Herald on Sunday letters: dog ownership, pensions, and time to admit defeat on ferries

As the article states, the original (very high) £97 million contracted price for the two ferries is now estimated at over £300 million. What has not been mentioned, however, is that, as these over-specified vessels cannot berth at existing terminals, and a further sum of some £120 million has been earmarked for terminal alterations. This means that the total cost for these two replacement ferries is now approaching half a billion pounds! I repeat half a billion pounds for two replacement ferries.

Apart from this fundamental design flaw, these ships are designed for a capacity of 1,000 passengers served by up to 40 live-aboard crew. It is true that on a very few days of the year the 50 minute Arran run for which Glen Sannox is destined, caters for quite large flows of day trippers, a demand that could be handled by other means. On the other hand no sailing on the Lochmaddy (N Uist) – Uig (Skye) – Tarbert (Harris) service, for which the second vessel 802 is intended, has ever carried more than 312 passengers. So why this huge over provision of capacity and crewing that will result in unnecessar operating costs and state subsidies for the life of the vessel.

It is interesting that Andrew Banks, owner of Pentland Ferries, took delivery from Vietnam of his new 98-car, 420-passenger, 14-crew catamaran ferry Alfred for the exposed Pentland Firth crossing between Caithness and Orkney at a cost of £14.5 million, a tenth the cost of one of the Ferguson behemoths and on a two-year delivery. Pentland Ferries’ service operates without subsidy in competition with the heavily subsidised Hamnavoe originally conceived by CalMac and now operated by Serco NorthLink. Not only has Pentland Ferries captured the bulk of the passenger, car and commercial traffic on the Firth, but it emits one quarter the CO2 per crossing and during the storms of this January and February, sailed when Hamnavoe did not.

When CMAL made a presentation a few years ago for options for the Ardrossan – Brodick (Arran) service, a 762-passenger 80-car catamaran design by world beating Sea Transport Solutions was dismissed because it allegedly had a deadweight (i.e. payload) of only 200 tons and a capacity for only four trucks. The actual deadweight of the vessel as confirmed by Sea Transport is 440 tons which is more than enough to cater for any load recorded as being carried on the route to date or indeed anticipated in future. Had CMAL not made this mistake we could have had four such proven economic and environmentally friendly vessels offering greater service capacity and frequency, built in a UK/Scottish yard for the outstanding price of the current Ferguson project and still have quarter of a billion pounds change. As I recommended to the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee hearing: “Scrap Glen Sannox and 802 and start again with more sensible spec vessels."

Roy Pedersen

Inverness

Globalisation is dead – long live self-sufficiency

What the pandemic has taught us is that every country will have to return to an economy which is virtually self-sufficient in the bare-bones essentials

Globalisation has led to outsourcing to acquire products at the cheapest possible price, but that golden goose has laid its last eggs.

For some reason, the UK put all its eggs in the single basket of financial services and that has left our economy floundering in the wake of the current crisis in that we are by no means self-sufficient in the production of PPE – a deficiency which is making a sorry impact upon our frontline staff in both hospitals and care homes.

Global supply lines have been rendered insecure in the current crisis and the consequences have been aggravated by panic buying.

There is before us the prospect of crops and soft fruit rotting in our fields as a result of the shortage of imported labour, there being a strange reluctance on the part of our indigenous population to take on such seasonal employment.

We also have a dearth of spare car parts owing to the unreliability, occasioned by the ravages of the virus, of our just-in-time supply chains

There will have to be a reconfiguration of, and renaissance in, our economy so we have the capability to manufacture the vital elements required to keep the nation functioning in times of crisis and lockdown.

We must abandon the search for the cheapest suppliers of essentials, even if this pushes up our national cost of living.

It is now clear that outsourcing of supplies and the emphasis upon privatisation have had their day, and our new normal must now take on board that, as a nation, we must strive to be self-sufficient in the bread and butter essentials of our daily lives.

Denis Bruce

Bishopbriggs

Oh the irony, Mr Mundell!

There was something wonderfully ironic in David Mundell being unable to connect to last Wednesday’s "online" Prime Minister’s Questions due to "internet problems". It is isn’t really surprising because many rural areas in Scotland have poor broadband and mobile phone service, and Mr Mundell lives in a rural area.

However, telecommunications, which covers broadband and mobile phone services, is a Westminster responsibility. The Conservative government policy is to encourage telecommunications companies to invest in providing services in the hope that the companies will make a return on their investment from subscribers. Where this may be unlikely, for example in rural areas, the government will consider funding investment – but they have no objection to other bodies such as the Scottish government, local authorities or communities funding investment. Nevertheless, it remains a Westminster responsibility.

