How the SNP put their own needs during the indyref before Scotland, costing Scots £600m
The public cost of the great ferry fiasco is now nearly £600m. It's important to recall precisely how cynical politicking by the SNP during the indyref led to the current ignominious state of affairs
Casting your minds back…
2014 was the year supposedly of independence former First Minister Alex Salmond announced. A year chosen by former SNP leader as “a good year to hold a referendum” due to the presence of the Ryder Cup, Commonwealth Games and the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn. Ever the cynical political operator, Salmond gambled these events would help him have his cake and eat it.
Many of us recall just how febrile the atmosphere in the public space had become by the time of the August 5th first TV debate; ‘Salmond versus Darling: The Debate’.
Some of us were in the Glasgow HQ for Better Together to watch the conflagration on the big screen. A coalition of varied and traditionally opposing political philosophies united to fend off the dangerous blind gamble of separation.
But one of the interesting things looking back at this particular time period was the dog that didn’t bark. And it’d prove for taxpayers to be an exceptionally expensive bill for the political quiet.
You see, that August 5th 2014 TV debate went particularly badly for Salmond. The critical moment was when Alistair Darling laid into the former First Minister decrying the absence of serious answers
“Any eight year old can tell you the flag of the country, the capital of a country and its currency. Now I presume the flag’s the saltire, I assume our capital will still be Edinburgh, but you can’t tell us what currency we’ll have”
Lurching on from that television moment, all of us small campaigners watching in Better Together HQ cheered that night. When Darling - flanked by Blair McDougall and others - marched in, the room erupted. Everybody knew it was an inflection point, later talking to my grandfather’s second wife, Rhea, she explicitly referenced this moment as her reason for opting for ‘No’. It cut through, and Salmond knew it.
In the aftermath of August 5th TV debate, the ‘Yes’ campaign attempted to double-down on infectious optimism and positivity, ‘yes we can’ blended effortlessly with the politics of the vague predictions and empty platitudes.
Which is why I reckon another calculation was made that same month of August, one which with the benefit of hindsight has cost Scottish taxpayers incredibly dearly.
“The first minister can, we believe, directly intervene…”
On the morning of August 15th - ten days before the August 25th second Salmond-Darling TV Debate disastrous news broke out in Glasgow. Ferguson Marine was kaput. The last shipyard on the lower Clyde was collapsing, giving up the game. A final nail smashing down on the historic identity of Glasgow.
For Glasgow’s pride and identity the prospect was bad enough, but the economic fears of a permanent loss of skilled workers doubly so. But for the ‘Yes’ campaign, Alex Salmond and the SNP government, it could prove the difference between victory and defeat in the independence referendum.
The momentum had been arrested after the first TV debate, uncertainties as to the credibility of the ‘Yes’ team’s answers to big issues were raised. The media kept hammering on currency plan ‘B’s and ‘Cs’. The only way to win for team ‘Yes’ was to double down hard on the positivity message, ‘believe in Scotland’.
But would Glasgow - the largest city in Scotland - really end up ‘Yes City’? Losing the last shipyard hardly fit the tune desperately needed. And the devilishly difficult timing was not lost on Jim Moohan, GMB Scotland senior organiser and chairman of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU). Moohan took action to rescue his boys jobs, playing the best card he knew he had. One, he hoped, would win him the hand.
"The first minister can, we believe, directly intervene and tender for commercial work within Europe to allow this yard to remain open. All governments have got the right to make bold decisions to save an industry."
Sensing the moment was ripe, Moohan issued his warning shot before Scotland's crucial vote on independence due the next month, "The Scottish people will reflect on the handling of this crisis by the first minister”
With Salmond currently leading the final push for the yes campaign, fresh off the first TV debate debacle, Salmond as First Minister took action. Ferguson must be rescued, no matter what. With a second TV debate looming, and the vote itself just around the corner, it was almost certainly a calculation that letting Glasgow’s 110 year old shipyard -and last commercial shipbuilder operating on the River Clyde - go to the wall was unacceptable.
So Salmond and the SNP government decided to peddle a promise of renewal on the Clyde in 2014…You Yes yet?
The then First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond brokered a deal with industrialist Jim McColl to buy the business. A year later the business was awarded a £97 million contract to build two ferries to serve the Isle of Arran, replacing MV Isle of Arran, and the second to sail between Skye, North Uist and Harris.
Inverclyde SNP MP Ronnie Cowan described this decision as "just reward" for the investment McColl had made in Ferguson Marine. Ferguson Marine was announced as the preferred bidder on 31 August 2015 to coincide with an announcement from the UK Government about a £500 million expansion of the Royal Navy's nuclear submarine base at nearby Faslane.
Our greatest debacle in the history of procurement in the devolution era unfolded. It has proved to be a disgusting litany of embarrassment and potential corruption.
Project Neptune
Does anyone remember Ernst and Young’s ‘Project Neptune’ report September last year? No? I wrote an extensive piece about it here, but I’ll briefly recap the sorry story here.
