Let’s be clear the MV Pentalina which ran aground yesterday was built in the Philippines and the MV Arnold which ran aground last year was built in Vietnam, because cheap labour and lower standards enabled a cheaper deal than you’d get on the Clyde, for private company Pentland Ferries.
The Scottish Government could not intervene to encourage their building in Scotland.
Despite the above clear facts, BBC Scotland allow this:
Scottish Conservative MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston, who is from Orkney, said the incident exposed the “pitiful lack of resilience in Scotland’s ferry network”.
He said: “The Pentalina was only summoned back into action this week because the MV Alfred had to be seconded from Pentland Ferries to help plug gaps in the ageing, unreliable CalMac fleet.
“While it will be important to know just how this incident came about, my immediate concern is for what this means for Orkney and how long this vital link for our islands will be severed.”
He added: “There are a number of questions the Scottish government needs to answer, including whether the £9m agreement between CalMac and Pentland Ferries allows for the MV Alfred to be recalled to Orkney early, or if the Alfred will stay on the west coast and Orkney will be left without a key service.”
Orkney MSP Liam McArthur said there were also important questions for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to answer over the fact that it had recently inspected and certified the Pentalina as fit for service.
He added: “Answers are required too from the Scottish government whose failure to procure new ferries in a timely fashion has left services both in the north and on the west coast extremely vulnerable. As a result islanders and island communities are left paying the price.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-65441218
The Scottish Government has no role in this at all. The attempt to blame them for corporate failures is pure propaganda.
Talking-up Scotland / Scottish media fact checking is like shooting fish in a barrel 
As commented hours ago on the earlier piece, this setup was obvious from HMS James Cook running the original piece overnight in prime spot on both pages with links to the previous two stories….
As for Liam McArthur’s “Answers are required too from the Scottish government whose failure to procure new ferries in a timely fashion has left services both in the north and on the west coast extremely vulnerable. As a result islanders and island communities are left paying the price.”
?
As Deputy Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, I suspect Liam has questions to answer also…
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According to the Unionist press,Scotland is one of the baddest countries in the world to live in.
Our public services and infrastructure are disintegrating and it’s all down to that really bad SNP government.
Things would be so much better if London took back direct rule over Scotland since their representatives have failed to maintain control of the assembly in Holyrood.
As far as their insinuation that Orkney has been cut off from the mainland,there is another privately owned service that runs between Scrabster and Stromness.
Perhaps if some of the money London has squandered on grandiose projects designed to boost it’s sense of self importance had been used instead to boost public services,we wouldn’t be having many of these problems.
Oh well,back to feeling really bad again.
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What amuses me most is Jamie Halcro Johnston et al stance of “pitiful lack of resilience in Scotland’s ferry network” laid at the door of the SNP and Greens –
The young’s scepticism of this political theatre is soon justified with minimal research, Scotland’s ferries have been a political football going back well over 50 years, days the political might of the SNP was 1 MP, and the Greens were still seeds in a packet.
Scroll back through tales of McConnell handing back unused budgets in exchange for ermine, and the Scottish Office refusing to engage in improving ferry services, and you will eventually find one Donald Stewart from Stornoway fighting a lone battle to get ferry services taken seriously.
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I see the BBC News website article on the Pentalina incident is working hard to imply some negatives about the ferry’s crew. Much profile given to anecdotal evidence from one named passenger and his partner (with my emphasis):
‘ .. out on the deck when they noticed smoke coming from the engine room followed by “FLUSTERED” MEMBERS OF THE CREW.’
‘.. it was SOME TIME BEFORE ANY INFORMATION WAS GIVEN to those on board. One crew member then started “ABRUPTLY” TELLING PASSENGERS to “find something to hold onto”.’
‘He (the named passenger) said “overall people were calm”, but a “LACK OF COMMUNICATION” WAS WORRYING.’
One needs to read way down the lengthy article to get the positive view of the performance of the crew and the other services in this emergency. But unlike the rather negative framing associated with the above anecdote, the following positive comments are not attributed to individuals:
‘.. passengers described the rescue operation as CALM AND PROFESSIONAL.’
‘People we spoke to, including regular travellers and first time visitors alike, appeared QUITE THRILLED by the evacuation process.
‘They had NOTHING BUT PRAISE for the ferry’s crew and also the RNLI who’d transported everyone to shore – including half a dozen dogs.’
So why give more prominence to a named individual’s rather negative view of the crew – being ‘flustered’; a ‘worrying lack of communication’; being spoken to ‘abruptly’ – rather than what appears to be the positive consensus? Just more of BBC Scotland’s preferred style of ’emotive’, tabloid journalism?
(https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-65441218 )
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