The Herald of Free Enterprise Media Group is making much of a letter from an Arran businessman today with:
Arran is under serious threat from the SNP’s ineptitude
In August 2023, CalMac has typically made between 14 and 16 crossings per day between Ardrossan and Brodick (Arran), a total of around 350. There have been only 2 cancellations in that time. The reliability of the Arran service is thus around 99.4%.
The population of Arran is only around 4 600 but benefits from a massive transport subsidy.
The Scottish Government’s subsidy for ferries averages £29.80 per passenger journey. In Canada (BC), it is only just over half at £16.36 and in Australia, only just over one-tenth at £3.86.
In terms of age, interesting in the light of media headlines here, Scotland’s ferries are the newest with an average of 22 years, with Australian ferries at 24, Norwegian at 26 and the Canadian ferries at 35!
In Canada, 47 terminals and 25 routes are served.
In Australia, only 38 terminals and 9 routes are served.
In New Zealand, 21 terminals and 24 routes are served.
This research clearly demonstrates that, after 16 years of SNP-rule, the people in Scotland’s islands benefit from a far more generous taxpayer-funded service than anywhere comparable in the world.
There are other ferry services for islands in Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines but given their deadly qualities, I doubt that any island representatives in Scotland would think it fair to compare with them.
Generally speaking, are Scotland’s islanders under threat? Far from it. See: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2023/06/28/not-reported-how-scotlands-islanders-have-stayed-and-thrived-under-snp-government-and-with-calmacs-help/
Is CalMac the best of comparable services in the world?
Ferries – twice the subsidies in Canada, a freeze on fares, SNP Government spending doubled, 99% on time and no lives lost
Want to see a ferry service in an affluent country with a real crisis?
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
It strikes me that that statement is libellous, or does the law of libel not apply to political statements?
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You cannot live on an island bordering the stormy North Atlantic and expect transport links to the mainland to be the same as the M25 or M6.
Perhaps if Scotland had been lucky like Norway and not had to support the Westminster treasury,then some of the closer islands could have been served by alternative means (bridge or tunnel).
Islanders are long used to being cut off from the outside world for periods,especially in Winter and plan accordingly.
It is just part of island life which may not suit everyone.
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Exactly
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Quote comes from the Herald’s ‘Great Big Book of SNPbaaad Ferry Stories ‘.
BBCScorchedland has a similar tome which has accompanying video clips of Damn Jackie Baillie /Sarwar /Gulhane stating that Scotland’s Government is so incompetent that it couldn’t run a corrupt PPE scheme , unlike the UK Government .
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The question here is why are we subsidising a population of four thousand with sixteen ferries a day , A DAY good grief surely four a day is more appropriate and as for an Arran businessman I would tell him get in the real world and stop sponging off the rest of us , if you want to live on a small remote sparsely populated island if you want to run a business on such an island at least have the gumption to recognise you will experience limitations , get real learn to be independent we have higher priorities
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Do please try to achieve some balance despite the Herod’s obsession with the opposite, the headline was “Arran is under serious threat from the SNP’s ineptitude” dependant on which one of of 6 “Letters” the Herod wished to amplify, on this occasion one “Neil Arthur, Kilpatrick, Isle of Arran”. https://archive.ph/nEkEf
I’ve not the faintest notion as to his/her “business” connections, but “vanity and political ineptitude” does rather suggest a recent infection of the Neil Olivers, for which no treatment is currently available having been delayed on the boat since the courier got nicked…
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Fraid most of this article is a pile of bollocks , I live on Arran ( incidentaly the only Cal Mac route that is profitable )
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So just living there trumps the statistics?
‘only Cal Mac route that is profitable’ – if it is, campaign to have the subsidy spent somewhere else and face paying much more?
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