It left one with that sinking feeling that once again taxpayers will be losing out, and that there has always been more to the story than publicly known or admitted.
One would have thought it obvious that Scotland’s ferry network is essential infrastructure and not something to be approached casually by policy makers. Well, more accurately it *seems to be obvious*, but not if you’re the SNP, and made critical decisions over 2014 to try win an indyref. Back then as I’ve tried to establish the nationalists had bigger fish to fry, and worrying about the details of proper governance structures weren’t one of them.
The Project Neptune report lays bare the cacophony of ineptitude, political corruption and ineffective governance structures afflicting our lifeline ferry network.
From funding, procurement to construction and media fairy-tale: everything seems cocooned inside Scottish Government control. A secret Scotland was exposed by Project Neptune, all extended from the great ferry fiasco. A troubled picture where governance structures are unfit for purpose and allegations are levelled against a public-relations obsessed SNP administration.
The report in question was the product of multinational consultancy Ernst and Young, commissioned by the Scottish Government to examine the ‘strategic framework of options for the CHFS network’, or ‘Project Neptune’ for short. Put simply, the incumbent Scottish National Party administration tasked the consultancy with examining governance structures concerning Scotland’s failing ferry service.
Ernst and Young’s report itself should always be read, not least since it’s absolutely scathing. It pulls back the curtains on governance structure which are described as wildly unfit for purpose. It tells of an “absence of long-term planning”, with “sub-optimal” approach to maintenance and replacement of vessels, potentially causing “higher than necessary or unforeseen maintenance costs”.
We learn about just how ineffective, clunking and unacceptable the tripartite system involving Transport Scotland, CMAL, and ferry operator CalMac has proved to be under the SNP regime in Holyrood. Even just a glance at an illustrative diagram of this tripartite arrangement speaks volumes.
Project Neptune report experts surveyed governance structures presided over by the SNP administrations of Salmond and Sturgeon and concluded the status quo “presents operational challenges and is unlikely to represent best value”.
That’s the polite language equivalent of saying ‘none of the current ways of doing things really makes much sense for taxpayers’. And Ernst and Young were correct (obviously). But they missed the critical point, for Salmond, the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon none of it was ever really primarily about value for money for taxpayers. No, whether it was the initial decision to recue Ferguson in 2014, or the 2015 contract awards all the way through till now, the main considerations have been PR, optics, image and politics from a deeply cynical cast of nationalist chancers.
Public relations over outcomes
Looking back the defining characteristic of the Sturgeon era was public relations over obtaining desirable outcomes.
I’m not breaking any new ground when I suggest that under Nicola Sturgeon the Scottish Government, the SNP itself and even the wider pro-Independence movement became entirely subverted by her needs of a more Presidential politics.
Sturgeon prioritised communicating ‘the line’ to the 24 hour press cycle over any actual focus on positive policy outcomes. Worse still, there seems to be a conflation of electorally successful soundbites with actually pulling the levers of power to obtain outcomes.
Am I alone in suspecting our former First Minister represents a capable politician when it comes to winning votes, but is an extremely poor technocrat?
Most First Ministers have at least one iconic and significant policy which defines their time in power. Donald Dewar had the parliament coming into existence. For others such as Jack McConnell there was a smoking ban and Alex Salmond got a ‘gold standard’ independence referendum agreed.
But what of Ms Sturgeon? Baby boxes? Excluding that the list of botched, ill considered or just plain illegal policy initiatives has become a long one.
The ban on singing sectarian songs at football matches crumbled at first sight of the reality of ever having to actually police it. Then there was the state appointed guardian policy which courts struck down as an illegal.
Pursuing another independence referendum has went absolutely nowhere, as did the now-ditched pledge to establish a publicly owned energy company. Even the Gender Recognition Reform proposals revealed her inept policy-making by policy capture.
A long list of failure without any delivery. It’s worth keeping this cynical approach and mentality toward politics and governance in mind as we consider how we ended up with the ferry fiasco.
The great ferries “situation”
As if shoddy governance structures and cynical decision making weren’t bad enough, there is also the spectre of actual criminal corruption.
September last year had the BBC’s Disclosure documentary reveal new evidence suggesting the awarding of the ferries contract to Ferguson Marine was rigged all the way back when.
It reinforces the picture of political cynicism, corrupt dealings and a governing party hiding from scrutiny as taxpayers and islanders are left in the lurch. A fiasco which dashed the dreams of a city clinging desperately to the false-promise peddled by the SNP of a renewal on the Clyde in 2014.
This is a story where the credible allegation can be put of an SNP-led Scottish Government desperate to grant a ferry contract to keep a symbolically (and politically) vital yard afloat. The procurement simply had to go to the yard.
In August 2014 Ferguson was calling in the administrators and bankruptcy. The workers were given an hour to collect their things and go home. The receiver was being called in, tears aplenty as Glasgow’s last yard finally gave way to time.
But the next month in rode the hero, Jim McColl. He bought the yard for £600,000 and promised modernisation, 600 new jobs and a new hope that Glasgow might yet still retain its last vestiges of industrial pride.
