Tag: photography

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Why building CalMac ferries, quicker and cheaper in Turkey might not have been such a good idea after all

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From STV on 28th March 2024, as a media frenzy risked the future of commercial shipbuilding in the Clyde, just to attack the SNP Government, in support of the 2024 General Election Labour campaign: All four Calmac ferries being built in Turkey ‘are on time and on budget’ By August 2024, the Herald told us: Four ferries being built in Turkey for CalMac will be delayed, with the first having been due to be delivered this month. MV Isle of Islay was due to be delivered by mid-October, but it was announced in August that it would not be delivered … Continue reading Why building CalMac ferries, quicker and cheaper in Turkey might not have been such a good idea after all

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Canadian ferry service prices to rise 30% to cope with 16 aging vessels 30 decrepit terminals

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From the Vancouver Sun, yesterday: The CEO of B.C. Ferries is warning the company may need to increase fares by 30 per cent or more in 2028, when its current fare structure expires. Nicolas Jimenez says in a written statement the provincially owned corporation had forecast last year that such a price rise would be needed to keep up with operating and capital costs. But, he said costs since then have jumped, including a 40 per cent increase in shipbuilding expenses since 2020. The rising costs have created “a growing funding gap” that Jimenez says will require “a sustainable funding … Continue reading Canadian ferry service prices to rise 30% to cope with 16 aging vessels 30 decrepit terminals

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NHS Scotland seeing far more, per head, within crucial 18 weeks target

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By Professor John Robertson OBA From Public Health Scotland today: Of all pathways completed, 85.7% (242,384) were fully measurable against the 18-week standard. 68.1% (164,983) of these pathways were completed within 18 weeks of referral, an increase from 65.5% in the previous quarter.1 From the Nuffield Trust in April 2024, the most recent comparable data I can find, the equivalent figure was only 57%.2 Put simply, if NHS Scotland had been led by a Conservative government, 8-9% of the 242 384 referred, around 20 000 patients, would have waited longer than they did in Scotland. Why does the 18 week target matter … Continue reading NHS Scotland seeing far more, per head, within crucial 18 weeks target

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Large complex new ferry comes into service in best ferry service in the World

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By Professor John Robertson, Genuine Ferry Correspondent BBC Scotland’s welcome for the largest and most advanced ferry ever in the UK, massively subsidised to keep workers in jobs and give islanders a cheap service to locations, privately owned systems across the globe would just abandon, is typically grudging and saturated with cringe: Ferries saga ship Glen Sannox finally delivered, The long-delayed ship at the centre of Scotland’s ferries saga has been handed over by the Ferguson shipyard, exactly seven years after it was launched. Got any evidence? Just this, all of this: First, The MV Caledonian Isles was taken off the Arran/Ayrshire … Continue reading Large complex new ferry comes into service in best ferry service in the World

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Has a 73 year-old, part-time OCD, retired prof, beaten the Herald into submission as they scuttle their troubled ferry fiasco newsletter?

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By Captain Professor John Robertson OBA Where’s the link to the Herald’s much-vaunted Ferries Newsletter? From TuS reader Stephen McKenzie, today: Slightly off topic, but the Heralds “Scotland’s Ferries” tab at the top of their on-line version seems to be missing these days? Ok, I know that when you clicked it, it took you to any topic unrelated to ferries, but that was part of its fun appeal. Good question. Gooood question. It’s not in the banner. It’s not listed as a newsletter at: https://www.heraldscotland.com/newsletters/ Has Captain Maritime Williams of the BS Herald gone down? With his ‘ship?’ I’ve written nearly 170 … Continue reading Has a 73 year-old, part-time OCD, retired prof, beaten the Herald into submission as they scuttle their troubled ferry fiasco newsletter?

