There has been more ferry chaos this week for Scotland’s beleaguered island communities, so much so that it now looks like the Scottish government is bringing in the Ministry of Defence to help with the fallout. One senior SNP MP, Ian Blackford, has urged military bosses to provide a ‘short-term solution’ to the ferry network breakdown. Blackford’s pleas come after warnings that, with further disruption to services, Highland companies could be at risk of going bust.
On top of this, this last week has seen days of disruption after the MV Loch Seaforth, state owned ferry operator CalMac’s largest vessel, developed problems with its engine control system. The boat is the main vessel linking the Isle of Lewis to the mainland.
Commenting on the breakdown, Helen Sandison, who runs the Western Isles Cancer Care Initiative, highlighted the case of one patient and the impact it had on them. ‘We had one service user today who was due to start chemo in Inverness,’ Sandison explained to the BBC. ‘They were already disrupted because of the Loganair flights to Inverness have been disrupted for the past few weeks, so they were having to travel by ferry and book an overnight stay which they wouldn’t have had to have done if the flights were operational. That chemo tomorrow has been cancelled – it’s an added stress and worry for a patient who was ready to start their treatment.’
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Scotland’s Clyde and Hebrides ferry services operate under public ownership and are run by a combination of Transport Scotland, ferry operator CalMac and procurement body Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd, which are both owned by the state. The ‘lifeline’ ferry services are thought too important to be touched by the private sector. The problem is the state, at least under SNP administration, has completely failed in its responsibilities, and Scotland’s islanders are paying the price.
A third of CalMac’s ferries are more than 30 years old, and about half of its largest ships are running beyond their expected service life. Breakdowns and disruptions to service are now a regular occurrence. Irate islanders have watched in disbelief as the scandal surrounding the Ferguson shipyard in Glasgow has unfolded. Two big new ferries should have been in service years ago. Instead, costs have spiralled into the hundreds of millions while the vessels have gone from crisis to crisis amid allegations of a contract rigged for political purposes. The boats are still nowhere near finished, and the future of the nationalised Ferguson shipyard appears at best precarious.
Scotland’s islanders have had enough of the SNP’s incompetence. Speaking on Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland show last month, Isle of Mull resident Naomi Knight, whose family runs a marine services business, said: ‘We’re basically feeling that we’re being driven from the island and have a total loss of confidence in the ferry service. It is that bad. It’s been deteriorating for years, which most people are aware of, but it’s got steadily worse, and we’re basically in the midst of a ferry crisis across the west coast of Scotland.’
She added: ‘We’ve got to accept we’ve got challenges living on an island and we accept that, but we’ve got multiple challenges. CMAL are making strategic mistakes. CalMac are making operational mistakes. Meanwhile, the Scottish Government are pretending that there are no mistakes, resulting in the islands having a third-world ferry service.’
Unfortunately for islanders like Ms Knight, ferry services look to be far down the list of priorities for Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s new first minister. One of his first actions in office was to drop the transport portfolio from his cabinet. Scotland has had a transport minister since devolution. Yousaf himself was transport minister between 2016 and 2018. The downgrading of the role to junior ministership under the underwhelming MSP Kevin Stewart signals a head-in-the-sand approach to the ferries crisis.
Why bother making life better for Scotland’s minority of islanders when there are populist battles to be fought over the constitution? That attitude could, and should, come back to bite the SNP.
Opposition parties sense an opportunity. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar visited the Western Isles this week to talk up SNP ferries incompetence. They see an opportunity to take SNP MP Angus MacNeil’s Na h-Eileanan an Iar seat (the constituency area of the Outer Hebrides) at the next Westminster election. Ian Blackford’s constituency of Ross, Skye and Lochaber could also potentially change hands. Although Skye has a road bridge to the mainland, voters in the constituency are still keenly aware of the SNP’s failings when it comes to island communities. The seat was a Lib-Dem stronghold under Charles Kennedy and could return to its liberal roots.
If the SNP are booted out of western islands, it will be a well-deserved comeuppance for the party’s complete disregard for Scotland’s islanders. The ferries fiasco is the scandal that should have brought down the SNP long before we got to police raids and seizing a luxury campervan.
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April 16, 2023 at 12:45PM
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Scotland's ferry network is sinking, and taking the SNP with it - The Spectator
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