isles 'could boost economy and green ambitions'

Such uncertainty means just one thing – depopulation.

And that’s something locals are determined to avoid.

I visited Yell last month at the invitation of the feisty Alice Mathewson, Joint Chair of the Unst Tunnel Action Group (UTAG), to show a film about the Faroes made five years ago with Al McMaster of Phantom Power. It was quite a night.

Even though the Unst Spaceport was officially launched the same day, the hall on Yell was jam-packed with Unst folk and locals.

Duncan Gray has a 22-year-old son and said he thinks day and night about the nightmare of a completely empty island with all his family gone. Depopulation is a visceral thing – it’s why so many people firmly believe tunnels are the last chance to save their islands.

Because that was the experience in the Faroes.

Originally, sceptics there worried that tunnels would suck the lifeblood from outer island communities – but the opposite happened. Attracted by more affordable housing, access to land and a more relaxed lifestyle, families moved away from Torshavn and helped to reverse depopulation on father flung islands.

The result is impressive. Since 1988, the Faroese population has risen by 15% – particularly in tunnel-connected islands – but there’s been a 45% fall on Unst and a 19% fall on Yell, with twice the proportion of pensioners as Faroese Eysturoy – connected to the main island in 2020.

According to Andrew Nisbet from North Yell, part of a delegation to the Faroes last year: “Our inspiring Scandinavian neighbours have been tunnelling for decades, while Scotland appears to have become a nation of risk-averse report writers. The costs being quoted here are far beyond those quoted by Faroese and Norwegian tunnelling experts –not even in the same ballpark.”

Graham Hughson, joint chair of Yell Tunnel Action Group (YTAG), says: “A major factor is the level of risk added to tunnel projects in the UK – but that can be reduced through geological mapping, so we’re fundraising to start that work soon.”

Great. But why should islanders have to forge ahead, like Eigg in the days before devolution, without support from their own council or their own government?

Some worry tunnel traffic will increase carbon emissions but locals believe they will reduce thanks to abundant local supplies of green energy to power electric cars.

Meanwhile, the tunnelling expertise acquired by local companies could help develop other tunnel routes on the Western Isles, Mull and across the UK.

Fixed links are the future.

The Scottish Government and Shetland Isles Council can embrace that, or watch a new savvy Labour government cement a long-distance relationship with the Northern Isles and bask in the kudos instead.

Which will it be?