First Minister Alex Salmond took full credit for making all of it happen. Salmond had personally asked McColl to take a look at the yard, perhaps rescue it from oblivion.
When McColl opted to take it over, the SNP must have been cock-a-hoop, given things all happened immediately before the Independence referendum votes took place.
McColl renamed the yard Ferguson Marine Engineering Limited (FMEL). He was close to the Scottish Government, seen as a friend by the SNP politicians in the corridors of power over in Edinburgh. It was clear, the SNP were heavily politically invested in the outcome of FMEL being a success story. This all manifested itself in the numerous photo-ops of SNP politicians visiting the shipyard, all smiles for the cameras.
But all fairy-tales have a beginning, middle and ending. Ours is no different It is now known that the wholly publicly owned Caledonian Maritime Assets (CMAL) broke their own tender rules to ensure FMEL would get the procurement contract.
CMAL had said there had to be a refund guarantee from bidders. But there wasn’t for Ferguson Marine (FMEL). CMAL Chief Executive Officer Kevin Hobbs (who joined CMAL in April 2016) told Holyrood parliamentary committees that CMAL had not known prior to FMEL winning the contract that it could not honour the mandatory refund guarantee.
The BBC expose demonstrated this as a lie, though perhaps Mr Hobbs was misinformed by those around him as to the true facts from the time before he was Chief Executive Officer.
We now know that FMEL received a 424 page technical report to help their bid, something no other bidder received. A key part of their bid, according to BBC reporting, was cut and pasted from this. This tells us that the fix was in, special treatment was handed out to FMEL.
Remember August 2014. Between the two TV debates amid the looming 2014 Indyref vote - Ferguson simply had to be saved by Big Alex and his pro-Indy band.
Now we know that FMEL was permitted to change design and price after the deadline, something no other bidder had the opportunity to do. FMEL even received an in-person confidential meeting (we don’t know what was said at this meeting). No other prospective bidder had this sort of access, opportunity or special treatment.
And as all of this corrupt dealing was going on, CalMac believed a bidder other than FMEL was better.
In short, the entire procurement process represented a fix. One which they likely believed came at a convenient time for the political hopes of the SNP and their endless march for separation.
We saved shipbuilding on the Clyde / team yes / believe in Scotland / team Scotland.
Aye right, what a joke all that has turned out to be, and it’s on us voters folks.
Ferguson was granted an inside track to ensure that they would win out in the bidding procurement process. Ferguson had to win, the SNP had invested too much of their government credibility in the yard. Promises had been made, commitments undertaken and Glasgow’s yard closing was politically toxic to an SNP increasingly dependent on west-central Scotland for its votes.
But never you worry, Nicola Sturgeon insisted to Iain Dale that there really is no scandal here at all. Nope, not at all. It’s all just a “situation”…
2023 updates, at the closing of the year
Well that “situation” has just proven even more expensive than previously realised. The Herald today was revealed the SNP’s expenditure on Ferguson Marine since the first steel was cut on the ferries in April, 2016 is now nearly £560m.
An original bit of £97m has now cost taxpayers £560m. And it’s still going up.
You see, the new figure of £560m comes to light when The Herald revealed Audit Scotland’s September estimate of £240m was only focused on direct capital spending.
Therefore it didn’t include full Scottish Government expenditure on running costs such as salaries (note this would be in addition to the £128.25m already spent by SNP when Ferguson Marine was under the control of tycoon and businessman Jim McColl).
Furthermore, the latest Audit Scotland figures also fail to include £51m that Ferguson Marine say they still need for the ruddy ferries since September.
“The Scottish Government has seen an overspend of nearly £350m into Ferguson Marine since it was nationalised at the end of 2019 - including a further £60.9m budgeted for this financial year” writes The Herald.
Now we know the cost of the dog that didn’t bark. Ferguson not going under, sure, saved some jobs. But at nearly £600m, they’re the most expensive jobs taxpayers have ever saved under devolution. And the price is a series of extremely troubling questions which bring procurement, governance procedures into disrepute as island communities suffer a collapsing ferry service.
You yes yet? Me neither. Personally I think the good ship independence is firmly sunk alongside the credibility of the current administration to play an honest hand.
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Incredible corruption and ineptitude, what a waste of tax payers cash, how anyone can defend that is beyond me. Whataboutery on this subject is just not acceptable and I do wonder if either of these vessels will actually be put into service 🤷♀️🤷♀️
Jeez, a compendium of of the daily mails top 20 conspiracy theories about the Scotgov. Let's not forget, since 2014 we have been promised devomax and leveling up.. which you no doubt heartily supported. Last I heard HS2 was costing 100billion and not visiting anyone north of Birmingham. The lack of coverage of this far larger debacle is telling. The Scottish public will inevitably see through the ferry and the iPad business for what they really are. Cynical distractions from failing Westminster policy on immigration, foreign policy especially in Gaza and Brexit which continues to cost Scotland billions every year.