Ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne has been accused of "wrecking a way of life" by running the Sunday service between North Uist and South Harris.
Sunday trading is still pretty much banned in the Western Isles, except in the more sensible Catholic parts. Sunday flights to Stornoway by BA/Loganair and BMI only started in 2002. Apparently, even watching TV on Sunday is frowned upon by the local Free Church.
Not everyone in the Western Isles is like this: after all, if there wasn't a market for it Caledonian MacBrayne wouldn't be running the bloody ferry and BMI wouldn't be flying a 60-seater plane there. The local fundamentalists have got a stranglehold over the council, however, and will raise a stink if they don't get their way.
Unsurprisingly, the Western Isles have got one of the highest alcoholism rates in Scotland. Can't think why.
[For a laugh, check out this BBC Have Your Say discussion, which like all Have Your Say has "political correctness" complaints and entertainingly bad "if the Muslims did it, would you be complaining?" arguments.]
F L I C K E R I N G / F R A M E 
I come from mainland Scotland but have lived on Lewis for a number of years.
I can tell you that the majority of people here welcome the introduction of an alternative method of leaving the island on a Sunday. The flights are at present far too costly. The poll on the messageboard for the Hebridean Celtic Festival shows the support that a Sunday ferry has from the people themselves.
It would be of much greater benefit however, if the ferry was running from Stornoway to Ullapool. (This still leaves however, the ban on public buses running on a Sunday to get you to the ferry.)
However, as you correctly say, the council are made up of church elders etc. who are against any activity on a Sunday. (The very first convener of the Western Isles Council was a minister.) Here, even music and dance (which some fundamentalists ban from their homes altogether)are considered as ‘devillish’. Local children are kept indoors on a Sunday (even in the summer) and at one time, the swings in Stornoway park were chained up every Sunday to prevent children using them.
There is a considerable amount of resentment to incoming people who do not conform to ‘local ways’ and are considered to be destroying the island way of life. This results in some very unpleasant behaviour on the part of the locals. The introduction of the Sunday ferry is, as they see it, just another nail in the coffin for their ‘way of life’. They are already very unhappy that incomers are changing things here.
What is sad, is that the local people who do wish to have more freedom in their lives, are too afraid to speak out.
It is also important to point out that the desperate unemployment levels here are compounded by the councils refusal to allow Sunday travel, as this results in prospective employers refusing to consider the Western Isles as a base on which to establish themselves.