Keith Howell, West Linton, Scottish Borders Peg currency to the euro So which is it, First Minister, are you already completely sure there has been no wrongdoing or not? Are you taking full responsibility or not? Or was your performance at the Holyrood committee hearing just another instance of you treating the process of accountability with contempt, and in so doing, playing the people of Scotland for fools? Yet within moments in reference to the BBC Disclosure documentary, she went on to recognise the serious issues it raised. The First Minister claimed with utter conviction and certainty that there was nothing improper about the placing of the original ferry contracts. Her whole demeanour and attitude speaks of someone who judges they are untouchable and so “taking responsibility” is merely an empty platitude. Yet, just as with overcoming the attainment gap in education, for which she once urged us to judge her, she effectively means the exact opposite. QUESTIONED by Holyrood’s Public Audit Committee about the ferry fiasco, Nicola Sturgeon says she ultimately takes full responsibility for all that happens on her watch (“Sturgeon denies ‘jobs for the boys’ behind ferry scandal”, The Herald, November 5). Rab Mungall, Dunfermline Who is Nicola Sturgeon kidding? Independence will be a breath of fresh air. More crucially though, if these unionist politicians and their supporters are prepared to mislead on some issues and deny the existence of other real issues then how can we in any way trust what they say? And the answer there is you cannot. And that is just completely hypocritical. Now its fair to say there is not a government on the planet that doesn’t from time to time have issues with projects but you would think from the comments by unionist politicians and their supporters that the Scottish Government is alone in having a problem project. With Hinkley Point another project going over budget, some £3bn on this one, you do really have to ask why there is so little fuss from unionist quarters. And that for something that we didn’t really need, as unlike England each of the devolved administrations had already got such a capability in place – only NHS England had axed its due to Government austerity. Where is the outrage on these? And indeed on the awful Track and Trace system, which cost £37bn, the Scottish "share" being £3.1 billion. And what about the six multi-billion-pound destroyers stuck in harbour, billions over price and years late? Might the failures be caused by Margaret Thatcher allowing industries to go to the wall and hence the skills to build stuff being lost? With some £5 bn already spent the Scottish share would also build a fair few ferries. There are many other UK Government projects to highlight but perhaps the most recent standout disaster is the news that the Ajax tank project is in deep trouble and highly likely to be scrapped. On top of this passengers numbers on Crossrail are 50% of what was expected and as such a further burden will fall on taxpayers across the UK. Where has all the anger and outrage been when it comes to Crossrail? A project that was four years late and £4 billion over budget? Scotland’s share, at 8.3 per cent, of that £4bn is £332 million, which would be a lot more usefully spent financing some more ferries. This seems really important for Scotland, a country with some 900 islands, of which 94 are permanently habituated. But note that we will at least get ferries, shipbuilding skills are being retained and even grown by the recruitment of apprentices. Yes, they favour the Union, but they also display huge levels of hypocrisy in their comments on government projects.Īs a traveller to the isles myself I agree that it is very unfortunate that the Calmac ferries are delayed and have a cost overrun of a few hundred million. THE Conservatives, Labour and the LibDems all have one thing in common. The then Prime Minister Boris Johnson with his Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan on an Elizabeth Line train at Paddington station to mark the completion last May of London's Crossrail project – which was four
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