My reply to the Queen's letter of 23 August 2007:
SOUL
C/o Bardview, Ocraquoy, Cunningsburgh, Shetland ZE2 9HA.
Tel. XXXXXXXXX Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Website www.udallaw.com
Her Majesty The Queen
Buckingham Palace
The Mall
London
Your Majesty,
Shetland and Orkney
Thank you for your reply to my letter of 6th May.
I have so far not received replies from the Right Honourable Lord Falconer of Thoroton, The Scottish Executive, or the Secretary of State for Justice, to all of whom my correspondence to you has been variously referred.
As far as I am aware, the 1669 Act of Annexation has not been repealed, and because of its wording could not be repealed. The Act states that the people of the islands ‘should have an immediate dependence upon his Majesty and his officers’. King Charles II decreed that this shall be ‘for all time coming’, a phrase he uses six times.
The 1707 Act of Union cannot have applied in Shetland since the 1669 Act states:
And if the faid Earledome and Lordfhip or any parte therof shall be annalied or difponed, or any right of the fame fhall he granted otherways then is appointed and ordained in maner above mentioned His Maiestie with confent forfaid Doth Statute and Declare That all difpofitions infeftments and other rights of the faid Earledom & Lordfhip, or any parte therof which fhall be granted contrarie to this prefent Act with all acts of diffolution and Ratification & other acts of Parliamt concerning the fame shall be from the begining & in all tyme coming voyd and null and of no effect.
Further, the 1707 Act of Union in its list of burghs, starts with Kirkwall in the north – neglecting to mention Shetland at all. There would therefore appear to be no constitutional basis for Shetland to have any relationship with the United Kingdom, except as an ‘immediate dependence’ on Your Majesty.
If Your Majesty is unwilling to deal with this matter personally, I will be grateful if you will pass this correspondence to an appropriate direct representative of Your Majesty who is not part of Parliament or the government, since it cannot properly concern either.
I remain,
Yours faithfully,
Stuart Hill, Chairman of Shetland and Orkney Udal Law Association.
The Queen's reply is here.