Lunacy On The High Seas

Photo by Donald MacLeod

First the Scottish Government wanted to privatise the forests, and were rightly told to bugger off. "It was only an idea", they complained, "we weren't seriously thinking about it!"

Then they wanted to privatise the water, and were rightly told to bugger off. "It was only an idea", they complained, "we weren't seriously thinking about it!"

Now they want to privatise the ferries. They're saying it's only an idea.

Actually, they don't want to privatise the whole of CalMac, just the holding company which owns the boats and ports. Which reminds me of the botched railway privatisation of the 90s, when the Tories separated track from train, and then separated train from train company.

It's a little known fact that none of the train operating companies actually own their trains. The rolling stock is just leased. Yes, even those shiny Virgin Pendolinos aren't actually owned by Virgin.

To repeat that idiocy by removing CalMac from owning their own boats is lunacy. You create a company whose sole raison d'etre is to lease out the ferries and ports. You say it's a not-for-profit company, but you then allow them to borrow on the open market. And the only way they can recoup the money to pay back the borrowings is to increase the lease costs on the boats, and the docking charges in the ports.

So CalMac will then either have to pass on the higher costs to the public in increased fares, or will have to receive an increased subsidy from the taxpayer because the costs of running ferries on those "lifeline" routes have soared. Pretty soon, the government is paying out a greater subsidy than if they'd just kept the industry nationalised.

And here's another question: just why are the government so desperate for money that they are trying to flog off all the family silver? They aren't, by any chance, trying to pretend they've got enough money to build an unnecessary vanity-project bridge?