PS: we've spent all the money
Reports on Ferguson Marine and Scotland's moribund finances rain on Nicola Sturgeon's farewell parade.
It was an unfortunate for Nicola Sturgeon that her last First Minister's Questions was upstaged by yet another report outlining incompetence, cronyism and spin in the contracts for those beleaguered island ferries, now 5 years late and three hundred percent over budget. The report, from Holyrood's Public Audit Committee, says island communities were “badly let down” by the fiasco at Ferguson Marine. The ferries might be a fitting metaphor for Nicola Sturgeon's sinking reputation – except for the fact that, since they never put to sea, they could hardly sink.
Nicola Sturgeon famously “launched” the Glen Sannox in great fanfare in 2017. It was pure theatre. The ship had no bows, engines or other internals – even the windows were painted onto bare metal. This was trompe l'oeil politics. And of course the scandal had nothing to do with her. Nicola Sturgeon is great at apologising for stuff – like the abuse of children in the 1950s to the persecution of witches in the 17th Century. But she somehow never apologises for her own record in government.
OK – no politician ever really apologises, look at Boris Johnson. They can't because it might constitute an admission of guilt and open them to legal recourse. I understand that, sort of. But that doesn't mean they should get away with it - even on their last day in the job. The PAC report strongly suggests that Nicola Sturgeon’s premature promotion of an independence-supporting businessman, Jim McColl, as preferred bidder may well have skewered the negotiations in such a way as to make the public purse, not Ferguson Marine, liable for the cost of contractual setbacks.
The two public bodies, CalMac and CMAL, responsible for running and procuring the ferries respectively, have been at each other's throats ever since. They bickered in court about the supposedly “green” dual-fuel engines which turned out not to be. Then, the nationalisation of Ferguson Marine in 2019 dumped all the risk for the Port Glasgow basket cases with the tax-payer, and added another £45 million to the bill.
Nicola Sturgeon used her last outing at First Minister's Questions to claim credit for everything from baby boxes to the abolition of prescription charges, free personal care (which actually preceded the SNP government) to free bus travel, the £20 child payment to record spending on the NHS. All true; but revealing. They were all about spending, as if all a government has to do is distribute.
But as is clear from another official report which landed on her doorstep today, the money may not be there in future to finance the SNP's distributional state. Whoever replaces Nicola Sturgeon will have to deal with an extraordinary problem: Scotland, as I'll explain, is dying – slowly, but dying nevertheless.
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