6 days ago
Look at how Norway does ferries, Scotland. Not so hard, is it?
The CalMac timetable takes up a full page, with six different schedules. The Norwegian one consists of regular clock-face departures, but if you consult the webpage at busy times it just says "every 15 mins" (sic).
The Norwegian arrangements quite routinely turn round a 245-car ferry in 15 minutes, while CalMac seemingly needs 55 to do the same with a boat half that size. I also counted 15 shore staff at Troon, two in the office and the rest rope-wrestlers and car herders – this for a basic six services per day. NorLed's service can, when pressed, handle up to 1,250 cars and 4,000 passengers per hour, with fewer shoreside staff than CalMac needs at Troon. Vehicle fares are charged by scanning a windscreen Autopass, and pre-booking is not required. All passengers go free.
So how do they do it? Well, Norwegian ferries are specifically designed for the job, and not as small cruise vessels which also can carry cars. They can berth without the need for ropes, and with azimuth thrusters for propulsion have far superior manoeuvring to CalMac's vessels. They also employ bi-directional vessels for crossings of less than an hour's duration, which obviates swinging the ship twice per round trip. Norway's ferries operate on the shortest possible crossing and not on traditional steamer routes. Thirty years ago there was little but rock and the occasional sheep at Mortavika and Arsvaagen, while today they are on a major trunk route (with a whole series of tunnels and bridges).
No CalMac route requires the capacity of the Mortavika one, but we could do with application of the same operating principles. Why this hasn't been done is a central question.
Arthur Blue, South Queensferry.
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SNP Reform plan failed
Another cunning SNP plan has bitten the dust. John Swinney appears to have made another in a long line of blunders, stretching back way over a decade. His special – and very expensive – gathering to attempt to have all the non-Reform parties gang up to beat up the new kids on the block has proven to have been an abject failure. Like so many of Mr Swinney's other plans over the years, it had the opposite effect: Reform continues to storm ahead in the polls.
In any case, there was something deeply wrong about his anti-Reform gathering. Should we, in 2025, be holding meetings at taxpayers' expense to gang up on or wound one perfectly legal party the SNP does not like? I am not a supporter of Reform I may add.
Alexander McKay, Edinburgh.
• John Swinney has taken up the unusual position of defending Anas Sarwar in the Hamilton by-election tussle. I should point out that Mr Swinney did not complain when Humza Yousaf delivered a speech, echoed by Anas Sarwar, over the lack of ethnic minorities in high office in Scotland despite this being seen at the time by some as potentially racist. Mr Swinney is complaining now over the "racist" Reform UK advert concerning Anas Sarwar ("Swinney condemns Reform ad on Sarwar as 'racist'", The Herald, May 27). This strongly suggests both the SNP and Labour are running scared of Reform UK.
Could we be about to witness another earthquake in Scottish politics just like Winnie Ewing's 1967 victory in the very same constituency? Lightning can strike twice.
Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.
Appearance before substance
Another day, another reminder that appearance is more important to our SNP Government than actually delivering improved services.
The BBC reports today (May 27) on Tracey Meechan's situation. With an ovarian cyst, she is unable to work and suffers severe pain. She has been on an "urgent" NHS waiting list for surgery for 100 weeks.
Asked to comment, Women's Health Minister Jenni Minto boasted that, in August 2021, Scotland was the first country in the UK to publish a Women's Health Plan and that "timely access to gynaecology services will be a priority in the next phase of our plan".
I am sure that will be a great comfort to Mrs Meechan as she continues to wait.
George Rennie, Inverness.
Will Falklands be another Chagos?
James Scott (Letters, May 27) describes the Chagos deal as 'decolonisation'. But transferring Chagossian sovereignty to Mauritius over 1,000 miles away – with which the islands have almost no historical, cultural or ethnic links (apart from the UK's administrative convenience in the years of Empire) and disgracefully, without even any proper consultation with the Chagossians, who clearly oppose it in large numbers, maybe by a majority – is by no means decolonisation but constitutes a new colonisation of which one would expect any UK government in 2025 and indeed the UN to robustly disapprove.
Also, to ignore the very credible security concerns of China's current influence in Mauritius, and our paying billions for a partial 99-year lease-back instead of the new owner paying us for the privilege, merely emphasise the literally incredible nature of this deal, which, maybe not surprisingly considering his so-called 'negotiations' with Vladimir Putin, President Trump oddly seems to accept.
The UN and its International Court already wrongly consider the Falkland Islands a colony rather than a settlement as there were no indigenous inhabitants. If, or more likely when, they rule that Argentina is the 'legitimate' owner, will Sir Keir Starmer accept that too?
John Birkett, St Andrews.
We must sanction Israel now
For what passes as the latest example of Trump diplomacy, the American President has branded President Putin as "crazy" ("President Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin 'has gone absolutely crazy'", heraldscotland, May 26). Whether this is a genuine "road to Damascus" conversion remains to be seen as given Donald Trump's track record it is highly unlikely that America will apply new sanctions against Russia. What is shameful however is Trump's continued silence over the apocalyptic scenes from Gaza being played out daily on our TV screens. To his credit the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has now slammed Israel's recent Gaza offensive, calling the civilian toll 'no longer justified'. Will this though be enough to at last move the civilised world to take decisive actions to stop the slaughter by the IDF of so many innocent people?
We have the usual pathetic responses from the Israeli government. These though should be exposed as false. Schools and hospitals in Gaza are not being used as headquarters by Hamas; nor, according to the UN relief agencies, is Hamas stealing aid to fund its campaign. Critics of Israel's barbarity are not antisemitic. Nor was the war started by the horrors of October 7. Since its creation in 1948, Israel has been engaged in a hostile campaign of aggression and occupation against the Palestinians. For decades Israel has ignored successive UN resolutions and deliberately refused to take forward the two-state settlement which might have seen peaceful relations between the two neighbouring peoples. Instead, Israel continues to occupy Palestinian land. Palestinian villages and farms continue to be bulldozed to build yet more illegal settlements, often peopled by religious zealots armed to the teeth convinced that the Old Testament gives them the right to evict the Palestinians living there to join the thousands already displaced.
Benjamin Netanyahu with Donald Trump (Image: Getty) It is now absolutely clear that Benjamin Netanyahu has embarked on a campaign to occupy the whole of Gaza and the West Bank, thus forcing the surviving Palestinians out of their own country. It is hard not to believe that this is part of President Trump's nightmarish dream of Gaza becoming a holiday resort for wealthy Americans. This horrible war was never really about self-defence but rather the naked enlargement of the state of Israel. That this crime is being committed in full sight shames the world. Words of condemnation are routinely ignored by Prime Minister Netanyahu and indeed are turned into insults against those prepared to call out the horrors being committed.
Yet this aggression could be quickly halted with the application of global sanctions. Israel should be banned from all international sporting and cultural events. Invitations to participate in international conferences should be withdrawn and critically, the International Criminal Court should now, as in the Balkan War, issue arrest warrants for the political and military leader of the Israeli war machine. The UK Government should immediately halt arms sales and end the supply of military intelligence to Israel. Tragically, though, the merciless slaughter of innocent women and children continues.
Eric Melvin, Edinburgh.
