Professor John Robertson OBA
From the Economic Times of Canada, today:
Holiday travel plans took a frustrating turn for many on Easter Monday as a key BC Ferries vessel, the Queen of Coquitlam, suffered a mechanical breakdown, leading to disruptions on the busy Langdale-Horseshoe Bay route. The incident, occurring around 1 pm Vancouver time, stranded passengers for approximately three hours and resulted in the cancellation of multiple sailings.
Passenger Rohana Rezel, who was onboard with his family, described the unexpected halt after a timely departure. “They said once the tugboat gets here, it’s going to be about another 40 minutes to the terminal,” Rezel recounted during the lengthy delay.
The prolonged stoppage understandably led to frustration among passengers, many of whom had connecting flights or important appointments.
“Especially, given that it’s a long weekend, they should make sure the ferries are in ship shape, so to speak,” Rezel added, echoing the sentiments of many inconvenienced travellers.
The breakdown puts a spotlight on the aging state of BC Ferries’ fleet. The company itself acknowledged that both vessels currently servicing the crucial Langdale-Horseshoe Bay route are nearing 50 years old.
From Wikipedia:
This ship has the distinction of being the only BC Ferries vessel to have issued a mayday from dry dock when, during a 1980 maintenance layover, she tipped in the Burrard Shipyards drydock, causing approximately CAD $3 million in damage.
BC Ferries is still operating three large ferries built in 1976. CalMac’s oldest comparable large vessel, the MV Isle of Arran, built in 1983, is 42 years of age.
Otherwise is BC Ferries the kind of operation one Mull or Uist ‘spokesperson’ suggested CalMac might learn from?
Weeelll…
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I can understand folks being frustrated when a vessel breaks down mid journey on a busy weekend, but I don’t suppose the crew were too pleased either and had things planned as well.
No matter how well a vessel or vehicle is maintained or how old it is, Murphy ever lurks in the shadows with his precious Law…. Only in Scotland do we have drama queens from the business sector with media ties ready to make a an Ed (Mountain) out of a molehill…
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Ah, but Bob, your are forgetting that in Scotland we only have “Lifeline” services and the poor folk including the drama queens might starve to death if the ferry is delayed.
If only we had catamarans ..
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Aye, like this one which can now only go to Troon like the Sannox, causing “massive disruption”…. And the alternative is ?
There have been some dodgy goings on in this saga, all connected to the business ‘community’…
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https://archive.ph/awhQV
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The billionaire owner failed to maintain Ardrossan harbour, far more intent on squeezing money from ScotGov to fund upgrades
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Spot on – The Rentiers were in retreat from 1945 to the 1980s, when they sold us greed…
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O/T long comment needs to be said but not sure needs to read Ha Ha
Well here we are again , another St George’s day and another yearly ‘special’ celebratory video from the now, checks notes, UK PM , Sir Keir Starmer.
Prior to him becoming the new UK PM, as in when he was merely the official opposition UK leader , Keir used to also do a ‘special’ celebratory video for his (real) country’s Patron saint, that is England.
Scotland & Wales are not given the same ‘special’ celebratory video from Sir Keir the UK PM as that job is delegated to the minions (understudies) in the respective two English colonies, i.e. Scotland & Wales via the respective Labour branch office managers.
One particular St George’s video in 2023 from Sir Keir, when he was the official UK opposition leader , was one where that video included areas within Scotland , where he, Sir Keir, was praising parts of England and so the images should have only been of areas within England, a genuine amateur error ? Or was it a tactical subliminal message to tell the Jocks that we, England, own you.
This year in his video Sir Keir is seen walking up the internal stairs of 10 Downing street which are bedecked all the way up the stairs with the English flag. (Labour loves Flags).
The other images we see in the video, together with Sir Keir’s ‘special’ celebratory speech, is the English football shirt, his own Navy tie that he is wearing that day which has a pattern of English flags all over the tie, various images of the English flag and also included is personnel from the armed forces.
(Armed Forces who apparently only fought for England and no other country within the UK, or why else would they, as an image in this video and also as ones that he mentions in his speech, then be included in this St George’s Celebratory video from him the English PM but actually the UK PM- same thing really is it not).
