Professor John Robertson OBA
Readers will already know that the MV Caledonian Isles is back in dock for repairs following botched work by Cammell Laird in Liverpool.
Readers will also be aware of the regular and longstanding Scottish media reports describing the vessel as ‘troubled’ and ‘fault prone.’
While such accounts have been often exaggerated and ill-informed, it may be that the vessel has been, since its launch, marked by the consequences of political errors and shoddy work by its builders.
Launched on 25 May 1993 at Richards Shipbuilders of Lowestoft, Suffolk, England, shut down only months later in 1994, the yard had no experience of building ferries for the stormy seas of Western Scotland and, notably, the Herald in December 1993, was already reporting problems with winter crossings to Ardrossan, often diverted to Gourock and local businesses complaining about that.
When the contract was given to the Suffolk shipbuilder, the Conservative Party Secretary of State for Scotland was Malcom Rifkind and the Minister for Industry was Ian Lang. You have to wonder why, given the yard’s lack of previous experience and imminent demise, if the Scottish Conservatives were doing a wee favour to the local MP or UK Government?
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Talking-up Scotland 
THESE BARSTEWARD TORIES ARE STILL USING FRAUDULENT COMMENTS TO HIDE THEIR DEVIOUS ACTIONS
TO WRONG THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT
DID THEY GET PUNISHED FOR THESE LIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Well, well, well. Tories at it (yes, yet again!). Many thanks for this remembering. Now, was Ian Lang the chantiewrastler who invented Gers to mystify the minions as he grovelled before his Master (Sir) John Major?
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Ian Lang was indeed the mastermind behind what was to become GERS, originally confected to prove Scotland was a financial basket case and deter support for devolution….
Cannot recall where I saw summary accounts published of Scotland’s finances going back to the early 1900s, annually generating a very healthy surplus… Only when oil revenues began rolling in did we suddenly become poorer…
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Although Norwich, like most cities in England, tends to elect Labour MPs, the rural and less densely populated areas of East Anglia tend to elect Conservative MPs.
I know Lowestoft fairly well. It is, largely, a working class area and has known better times. Yet, as in the so-called ‘red wall’ and places like Clacton, a bit south of Lowestoft, there is a tendency to vote Conservative and, more often now, Reform, even though these MPS act against the economic and social interests of their constituents.
Partly, this is down to media-propagated lies by these politicians, partly, it is because the Labour Party, as we see with the current government, has long neglected the concerns of poorer people and partly because so many people have given up on voting. With the low level of participation in voting these right wing groups can get their vote out and win seats on a fairly small minority of the electorate.
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