Professor John Robertson OBA
Tiny unelected groups feature regularly on MSM, especially Herald, reports, like the one above, telling us that ‘islanders’, tens of thousands of them, are angry about the ferry service they get. Only 0.33% of the population of Arran and Ardrossan turned out for their protest.
No professional survey has ever been done to back up these claims. Tellingly, none of the groups complaining have ever done one.
Our, admittedly limited survey, found more than 90% felt they are well or very well-served by CalMac. More at:
In addition to a proper reliable survey, the reporting and their audience also requires a bit of context such as:
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Talking-up Scotland 
It is one of the ways the media and the unionist parties have of attacking the Scottish Government. The facts, as you have laudably presented them over the past few years have nothing to do with the purpose which is for the media and the unionists to attack.
My family for generations back from my mother to the mists of time are all from the islands and used ferries to get to the mainland. And, of course latterly many were moving permanently to the mainland for employment and quality of life. Landowners and factors had extracted punitive rents from the populace over centuries leaving people impoverished.
However, some people managed to continue an existence joined by people from the mainland and beyond. Many were retirees returning home, some were people who wanted a life away from the ‘rat race’, others were affluent retirees, many without Scottish backgrounds. Local people often described them as ‘white settlers’, which reflected the attitudes of some towards local people, but many contribute significantly to the island communities and, in many cases have played significant roles in sustaining the local economies.
But, to an extent, the incomers distorted the local economies, particularly in relation to property prices and the availability of homes for local people. Significant numbers of houses are second homes and, increasingly, many are short term holiday lets.. While tourism has been an economic lifeline for island communities, it has also become an increasing curse.
The Road Equivalent Tariff enacted by the SG has made travel to an from the islands more viable economically.
Had the colonial Westminster Governments (Tory and Labour) set up a sovereign wealth fund, as Norway did, following the discovery of North Sea oil and gas and devolved it to local communities inner islands could have had tunnels and bridges and more distant ones given improved berthing facilities and more frequent ferry services. Air services could have been improved.
Island economies need to be made less precarious so that the populations can grow, that young people can remain, that housing becomes more plentiful and local industry and services can flourish.
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Personally, I think this is just another made up group to try and justify the long running saga from Martin Williams, the Herald and others. I doubt very much that normal islanders are really waving pitch forks at Cal Mac ferries.
It is instead, just another miserable attempt to blacken the name of Cal Mac, Fergusons and the Scottish government. Why he is allowed to devote time to this instead of trying some “trusted journalism”, I can’t fathom out. 🙂
However, I will not be buying the Herald, and that’s an “Exclusive”.
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John – you are certainly correct in what you say about the motivation of the MSM in their stories of islander dissatisfaction with ferries, but please don’t overplay this. As an islander, I can assure you that there is genuine anger over ferries from the local community in relation to the ferry service on particular routes. I cannot comment on Arran, but there is widespread community dissatisfaction in South Uist (and possibly Barra) over their current services.
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But where’s the evidence?
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Aye, just read it https://archive.ph/8eDLg, but at least Disabled Semen Williams is no longer trumpeting “EXCLUSIVE” in rehashing this tripe, headed by a photo op with less than 10% of the population of S.Uist.
Again it’s the “one business group”, on this occasion cited as ” which prompted a review” with zero evidence they had anything to do with it – The usual “lifeline” misuse, the now regular “ageing” jibe, but this part made me laugh out loud – ” Four years ago, more than half of Scotland’s lifeline ferry network was operating outwith its working life expectancy – being over 25 year old”
J.M.Barrie, Peter PanMr Peteranna, presumably the author of this arrant nonsense despite being WELL over 25, chooses to ignore the many ‘retired’ CalMac vessels still in service elsewhere without a ‘business group’ with a political axe to grind.
Yet it is the final paragraph which the chips really get peed on under the bold heading of “How do these disruptions impact the local economy? – “Local businesses, especially those dependent on tourism and ferry traffic, suffer significant losses during service outages. For instance, a food takeaway near the Lochboisdale ferry terminal on South Uist reported losing hundreds of pounds per sailing, leading to reduced staff hours and cancelled tourist bookings.”
J.M.Barrie was a Scots novelist who moved to London and in the early 1900s and published Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, as a 1904 West End “fairy play” about an ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland.
Over one hundred years later the reverse has happened – Peter Pan has taken human form and moved north to become Peteranna, presumably neither ageless nor with a Wendy other than the inflatable variety, staging a “ferry play” on S.Uist (Neverland ?) – Never mind there is insufficient footfall at Lochboisdale to justify RE and disruption to existing services, what matters is the local chip shop with boarding facilities is losing income, and it’s all them ferry chaos thingmywatsits – Nothing to do with the downturn in tourism following Brexit and prices going through the roof since…. Not at all says Peter Pan, courtesy of Martin Williams “investigative journalist”….