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EXCLUSIVE – What will Rachel Reeves say as nearly 10 times as many per head wait for social care assessment in England than in Scotland

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By Professor John Robertson OBA The Herald today has: EXCLUSIVE – Over 5,000 Scots waiting for NHS social care assessment Seems a lot doesn’t it? You know where I’m going; where the Herald never goes. All things being equal, per head, that’d be around 50 000 waiting in England but, oh no, shock horror, from the latest data, it’s As of March 2023, 430,000 people were waiting for an adult social care assessment, care, or direct payment in England. This was down from 542,000 in April 2022 https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/long-reads/social-care-360-access#:~:text=a%20reduction%20in%20the%20number,the%20end%20of%20March%202023. A TEN times longer waiting list, per head, pro rate, proportionally. Wait, does that mean the … Continue reading EXCLUSIVE – What will Rachel Reeves say as nearly 10 times as many per head wait for social care assessment in England than in Scotland

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Government of Tasmania bedevilled by costly ferry ‘stuff up’ to rival New Zealand’s $3 billion ferrymageddon and to make the Arran Ferry Fiasco one of those things in a teacup

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Regulars here will know that New Zealand’s lifeline Cook Straits ferry system is in a real crisis as the Government refuses to pay $3 billion for 2 new ferries. Just round the corner in Tasmania, population 573 000, 12 times that of Arran but like Arran, relying on two ‘lifeline’ ferries, there’s a ‘stuff-up’ (Worse than a fiasco or less bad?). Here’s the stuff-up, from Yahoo News yesterday: The start date for two new larger Bass Strait ferries has been pushed further back, with vital berth upgrades several years behind an already delayed schedule. Cost blowouts, finger pointing between state-owned … Continue reading Government of Tasmania bedevilled by costly ferry ‘stuff up’ to rival New Zealand’s $3 billion ferrymageddon and to make the Arran Ferry Fiasco one of those things in a teacup

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400 passengers stranded in Bilbao on a day when Brittany ferries cancels, brings forward or delays, 5 out of only 14 sailings in a ferry fiasco while CalMac does 97% of 506 sailings on time

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From MSN today: BRITTANY FERRIES HAS apologised to hundreds of passengers who are stuck on a ferry in the Port of Bilbao due to a “technical problem”.    The Galicia ferry, which travels from Rosslare to Bilbao and is operated by Brittany Ferries, was due to sail at 4pm Irish time.  However, the journey was abandoned because of a technical problem, which is understood to have affected one of the vessel’s engines. There are thought to be approximately 400 passengers onboard.  Imagine that happened in Scotland. From Brittany Ferries today: 2 out of only 14 cancelled and 4 moved to … Continue reading 400 passengers stranded in Bilbao on a day when Brittany ferries cancels, brings forward or delays, 5 out of only 14 sailings in a ferry fiasco while CalMac does 97% of 506 sailings on time

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Korean ferry fiasco as 7 out of 10 are not equipped to respond to electric vehicle fires

johnrobertson834

It’s never-ending once you start looking abroad, as a Mull Tory councillor from Buckingham, once suggested we do, for ways to improve CalMac, the as he put it, ‘worst ferry service in the world.’ Turns out he was full of hot air. When you do look, you keep finding the opposite and with every investigation it becomes clear that thanks to 17 years of SNP subsidy, Scotland actually has the best – most frequent, most reliable, cheapest and safest – ferry service in the world. Only yesterday, I could write: You can now add Tasmania to New Zealand, Greece, Isle … Continue reading Korean ferry fiasco as 7 out of 10 are not equipped to respond to electric vehicle fires

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The SNP’s phantom decorators – A new sisterhood in Scotland’s mainstream media revealed – Daily Record/Sunday Mail and Scottish Daily Express!

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By stewartb Once upon a time not so long ago these ‘Scottish’ newspapers – the Daily Record/Sunday Mail and the Scottish Daily Express – would occupy quite different places on the political spectrum on most issues.  That was then and after all, we’ve been told we are in a time of ‘change’!  Of course they would be united for the Union and this is probably the key factor in this tale! On Sunday 6 October, the Sunday Mail on its front page and website had this ‘exclusive’: On the same day, the Scottish Daily Express had this: Note the journalists … Continue reading The SNP’s phantom decorators – A new sisterhood in Scotland’s mainstream media revealed – Daily Record/Sunday Mail and Scottish Daily Express!