Meeting of the Parliament 14 June 2023
The motion that we have put forward has a simple ask of this Government: to establish a resilience fund for businesses that are affected by the disruption to and withdrawal of ferry services. How Green and Scottish National Party members vote at decision time will be a clear signal of whether they accept responsibility for their catastrophic failure of our island communities and whether they will take a small action to begin to make amends. The failure has been 16 years in the making, but it is destroying livelihoods and communities today.
The figures are damning. From May 2022 to April 2023, the Mallaig-Lochboisdale route suffered 79 diverted sailings, 142 late sailings and 296 cancelled ferries. More than one in four of all scheduled sailings never left the harbour. With news of yet more cancellations this month, the situation is, to quote Alasdair Allan MSP, “abysmal”.
The consequences of those failures are devastating for islanders. Estimates are that local businesses are losing close to £50,000 per day. In an already difficult climate of high energy and fuel costs, coupled with soaring inflation, businesses cannot afford further financial hardship.
Between October 2021 and March 2023, CalMac paid £4.54 million in financial penalties. Where did that go?
The First Minister said last week that the money was
“reinvested back into the resilience of the network.”—[Official Report, 8 June 2023; c 10.]
The Government’s amendment reiterates that claim. However, what is the resilience that it speaks of? Hardly a week goes by without further announcements of delays and cancellations, as the network rusts and breaks and two ferries sit in port under construction in the west of Scotland. The Government’s incompetent approach is not arresting decline or incentivising better performance; it is doing precisely the opposite. CalMac bosses know that the money is being shuffled around in yet another SNP accountancy trick.
In truth, island residents and business owners are the only ones to experience a true financial penalty, as their livelihoods are destroyed. The idea of a resilience fund did not originate from members on the Labour benches; it began in our island communities when residents of South Uist gathered in droves to protest about the withdrawal of yet more ferry services. Scottish Labour has spoken with business owners across the Western Isles and their position could not be clearer. One business owner told us that the impact on her business was “catastrophic” and
“far exceeds the impact from the global pandemic”.
With this Government, it is, I am afraid, a case of out of sight, out of mind. If 185,000 people, or a third of Edinburgh’s population, were protesting outside the Parliament now, the Government would have to listen but, when a third of South Uist’s population turn out to protest, the Government pays no heed whatsoever. It is no wonder that the owner of a catering company in South Uist told us:
“we have lost all faith in the Scottish Government to be able to improve the situation”.
That loss of faith in Government did not happen overnight. It is the result of 16 years of wilful neglect by the SNP Government, which leaves our islands facing an existential threat. That incompetence has consequences. Under the SNP, the vital infrastructure of Scotland’s ferry services is reaching collapse. The litany of policy failures—on infrastructure, connectivity, housing, education, fishing and more—is leading to an exodus from our islands, particularly of young people who see no option for their future in the place that they call home.
The research paper “The Gaelic Crisis in the Vernacular Community”, which was published in 2020, issued stark warnings about the future viability of the Gaelic language and culture beyond the next 10 years, in the face of an ageing population in island communities. The paper highlighted that
“The retention of young people and young families willing to contribute to community vitality will be central to any credible strategy of revitalisation.”
How can we expect young people to stay in areas where they will be increasingly isolated and financially penalised?
The very existence of Scotland’s ancient language and culture relies on the economic viability of our island communities, but today it is abundantly clear that the SNP cannot be trusted with the protection of Scotland and of who we are and where we come from. The SNP is eternally distracted, is obsessed with press over policy and dissembling over delivery, and has utterly failed our islanders.
Are SNP and Green members listening? Have they heard the cries of despair from our communities who rely on these services? I see some members in the chamber who represent those communities directly. Will they heed those calls for help? Given the Government’s position today, those members must put aside blind loyalty to the amendment that the Government has lodged and loyalty to a failing incompetent leadership and do right by their constituents. Have you heard your constituents’ voices and will you act?
I move,
That the Parliament instructs the Scottish Government to establish a resilience fund for businesses adversely affected by Caledonian MacBrayne disruption and withdrawal of services, utilising funds obtained from penalties imposed on Caledonian MacBrayne for breaches of its contract with Transport Scotland.