A new year brings the same old headaches for hapless Humza Yousaf. There’s plenty of problems awaiting the in-tray of Scotland’s flailing First Minister from drug deaths and school standards to Michael Matheson’s iPad data. But perhaps no policy area sums up his party’s failures in office than the ongoing farce over CalMac ferries.
The state-owned ferry network has been plagued by issues in recent years, with extensive delays and costs ballooning in the building of two ships at the Scottish Government-owned Ferguson Marine shipyard. Just this week its chief executive admitted that MV Glen Sannox – the partially-built ferry already almost six years late and £100 million over budget – has now been delayed for at least another two months and might not be deployed for the crucial summer tourism season (again).
And to add insult to injury, new figures confirm the toll that CalMac’s incompetence is taking on Scottish taxpayers.
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