Mull cafe owner’s mass protest turnout threatened by nearly 90% of 2 800 locals being satisfied with their CalMac ferry service and the conveniently under-used car decks

Professor John Robertson OBA

From the Scotsman, six days ago, the above and:

A protest will be held this weekend on the Isle of Mull over the state of the lifeline ferry service, with Scottish ministers accused of not “listening”.

The Mull and Iona Ferry Committee announced it is planning a mass demonstration protesting the state of the ferry service to Mull and Iona. The demonstration will take place on Sunday at Craignure on the Isle of Mull

The protest is the initiative of local businesswoman [cafe owner] Michelle Devlin. She said the “final straw” before staging the protest was the Scottish Government’s decision not to include Mull and Iona in its £4.4 million Island Business Resilience Fund.

So the protest is just Michelle’s idea but she expects a mass turnout? I suppose ‘mass’ is a relative term. Maybe on Mull, 10 or 20, like the last protest in Ardrossan?

What’s the evidence suggesting a big turnout of disgruntled ferry users?

Not this, I’d guess:

From a survey of 2 826 in October 2024, quite contrary to MSM reports, we see a stunning 88.3% satisfaction level with CalMac’s ‘Argyll’ ferry services – Oban/Craignure, Oban/Lismore, Oban/Coll/Tiree, Tobermory/Kilchoan, Fionnphort/Iona, Fishnish/Lochaline and Gallanach/Kerrera.

This survey is in the public domain and CalMac can be approached by any doubting ‘journalist.’ They must respond. I note that none ever do.

While we’re at it – car deck utilisation?

Generous provision?

Source: https://assets.calmac.co.uk/media/bx1cnvug/argyll-oct-24.pdf

I look forward to the mass protest photos on Sunday.

4 thoughts on “Mull cafe owner’s mass protest turnout threatened by nearly 90% of 2 800 locals being satisfied with their CalMac ferry service and the conveniently under-used car decks”

  1. Mull cafe owner who won’t be able to bid for between £3k and £35k of taxpayer-funded business support grant, seems to be questioning the analysis of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) in setting eligibility criteria for the Scottish Government’s new £4.4m business support scheme, the Island Resilience Fund.

    For more on the Island Resilience Fund (30 June 2025): – see https://www.gov.scot/news/island-resilience-fund-opens/

    This explains: ‘‘A funding package developed to support island businesses affected by ferry disruption is now ready to accept applications. … Eligible sectors include those that rely on tourism and those that are engaged in the manufacture or movement of perishable goods, such as seafood.’

    ‘Highlands and Islands Enterprise carried out detailed analysis of information and statistics provided by Transport Scotland and CalMac relating to ferry disruption.

    ‘The islands of South Uist, Colonsay, North Uist, Eriskay, Benbecula, Berneray, Grimsay and Arran were chosen as eligible for the Islands Business Resilience Fund as they each had more than 15% ferry disruption over the last three seasons. The average cancellations of ferry services across the Calmac network is during that time has been (sic) around 7%.’

    Lots of islands are not included in this scheme. Does the cafe owner dispute HIE’s analysis and ranking? Has the cafe owner run the numbers? Has the Scotsman?

    I understand that the island of Mull has a population of c. 3,000 and that over the past decade or so this number has been stable. I understand that Mull is served by three ‘lifeline’ Calmac ferry services: to Oban, Lochaline and Kilchoan.

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  2. haven’t heard anyone from this “Community” group who are not blow ins and ferry loupers from our southern neighbour. Why move to an Island? Thus protest must be in response to Calmac’s recent announcement to transfer back the Loch Coruisk to the Armadale/ Mallaig service that it w as designed to serve although it has been servicing Mull for most recent years. There must be some Tory Posh Boys living on Mull with “connections”, we all know how that works at Westminster.

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  3. ” I look forward to the mass protest photos on Sunday ” and bulletins throughout the day from the usual suspects…

    I’ve not the slightest doubt delays and cancellations happened in the days of sail and steam, but those were more sensible times of ‘when the ferry comes, it comes’ – There would have been none of the orchestrated and performative nonsense we see today over CalMac, such as the observation that ” the same vessel was 15 minutes late ALL day into Brodick “, any more than the “final straw” to a cafe owner who ran out of straws ….

    Thanks to Stewart’s informative post above, obviously Mull didn’t fit the criteria in terms of ferry disruption, and a box of straws are not perishable….

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  4. PS – Out of curiosity, I looked at the Scotsman’s ‘Ena Saracevic’ version again and spotted what had been highlighted on this blog before about the emergency evacuation slides issue for the Isle of Mull with “The ship had its passenger capacity reduced to just 45, with the vessel redeployed to the quieter Oban to Lochboisdale service”, as so stated apparently by the ‘ The Mull and Iona Ferry Committee ‘, a very recent ‘innovation’ which apparently stretched across Scotland’s islands with incredible speed – The chair is the same activist who has featured previously, Joe Reade, purportedly ‘Representing the users of our lifeline ferry services’ on this particular ‘last straw’ – https://archive.ph/ZERla

    Who knew a ‘biscuit magnate’ could be come to be on Mull having moved there at age 12, and here the contradictions begin piling up, but with biscuits go cheese, and right enough, ‘ Joseph Jeffrey READE ; MULL CAMPUS WORKING GROUP LIMITED (SC849653) · 1 Lee, Bunessan, Isle Of Mull, Scotland, PA67 6DN ; ISLAND BAKERY ORGANICS LIMITED (SC384005).’

    And so to the ‘Isle of Mull Cheese’, and in the “About us” section the same 12 year old biscuit magnate proudly states with honesty for once, “In 1980, our family — Jeff and Christine “Chris” Reade; and sons Brendan, Matthew, Garth and Joe — moved to the Isle of Mull from our dairy farm in Somerset, England – This decision was motivated by three key factors — a challenging dairy farming market due to European milk imports; an opportunity to provide consistent milk supply to the people of Mull; and our abiding love for this storied corner of Scotland ” – So bugger all to do with being a rabid Brexiteer making a fast buck by buying ” a few acres in Tobermory ” for the price of a small shed in Somerset eh ‘Chris’ ?

    I’ve no problem with Chris Reade or anyone else seeing business opportunities from Scotland’s neglect over many years by Westminster and the early days of Holyrood, but there is no more glaring reason Mull is so very different from Somerset than never having elected a Jacob Rees-Mogg…

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