SO the ferries under construction in Ferguson shipyard are delayed yet again and costs continue to skyrocket, yet no-one gets sacked or admits responsibility for this utter shambles, which has done so much to undermine the credibility of the SNP as a competent government.
Personally, as an ex-Merchant Navy officer, I find it unbelievable and totally depressing. No private firm would have accepted such a financial fiasco without a major bout of sackings but it appears that the politicians, who have taken every possible wrong decision, continue to act as though it was “just one of those things” and no-one is to blame.
READ MORE: Ferguson Marine ferry further delayed by 'last-minute' changes
In the 1960s the company I served with (James Nourse Ltd) built a ship at Charles Connell’s yard on the Clyde. It was a cargo ship of 11,000 tons (ten times the size of these little ferries). It took six months to build, from keel laying to handover. This was normal. Nobody then would have believed that it would take six years to build a thousand-ton ferry.
James Duncan
Edinburgh
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