We should now look at who was responsible for implementing Westminster policy in Scotland for most of the period 2015-2019. Oh, that would be the Secretary of State for Scotland – David Mundell! Mind you, as my UK parliament constituency shares a border with Mr Mundell’s, I sometimes received Conservative Party leaflets in which he complained about broadband. Perhaps nobody told him it was his responsibility.

Douglas Morton

Lanark

An example from Germany?

One of my cousins resides and works in Germany for the bulk of the year but the balance in her house in Skye. She is a fervent supporter of the SNP – so much so that I have often commented that she must wear tartan undergarments – but she is an even greater supporter of Germany.

We have often come to verbal blows over her criticism of the UK Government as a whole while she sidesteps criticism of the Scottish Government. During our last communication she insisted that the UK populace were being treated like rhubarb – "kept in the dark etc" – which I denied, and we eventually got to the subject of our handling/mishandling of testing.

I was actually almost defending our position on same until I read your article on daily airport arrivals in Scotland (Herald on Sunday, April 19), 2,399 using the figures you published excluding oil rig staff, and could not believe the gross incompetence in this respect from our Scottish Government, which has so far shown its own separate, more sensible lead in many other respects. What then I wonder are the figures for the rest of the UK ?

George Dale

Beith

Full scrutiny is essential

Recent news of a significant number of deaths in Scottish care homes is deeply shocking. I have no doubt that Scottish government, just like the UK government and others around the world, is doing its absolute utmost to minimise the terrible impact of the virus.

But I would hope that, rather than cutting off journalists asking important questions at her daily coronavirus briefings, Nicola Sturgeon allows her decisions and those of her administration to be fully scrutinised.

Martin Redfern

Edinburgh

In defence of dog ownership

On a lighter, though nevertheless serious, note, I take issue with Clark Cross on his demand that dogs are always kept on a lead (Letters, April 19). Has he given any consideration to the person on the other end of the lead? Even when walking with the dog close at heel one can be suddenly and unexpectedly yanked to a standstill by a fascinating smell from a lamppost or pillar box.

I would maintain that almost all incidents of dogs doing harm are caused by owners who put too much faith in the obedience of their dog and forget that it thinks like a dog with a dog’s instinctive reaction which we temper by good training. Sadly, I accept that there are some occasions where a child is attacked, but I believe that this may have the same root cause.

When a dog hears the cries of a small, wriggling baby, it is perhaps possible that it thinks of the baby like a squeaky toy which it normally tosses around and chews. Unfortunately, much of the play with dogs is based on their instinct to catch and subdue prey.

With this in mind, a truly responsible owner takes no chances, keeps their dog on a lead near farm animals and only lets it exercise freely where the situation has been carefully assessed and there is no risk to any person or animal. Personally, I regularly let my dog run free in a wide open space with other dogs that she knows, but call her in – she comes instantly – and put the lead on when approaching small children, animals, other dogs we do not know, or dogs already on a lead. I can then ensure, when I let her off again, that it is safe to do so and she can get the amount of exercise she needs for her health, normally three or four times the distance I can manage.

Besides, does Mr Cross believe that only those fit to run at dog speed over several miles on the other end of a lead should have a dog? Such a rule as he suggests would deprive many elderly and disabled folk of the only company they have in their isolated lives.

P Davidson

Falkirk

Private sector pensions: if only ...

Alastair Galloway and other readers make many cogent points about the viability of public sector pensions, and say that "we should level up not down" regarding private sector pensions (Letters, April 19) – but he seems to forget a number of points.

He cites the example of his father who retired in 1975, which is an era when employees worked for 40 years but were unlikely to enjoy their pension for more than five to seven years. Today we are all living much longer and public sector employees who can retire at 60 will enjoy their pension for 20 to 25 years. They pay 9% of salary less tax, and the taxpayer pays the balance – 32%.

Public sector employees who have access to a final salary index linked pension should in fairness contribute a higher proportion of their salary than at present.

Alastair also says that public sector pensions are "pay as you go", but many pensions are not fully funded and are paid out of revenue, and many others which are funded have a major deficit. Private sector pension funds must make good any deficit over a period.

One final point that Mr Galloway et al does not mention is that in 1997 Gordon Brown took £5bn per annum out of private sector pension funds, by taxing dividends etc which previously were received gross. Over the last 23 years this equates to £115,000,000,000.

What would pensions in the private sector be if these funds had been retained ?

James Macintyre

Linlithgow