So as a UK PM one would have thought that role would have been one where he or she as the UK PM would then have had to see them be neutral in public, after all usually what we see when speeches are made by WM politicians, including leaders of UK political parties, is the presence of the obligatory Union jack to represent what is supposdley what ?
The UK (if include NI) or just Britain ?
Remember it’s Sir Keir who tells us Jocks that we should be proud to be BRITISH , in fact those of us proud to be only Scottish and so seek independence for our country are regarded by the likes of Sir Keir as being ‘extremists’ and ‘Separatists’.
So we should remember in respect to nationality and identity it is only Sir Keir and his fellow countrymen and women who are allowed to celebrate their Englishness and identify as being English and proud , that is they are the only nation within the UK who are allowed to be celebrated as being distinct from their Britishness.
Keir’s speech included him declaring why he was:
“Proud to be English” (surely he is proud to be British as well, I mean he’s stated it enough in other speeches).
Keir also mentions “standing in the old Wembley in 1996” during the football tournament which Keir said “embodied the best of our country” (no mention by Sir Keir of football tournaments where English hooliganism seemed to embody the worse of some of their citizens within their country, via the same sport, as in football).
Sir Keir also mentioned what he thought it was “really like to be English” after the Southport incident as in he said “the coming together of the country, people who went out the morning afterwards all across Britain with shovels and brooms and brushes to clean up their communities rebuilding walls, repairing damage, that is the spirit in which we reclaim our flag”. (he is talking about the English flag but seems to also be talking about ‘British’ riots )
As he us conflating England with Britain yet again, as I know of no one in Scotland who needed to use “shovels and brooms to clean up their communities” after Southport and after the riots that were, as riots , isolated only within England (and minor ones non related in NI) and not any riots in Scotland nor Wales in his so called “Britain” in this cleaning up exercise across the ‘country’.
Then Sir Keir asks us to pay tribute to those in the armed forces “who laid down their lives to keep us free” (which Scots and Welsh armed forces also did , so perhaps Sir Keir needs to remember that , as in that it was this so called Britain that was defended by the ‘British’ Armed Forces and is still being defended by Armed Forces personnel from all over the UK, and not just by English Armed Forces).
He then speaks about the “armed forces, NHS Staff, teachers, small businesses who serve their community”, “the shared history, shared inheritance and the values that have endured most of all” which he then ends in defining as “Let’s hear it for England and St George”.
Of course the above professions as noted by Sir Keir , the UK PM , are not confined to only being professions within England as we in Scotland, Wales & NI also have these professions too.
Yes and I do know that Sir Keir is English , but in his current role as UK PM he supposdley represents the whole UK, when many a time he just loves to tell us in Scotland (force upon us) that we should regard ourselves as first and foremost as being British, British patriots, where most of his speeches refer to Making Britain great again in some way. ( an English political pipe dream).
So for him , to once a year, change into an English nationalist politician and now an English PM, where in his speech he conflates Britain with England and where his nation , England, and it’s flag is something that should be regarded with pride and so celebrated.
In him using many many English flags as symbols to represent his real Nation, England, that is considered as the one nation within the UK that owns all other nations within the UK, and they do too, politically and via the media .
If my country was independent then I would care not a jot about Sir Keir’s once a year annual St George celebratory speeches.
Not that the media will highlight this or complain as they too are mostly the same nationality as Sir Keir, those who are non English within the media give the impression that they want to be English First.
As they too as a media conflate Britain with England, indeed they too declared that after the Southport incident there was “Riots across the UK”, and now we hear Sir Keir also promoting this fake news today in his speech , as in on why he’s proud to be English as all of “Britain” he said ‘cleaned up their communities’ after the , checks bloody notes, riots , as of course whenever it is solely within England that there is an incident that is #BAD it then it immediately morphs into #UKBAD or #BritianBad.
Vote SNP in 2026 as a first step to eventually allowing Sir Keir to one day really celebrate his beloved England First, that is when we in Scotland will hopefully also be able to, one day , celebrate too when we are finally a part of an independent country.
Liz S
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Well said Liz
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🙂
I made so many spelling and grammar mistakes ,I think that I should have less rage and more calm when I write a comment on here.
Impossible for me though, Ha Ha
Liz S
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