ALBA Party MPs Neale Hanvey and Kenny MacAskill met today (Tuesday) with the Scotland Office Minister Iain Stewart MP in a renewed push to re-establish direct ferry links from Scotland to mainland Europe. The Scotland Office Minister has now agreed to raise the issue directly with the UK Department for Transport.
Speaking immediately after the meeting in Dover House, Whitehall, ALBA Westminster Group Leader and MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath Neale Hanvey MP said:
“The Minister agreed to raise the issue of Scotland-Europe ferry links directly with the UK Department for Transport to explore what assistance might be available to transition to greener and cleaner forms of transport and to report back.
“We pushed the Minister to say when the UK Government will put in place vital funding to replace the European Union Motorway of the Seas funding which has been lost because of Brexit. That fund is being used to help support long range ferry routes from Sweden to Norway, to the tune of 3-4 million Euros per annum over three years, but because we have left the EU Scotland is unable to access this vital funding.
“That is why we are calling on the UK Government to act now to establish a fund into which the Scottish Government and its transport agencies could apply for funding to help re-establish direct ferry links from ports such as Rosyth in Scotland to ports in Europe, such as Zeebrugge and Rotterdam, as other countries are already doing.
“There is nothing to stop the Scottish Government jointly funding this type of investment with the UK Government making a contribution through a UK fund as the successor to the EU Motorway of the Seas”.
Also attending the meeting, Kenny MacAskill, ALBA Depute Leader and MP for East Lothian said:
“As we seek to rebuild our economy as we come out of the pandemic it is vital that we invest in direct ferry routes and services for both passengers and freight. This is the way to build up trade, exports and tourism, while at the same time reducing our carbon emissions, but it requires both political will and proper investment to make it happen.”
The fact that Alba MPs are having to go to the English government to seek connections because the SNP contingent of the Scottish government refuse to make these links is utterly ridiculous. Just what is the point in electing a Scottish government if they refuse to act as a government?
Read a report last week about a £100M investment in ports in Humberside coming up. Scotland never even put any bid in for ports up here. Same as the carbon Capture up here. Our bid was outbid. The bids on Teesside and Liverpool way were far more professional. Rolls Royce making huge investment in England. The reason they never looked up here is because of our energy policy and not embracing the new cleaner Nuclear Energy coming on board. The list is endless. The lowest common denominator in all this is that Scot Gov are crap at putting deals together. They are useless and we are stuck with them . We have a transport minister resigning after 8 months for health reasons. I suppose we have to believe him and the spin that came out for him after. Maybe its because the new ferries with painted windows may be un-seaworthy as the rumours flying around are saying. You could write a book about this Gov inability to bring commerce to Scotland. You just need to look at the Wind deal once the professionals got their hands on the deal to explain what happened against the spin that Sturgeon was spouting. Gupta and his deal in the highlands managed to raise money on the guarantee Sturgeon gave him. On top of the prime land he got as a present . Lets not also not forget the £10B deal Sturgeon signed with the 2 Chinese guys who only owned a pub in Norwich..Stronger For Scotland?? Aye right!!.
No Sandy as usual as with our oil our carbon capture our wind energy the jobs and contracts are always given to England. We are being raped and pillaged daily because Uncle Jocks like you give your loyalty to a foreign nation to the detriment of your nation of birth. What does that make you Sandy the word escapes me!
It Diana escape me Roddy, fuckin quisling or traitor is the word yer looking for I think.
A quisling BB…lol
Yeah deindustrialisation is state sponsored by the British government to keep us impoverished. They channel our trade through English ports, it inflates the export figures with England who claim a interlinked dependent economy. Scotlands economy is export driven that it why Brexit is causing so much harm to our economy. Westminster does not want Scotland to flourish. Example Windmill farms subsidised in England while they put a tax on windmill farms here. It time people woke up , we are mugs subsidising England with free oil gas and electricity. Nuclear energy is one of the reasons that we are paying so much for our electricity, subsidising the building of hyper expensive nuclear power stations in England. The Union is a one way street to milk us colonials of our resources. To wee, to daft ,to stupid. Have you not had enough of the failed state. Dissolve the Union.