Alba Party’s General Secretary has hit out at a Christmas betrayal of Scottish Shipbuilding jobs as the Scottish Government announces another lucrative ferry contract is to be sent to Turkey.
Alba‘s Chris McEleny says that CMAL and Scottish Government Ministers have colluded to ensure that two further new Scottish Ferries are built overseas.
Mr McEleny, who represented the Inverclyde area for a decade, had previously warned that CMALs decision to expedite two new vessels for the Little Minch routes to Lochmaddy and Tarbert guaranteed that the vessels would be awarded overseas.
The Alba man has hit out at his former SNP colleagues Stuart McMillan MSP and Ronnie Cowan MP for failing to lobby for the work to be awarded to Scottish yards. McEleny wrote to both the parliamentarians that represent Inverclyde, home of nationally owned Ferguson’s, asking them to support his campaign to have all Scottish yards directly awarded Scottish ferry contracts. However, both politicians refused to support his call for Scottish ferries to be built in Scotland.
Alba’s Inverclyde based General Secretary says that CMALs decision to make the preferred bidder award on the Friday before Christmas is an “ act of cowardice and a betrayal on the Eve of Christmas”
Commenting Alba Party General Secretary Chris McEleny said:
“ This decision is not a surprise as those of us that care about Scottish shipbuilding jobs warned that CMALs decision to go to tender was an act of collusion with the Scottish Government to ensure the orders would go to overseas yards.
“ It is bitterly disappointing that the MP and MSP for Inverclyde have sat on in silence and facilitated work that should be getting carried out in Inverclyde being sent abroad. This is a complete betrayal to shipyard workers in Inverclyde and to Scotland’s proud shipbuilding tradition.
“ Sneaking out the decision on the Friday before Christmas is nothing short of an act of cowardice on the part of CMAL and the Scottish Government, but it is one we will not let them get away with.”
I thought Ronnie Cowan was better than that! What are SNP politicians afraid of? What does Sturgeon hang over their heads? The sooner ALBA politicians replace them the better for Scotland and our march towards SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE without Sturgeon & Co.
Seperation shuts shipyards. Aye right
The decision to build the two uncompleted boats at Fergusons was the right one.
Creating jobs, training a new generation of engineers, developing for the future, was a sound intention.
Sadly the delivery was absolutely flawed. Incompetence and corruption being at the heart of so much of our society and our SNP government.
But at least the £300 million spent was money spent in Scotland, albeit that we got no ships. Or at least not yet.
But in building ships abroad, you get no jobs, no training and you spend your money in another country.
That is an utter disgrace. Turkey, Dubai, Norway all build ships.
But us, seems we prefer Burger Flipper jobs. What No vision, no pride, no sense, or at least no sense in far too many of us.
Ah well, the poor turkeys in Inverclyde and beyond can sing about it being colder this Christmas.
And it’s not just boats that get built abroad. Can anyone guess where the wind turbine jackets, the blades and the turbine generators are made. Here’s a clue – not in Jockistan!
And yes, they actually closed down fabrication yards so that over a billion pounds worth of off shore jackets could be sourced from Dubai and China.
Happy Christmas and a doo lally New Year to all. Mind and all stay warm now and keep the heating up.
There is a reason the meritocracy in a colony is always mediocre. The very concept of a protectorate means “it is in the colonizer’s interest that he be excluded from management functions, and that these heavy responsibilities be reserved for the colonizer” (Albert Memmi). Closer analysis of the key decision makers in ferries policy reveal this to be pretty much the case, and ditto in many other policy areas in Scotland. “The colonized is never considered in a positive light”, and surely cannot be left to design or build his own ferries without the intervention and supervision of the colonizer?
Strange this hasn’t been mentioned , well of course it wasn’t because the SNP buried it until the end of Holyrood session before it closed for New Year and Christmas Holidays.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/scottish-ferries-fiasco-ministers-warned-rigged-ferguson-marine-ferries-contract-meant-no-level-playing-field/ar-AA15GskT?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=1c4b4c543d3e452ab91810176cf5a9e8&fbclid=IwAR0GuQ5GK2X54uDa0Q7jFlVBKdjLomxaRaYPoXQxQilNAXfLq6u_312447Y