I pity Swinney for having to deal with the Ferguson Marine mess
I don't envy John Swinney being left with the task of deciding whether or not to plough even more of our money into such a failed business model. The real question though is how have his officials allowed him to get into this position?
EU rules on rescue and restructuring aid operate under the "one time-last time principle". In other words if the company is still in trouble after the initial bail-out then you pull the plug. Put simply, you don't keep throwing good money after bad. Moreover you cannot bail out companies less than two years old because that is believed to be the minimum time required to demonstrate commercial viability. Yet these rules have been repeatedly breached by the Scottish Government. So who was advising the Government on the application of European law?
Recovery of these funds is also permissible under EU law when the company going under is the subsidiary of a larger group that is also a party to the contract. In this instance Ferguson Marine Ltd was a subsidiary of Clyde Blowers Capital and they were both co-signatories to the original ferry contract. As such CBC shares liability if things go pear-shaped. So again I have to ask why is CBC not being pursued for the recovery of those taxpayer loans?
It is the duty of the civil servants to highlight not only any legal risks to the Scottish Government in giving out such loans, but also the options open to it if things go wrong. And it follows that it is the duty of these same officials to own up if they have acted in a way that now makes the lawful recovery of taxpayers' money impossible or if any legal advice they gave was subsequently ignored by ministers. Either way we need to know.
Robert Menzies, Falkirk.
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• Peter Wright (via these pages) has provided an ongoing forensic, if seemingly not always apolitical, commentary, on Ferguson's building of two innovative dual-fuel ferries for the Scottish Government.
What I may have missed, or don't recall, are Mr Wright's ongoing commentaries on the building and highly questionable operating status of the two long-delayed and over-budget aircraft carriers (without the aircraft they were designed to carry) or the much-delayed and over-budget Type 26 frigates (the first of these, HMS Glasgow, recently having been "christened" on the Clyde). Perhaps, as the BBC and much of the mainstream media have remained relatively silent, Mr Wright can help to avoid any 'whitabootery' about the building of these ships for the UK Government.
With his political opinions at least temporarily berthed we could all benefit from Mr Wright's shipbuilding expertise through the provision of a detailed analysis of the UK Government procurement processes and associated lengthy delays and cost overruns in the billions of pounds.
Stan Grodynski, Longniddry.
These contracts make no sense
The situation with exam invigilators ("Blow for SQA as invigilator wins fight for holiday pay", The Herald, May 24) highlights a fundamental flaw with the Minimum Wage being set as a single amount (currently at £12.21 per hour for people aged 21 and over).
There are some jobs for which it is inappropriate to give the person employed any holidays. An exam invigilator, who probably only works for one month in the year is such a person as would be someone who performs a task for one or two days each month. The Minimum Wage for such people should be set at a higher level in order to take account of the lack of holiday entitlement and the lack of pension provisions and the payment of £12.21 per hour should only apply to those in regular employment with holiday entitlement and membership of a pension scheme. Occasional workers whose pay is based on a figure related to a payment for regular work should have their rate of pay increased proportionately.
The provision of time off for holidays for people such as invigilators makes no sense, especially if they should take these holidays in May. Their contracts must therefore be drawn up to specifically exclude holiday entitlement and their rates of pay should be set at a rate to compensate for that fact.
Sandy Gemmill, Edinburgh.
Kirk's failure to engage
At the recent Church of Scotland General Assembly a vote on the question of supporting assisted resulted in a very close call. There were 149 against and 145 in support. Considering there were 502 commissioners present it does appear just over 40% did not vote for one reason or another. On such an important issue such massive abstention is a disappointment to many fellow Church of Scotland members who did not have the opportunity to record their views.
Failure of the Kirk to engage with all members will surely result in a further decline from the reported 68,000 membership.
Allan C Steele, Giffnock.
Yesterday's picture showing Aberdeen fans cheering their Scottish Cup-winning heroes (Image: PA)
Grateful to their buddies?
Today's front page says it all ("Homecoming heroes", The Herald, May 26). Well done Aberdeen! They defied the Old Firm-blinkered sports writers and broadcasters who had universally written them off.
The Aberdeen fans should also be thanking St Mirren for softening up Celtic, the previous week.
David Hay, Minard.
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