But never mind, as the Scottish taxpayer was once again on hand to pay for the cost overruns. Once bitten, twice shy, you might think. But no, Scottish Nationalist Party politicians hate the prospect of embarrassing shipyard closures in their core constituency in an election year almost as much as they love expensive motorhomes and corrupt spouses (allegedly).
Aid me now! Sugar daddy steps in
Last week, the Scottish taxpayer once again came to the aid of Ferguson, as we reported on Friday. By direct award, the Scottish Government, free of those pesky European rules on open tendering for public contracts thanks to Brexit, awarded four new vessel contracts to Ferguson.
The yard will not be funded to construct the replacements for the research vessel Scotland and the fisheries protection vessel To go for the Marine Directorate, alongside two ferries for its long-suffering long-standing customer CalMac under the next phase of its small vessel replacement programme for ferries to the isles.
The government said the contracts match to the yard’s current capabilities (I am not clear on what these capabilities are, other than charging a fortune for projects that overrun by years) and would take up most of its capacity for the next five years (conveniently past the next election as well…), whilst also, “enabling the yard to pursue additional commercial opportunities.”
Commercial opportunities have so far evaded the yard for a decade now, as commercial customers value on-time and on-budget delivery. Things can only get betterperhaps?
Maritime action plan is straight out of the Scottish playbook
American readers take note, under the new maritime action plan launched last month, you are likely going to find yourself in the same position. The second bullet point of the plan begins with, “use and increase funding for federal credit and grant authorities to lower the financial barriers shipyards and critical suppliers face.”
This is exactly what the Scottish Government has done. We know where this ends.
In Edinburgh, the authorities argued that more state contracts will, “help secure a sustainable future for the yard and strengthen Scottish shipbuilding.”
Karoline Leavitt might want to cut and paste those words, appropriately edited, for future use.
Background reading
Our 2022 coverage of the Scottish Ferry Fiasco began here, and other updates can be found here and here.
Our founder Dr Neil Baird wrote this piece last year on The Continuing Case Against Government Ownership of Ferries.
