works and offices of the local newspaper, The Shetland Times, has been converted into a chapel. Jehovah’s Witnesses has a congregation and Kingdom Hall in Lerwick. Politics Shetland is represented in the House of Commons as part of the Orkney and Shetland constituency, which elects one Member of Parliament (MP). As of February 2021, and since 2001, the MP is Alistair Carmichael, a Liberal Democrat. He grew up on Islay, the son of hill farmers who raised sheep and cattle and worked at various occupations before running for election. This seat has been held by the Liberal Democrats or their predecessors the Liberal Party since 1950, longer than any other seat in the United Kingdom. In the Scottish Parliament the Shetland constituency elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post system. Tavish Scott of the Scottish Liberal Democrats had held the seat since the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. Beatrice Wishart MSP, also of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, was elected to replace Tavish Scott in August 2019. Shetland is within the Highlands and Islands electoral region. The political composition of the Shetland Islands Council is 21 Independents and 1 Scottish National Party. In the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom, Shetland voted to remain in the United Kingdom by the third largest margin of the 32 local authority areas, by 63.71% to 36.29% in favour of the Union. In the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, Shetland voted for the UK to remain an EU member state, with 56.5% voting to remain and 43.5% voting to leave. In comparison to the rest of Scotland, Shetland had lower-than-average support for remaining in the EU. The Wir Shetland movement was set up in 2015 to campaign for greater autonomy. In September 2020, the Shetland Islands Council voted 18–2 to explore replacing the council with a new system of government which controls a fairer share of the islands revenue streams and has a greater influence over their own affairs, which could include very lucrative oil fields and fishing waters. In 2022, as part of the Levelling Up White Paper, an "Island Forum" was proposed, which would allow local policymakers and residents in Shetland to work alongside their counterparts in Orkney, the Western Isles, Anglesey and the Isle of Wight on common issues, such as broadband connectivity, and provide a platform for