Professor John Robertson OBA
Many thanks to David Rushent for alerting me to this.
From the Isle of Wight Observer today:
The Isle of Wight’s ferry services are in the spotlight, as IW East MP, Joe Robertson, voices serious concern about Wightlink’s finances.
The firm’s CEO, Katy Taylor, has sparked questions, after failing to deny claims that the company’s owners plan to take £30 million out of the business, leaving Islanders to wonder what impact it would have on already sky-high fares.
The IW Observer asked Mrs Taylor this week about reports that Wightlink’s shareholders are close to finalising a deal that would see the company saddled with an additional £60 million in debt. We received information that Wightlink’s owners, Basalt Infrastructure Partners and Fiera Infrastructure, have earmarked £30 million for a new ferry, with the other £30 million going straight to shareholder pockets.
Mr Robertson said: “If these reports are untrue, then Mrs Taylor should have been able to deny them. It would be immoral for a ferry company to borrow millions of pounds to pay to shareholders while regularly charging passengers over £300 for a return trip across the Solent with an ever-diminishing timetable.”
The Solent crossing takes 45 minutes, comparable to the Oban Mull crossing, but costs far many times more:
CalMac is owned by us. It has no shareholders other than us, via the Scottish Parliament.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Just wait ’til the BBCScorchedland Ferry correspondent and the Herald’s vice-admiral of CalMac Baaad stories get hold of this juicy morcel …..just waiting …..waiting …..wai…zzzzzz!
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THE FILTHY ENGLISH POLITICIANS AND COUNCILLORS
IN FRAUD AND MISGUIDING ENGLISH CITIZENS
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Very slight OT – Had listened to an interesting ‘conversation’ (part of the Scotonomics event on 22nd March in Dundee) between Andy Verity and Danny Dorling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm6k6DptTWM and Danny had made a wonderful contrast between how the rich live in Sweden and the UK, which this article reminded me of – The Swedes have long regulated rigorously to ensure fairness in society, the ‘British’ opted to return to the wild west of the 1930s by tearing up red tape, Grenfell the most searing example with the murderers still walking free.
If you Google ‘ calmac macaroni Herald ‘ you will find the letters page from 2 days ago, the title to which was ” Is a nice meal on a CalMac ferry worth hundreds of millions? “, taken from the first letter on that page by Roy Pedersen, Inverness.
I’d encourage reading Roy Pedersen’s letter ( I’ll post the archive as reply ) to get to the nub of the British problem, superbly summed in ” That is just one measure of the appalling productivity inherent in the CalMac system that is costing the Scottish public purse literally hundreds of millions that could better aid our health, education and other cash-strapped public services “.
Pederson would rather dispense with the livelihoods of what dozens of families rely on to pay the rent, simply because it is not privately owned – Were it a private enterprise, Roy’s expertise could be consulted to make even more filthy lucre offshore whilst those onshore add to the foodbank clientele.
Isn’t it odd to be relentlessly told ‘we need growth’, when the very foundation of it, society, is living day by day….
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https://archive.ph/byjPO
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