I reckon S.Uist islanders are as sick fed up of this bullshit as the rest of us….
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My apologies, if you can delete or ignore the “J.M.Barrie, Peter Pan” in the 3rd para it makes greater sense.
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LYING UNIONISTS CANNOT GIVE UP LYING TO PUBLIC
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O/T The media – including ‘non-mainstream’ and social – casually spread misinformation. Quality of journalists’ critical reading of sources and reporting often appears poor on topic one knows something about. What confidence in news reporting on topics on which one is not personally informed? And how widely misinformation can be spread!
The Big Issue magazine had this headline on April 25: “It will take 700 years to replace UK’s ageing water network at current pace: ‘A wholesale betrayal’ – Water companies are spending more than ever – but poor planning, weak oversight and costly procurement mean that progress is extremely slow.“
And in para 3: ‘This is the conclusion of a damning new National Audit Office (NAO) report into the regulators overseeing Britain’s privatised water industry.’
The use of the term ‘privatised’ above triggers the question: does the journalist know the difference between the ‘UK’ of the headline and ‘England’?
The NAO report on page 6 has a section entitled ‘Scope of this report’. Here we’re told: ‘The audited bodies that fall within the scope of this report are Defra, Ofwat, EA and DWI. While Defra and EA have responsibility in England, Ofwat and DWI have responsibility in England and Wales. Geographically, we cover Ofwat’s and DWI’s work across England and Wales, and Defra’s and EA’s work across England. We do not assess the actions of the Welsh Government or Natural Resources Wales, whose work is audited by the Auditor General for Wales.’
And on potential for diffusion? During 2024, the Big Issue magazine reported an average circulation of 46, 970 per issue. How many voters in Scotland (and NI for that matter) read the damning headline about the ‘UK’s‘ water industry and its regulators/government oversight when they should have been reading only about England and Wales because that is the explicit, limited scope of the source document?
This Big Issue story which conflates negatives about England’s (and Wales’) water industry with the UK’s was then amplified (and spread widely) by a tweet by @peterstefanovic2 on April 29 ‘It will probably come as no surprise that it will take 700 years to replace the UK’s ageing water network at current pace.’ He provides a link to the Big Issue article.
Mr Stefanovic identifies as a lawyer/vlogger and CEO of Campaign for Social Justice: X reports that this tweet has had 14k views as of early evening April 30. He has 535.6k ‘followers’.
I have no idea what the replacement stats for water infrastructure will be for Scotland, nor for NI for that matter. Both places are in the UK: neither place is in the scope of the NAO’s damning report!
How many journalists grow up, study and practice their craft unaware of the basic nature of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and its governance? Unaware or casual indifference or what?
See: NAO (April 25, 2025) Regulating for investment and outcomes in the water sector: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. Report HC 853 (https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/regulating-for-investment-and-outcomes-in-the-water-sector.pdf )
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Yep Stefanovic is a bit too quick to include Scotland in his articles/channel when he is discussing matters only relevant to England, I have pulled him and others up on that before but I just can’t keep up.
Here in Edinburgh, I see tourists buying masses of bottled water, even folks from England! I have even said, quietly, to some Spanish people you don’t need to buy loads of botteld water, Scotland’s water is clean and safe to drink…
As far as most people outwith Scotland, Eng=UK especially anything negative.
My neighbours were telling me about the terrible new massive wind farm
planned for east Lothian, which will ‘kill thousands of birds’. I hadn’t heard anything about it, but I did ask if she knows who is proposing it and who is allowing planning etc? Nope, no idea. They read the English propaganda sheets
😦
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” The use of the term ‘privatised’ above triggers the question: does the journalist know the difference between the ‘UK’ of the headline and ‘England’? ” – The answer is an emphatic NO, but as Lottie Elton leaps back and forth between potable water supplies/storage and sewerage discharges, she appears equally oblivious to the fundamental differences https://archive.ph/QVMIt.
Her preference for a snappy headline “It will take 700 years to replace UK’s ageing water network” doesn’t concern itself with where in the UK, or what age has to do with it or why indeed they need replaced – It’s not journalism, but ill informed hype every media outlet will repeat for ‘clicks’ – The NAO report is just as bad, but is I suspect preparation for the imminent row over southern England running out of water, and buck-passing which follows.
Your “I have no idea what the replacement stats for water infrastructure will be for Scotland, nor for NI for that matter” rather neatly demonstrates the distraction – The NAO report was on the effect of failed governance in England (due to political interference in the DoE, Coffey et al), over a privatised water industry which has both failed and fleeced the public – Scotland’s environmental governance and SW may have struggled with funding restraints imposed by Westminster, but have largely retained full autonomy to do their job unstintingly supported by SG.
Scotland’s water system and it’s governance is in rude health, unlike England…..
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