It would be pleasing to report that National Geographic’s designation of the Outer Hebrides as a “Best in the World” destination for 2025 was greeted with dancing in the streets of Lochboisdale. Sadly, it would not be true.

“Just give us a ferry” would have been a more likely response. The gap between tourism hype and harsh realities is nothing new and should have been learned from by now. Building places up as “destinations” without the infrastructure to match brings its own problems.

The Visit Scotland press release gushed proudly: “For decades, the Outer Hebrides has attracted visitors from every corner of the globe, who are drawn to its beautiful beaches and coastline, breath-taking scenery and crystal clear waters, unique Hebridean culture and Gaelic language, history and wildlife…”.

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Fortunately, none of the above was dependent on Visit Scotland for its creation. More prosaically, that organisation’s most conspicuous recent contribution has been to close their last visitor information centre in the Western Isles, leaving a gap in the middle of Stornoway and a faded sign saying “Failte”. I would be curious to know if any of the other 24 “Best in the World” destinations listed by National Geographic is devoid of such an elementary facility to welcome and inform those who alight upon these places. Maybe Visit Scotland could engage consultants to find out.

The Scottish Government’s business minister, Richard Lochhead, joined in the auction of purple prose: “From the iconic Barra beach landing to the stunning castles, Harris Tweed and the blue seas that envelope Scotland’s Long Island, there are many reasons to visit”.

All very true, but it does rather beg a question: if these islands are endowed with so many wonderful features (which they are), and if they are such a magnificent asset to Scotland (which they are), why are they treated with patronising disdain in every form of decision-making which would allow them to thrive economically and culturally for the people who try to live there?

Why should their pricelessness and distinctiveness be so glowingly recognised in response to a bit of tourism PR when it is not remotely ingrained in the philosophy of government? Why after 25 years of devolution to Edinburgh do so many in these islands feel more remote from influence over decisions that affect them than before it existed?

Tourism is an important element of the Hebridean economy but it is far from being the only one. Like every other industry and public service, it depends on workers being available to make it function. It will take more than press releases to reverse demographic trends or keep people on islands, who want to be there.

The ongoing ferries debacle is the highest-profile manifestation of how policy, minutely controlled from Edinburgh, fails the islands. It is impossible to imagine that a shipping company located and managed within the area it serves could not do infinitely better at much less cost.

That option is good enough for every other coastal region with ferry services to operate. Only here must the dead hand of centralisation run the show - then shirk responsibility. No minister or civil servant has paid any price for the hardships they have inflicted on Scotland’s islands.

It is doubtful if there were many tourists on the west side of North Uist last weekend to observe the ritual flooding of the Baleshare causeway. That is not a subject which will keep anyone in Edinburgh awake at night but it is of crucial importance to a crofting community which depends entirely on a 350-yard link constructed in 1962.

Thirty years ago, the replacement of that structure to modern standards would have been normal. Now it is impossible; a running story with no end in sight. Why? Because the local authority has no money for any capital works. That doesn’t make the scenery any less breath-taking but it does erode fragile places, living on the edge.

Local government in general has done very badly under SNP rule but due to some warped formula, the Western Isles has done worse than anywhere else: a 14 per cent real terms cut over the past decade. No number of beautiful beaches can compensate for the damage this inflicts on services and, ultimately, through ongoing depopulation and an ageing demography.

Islands punch vastly above their weight in terms of Scotland’s global image yet, collectively, the numbers who live on them barely touch six figures. Far from being financial liabilities, they account for vastly more revenue than expense - from Shetland’s oil down to Islay’s whisky with fishing and aquaculture along the way, before we get to tourism and much, much more.

Increasingly, that “much, much more” will include vast contributions to the nation’s supply of electricity, as interconnectors link offshore and onshore windfarms into the National Grid, tipping the balance sheet even further in the direction of island profitability. Yet, once again, there is no evidence of any plan to match infrastructure to industry or sustainable futures.

A worker at the Bruichladdich distillery on IslayA worker at the Bruichladdich distillery on Islay (Image: Getty)

Islands are complex places which do not answer to urban solutions. All common sense suggests that the best way to govern them is through maximum devolution to where these complexities exist and are well understood. Yet, on every front, the exact opposite is happening.

Decades before oil was heard of, Norway had a philosophy of keeping people in its peripheral communities which was reflected through public investment and dispersal of public sector jobs. Nothing remotely similar has happened here. If you spoke to 95 per cent of MSPs about “job dispersal to the periphery”, they would think you were talking a foreign language.

So let us be grateful to National Geographic for recognising what the islands can offer to the world. But let us also recognise our own need for a radical rethink of why peripheral places matter and the respect they deserve. Otherwise, the beaches and scenery will survive but the people, history and, of course, that “unique Hebridean culture” will become increasingly hard to find except in Visit Scotland guide books.

Brian Wilson is a former Labour Party politician. He was MP for Cunninghame North from 1987 until 2005 and served as a Minister of State from 1997 to 2003.