Scottish Referendum / Independence - Vol 11

Another ferry scandal. In competent times there are two ferries covering the Corran run. Currently the larger ferry is out of service. The smaller ferry has had a 3.5 ton weight limit put on it. So a huge corner of Scotland has no direct commercial vehicle access.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23372957.corra...

I wasn't aware of this until I heard a Mull resident in the radio talking about the general issues. She repeated the suggestion that what the islands need is more smaller vessels and more capacity and more frequent services. Not the CalMac model of big ships with extensive crew accomodations and catering.

Indeed, the article refers to Highland Council. But the other issues about Mull - lack of capacity and not frequent enough services are CalMac.

Her defenders will fall back on the fact she won elections. She did – over the medium term the Sturgeon Show was persuasive. But the SNP would have won those elections anyway and it is debatable how much she added to results that weren’t going to lead to a Labour Scottish Government anyway. Plus she went on to convert those wins into… nothing.

No. Take away the bluster and what is left is worse than a total lack of substance. It is almost uninterrupted failure from start to finish with hardly a positive anyone can come up with. Even her final ‘defining mission’ of gender recognition reform has been not only fluffed but probably fatally damaged.

Sturgeon has been an unmitigated disaster for this country. The rate of collapse of her reputation and credibility once her power and control were removed tells you everything. Nothing is better. Scotland is in a mess, its reputation harmed along with hers.

But there is one thing more than anything I resent her for and that is what she has done for the cause of independence. Between Brexit and Boris and Truss and the state of the UK, it is really hard to think we’re going to get a more propitious time to progress the cause of independence.

Unfortunately rather than do that Sturgeon chewed up that cause, absorbed its vitality and spat it out undigested. She traded Scotland’s chance to become an independent country for the sake of her own vanity and we will never get that opportunity back.

For that, for all of it, I will never forgive her for what she has done.

I don't think the Islanders care how the Scottish govt chooses to organise the delivery of ferry services. They just want better services. At the end of the day the SNP have been in power long enough to own this problem. They can't blame levers/Toarees/Westminster.