First, the ferry sad news. With a blast on the horn, the MV Hebridean Isles sailed out of Stornoway for the last time, bound for the Clyde and a broker’s yard.

Ferries attract affection when they serve islands well. The Hebridean Isles came into that category. Built for the Uig-Lochmaddy-Tarbert triangle, there are fond memories of the crew organising events on board to support local charities and of a reliable CalMac friend.

Then she spent 15 years serving Islay, with an equally good reputation. Only in recent times did it all go wrong. Alas! When she should have been heading for dignified retirement, the Hebridean Isles was pressed into ever-more-demanding service, to cover gaps in the ageing fleet.

Just short of her 40th birthday, the poor old thing was costing a fortune to maintain and deemed unfit for anything other than the broker’s yard. It is an unworthy end for a vessel that epitomised CalMac at its best.

The Hebridean Isles was launched in Yorkshire when Mrs Thatcher was Prime Minister. It remains a curiosity that there are more vessels in the current CalMac fleet commissioned under the Thatcher and Major governments than have been delivered during 17 years of the SNP. It all started to go wrong around 2011.

Read more by Brian Wilson

Until then, no matter who was in government, ferry procurement was a routine duty rather than a political stunt. If it had stayed that way, the islands would have been spared their economic and social suffering. There were other options to maintain the Ferguson yard, without inflicting a reputational calamity.

So now........

© Herald Scotland