There are big things going on in the world including wars and the leader of the largest nation of the free world blundering around casing chaos but, sometimes, we need to focus on matters closer to home.

The Scottish Government has decided to award Caledonian MacBrayne the contract to run Scotland's ferries, excluding those to the Northern Isles, for a further 10 years. There will be no competition to allow other potential operators to bid for the services either as a whole or for individual routes.

This is a cowardly disgrace and a disaster for our island communities. This is not the fault of those who work at CalMac, it is the fault of the owner of Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited ("CMAL") which owns most of the vessels and the owner of CalMac which operates them. In both cases the owner is the Scottish Government. 100 per cent. For many years. There are no excuses.

The CalMac fleet essentially divides into two.

First, a number of small vessels which ply the shorter more sheltered routes like Largs to Cumbrae or Portavadie to Tarbert. They shuttle back and forth sometimes singly and sometimes in pairs. They are getting a bit long in the tooth so they do break down rather too often but in general they are fit for purpose. They have a small crew who do not live aboard. They all run on fossil fuels.

Read more

© Herald Scotland