I MENTIONED the two small ferries referred to by David Steel (Letters, November 11) and David McEwan Hill (Letters, November 12) in my letter of November 9.
While very welcome by all dependent on shipbuilding, I still don't believe that they will have much long-term impact in respect of bringing shipowners back to the Clyde.
I retired from the Mull ferry before they were ordered but believe they were only allowed to escape the EU (cheapest) tender process because of the new propulsion technology. If this is only suitable for small, short-crossing vessels and not, for example, Ullapool to Stornoway, then British yards will still find it almost impossible to win orders under the present rules. Hopefully Fergusons may have started a new niche market to the benefit of all in the lower Clyde area.
David Fyfe,
14 Roseville Place,
Arbroath.
AMIDST the political posturing of the Labour and Coalition parties regarding the possibility of not awarding the Type 26 contract to the Scottish shipbuilding industry if a Yes vote is successful in next year's referendum, may I draw readers' attention to the English actions when an independent Scotland attempted to set up its Darien Scheme trading colony on the Isthmus of Panama in the late 1690s.
The Scottish venture ended in disaster due in part to the machinations of the English government and the opposition of King William. The Navigation Acts prohibited Scottish ships from trading with the English colonies in America and the English East India Company, wishing to maintain its trade monopoly, used the threat of legal action to revoke international finance for the Scottish project. This latter action was supported by the English Parliament. King William instructed the Dutch and English colonies not to supply or trade with the Scottish settlement. When a Scottish ship sought assistance at Port Royal in Jamaica this was refused by order of the English Government.
Many Scots believed then that their chance of independence as a great trading nation was deliberately sabotaged by the English Parliament and King William.
The failure of the Darien Scheme led directly to the forced Act of Union (1707) when the near-bankrupt Scottish Parliament was made to sign away its independence.
Bruce Lindsay,
2 Seaview Row, Pittenweem.
I SEE that the former Defence Secretary, Lord Reid warns us that if we vote no in the referendum, no UK warships will be built on the Clyde ("Independent Scotland will not get UK warships, warns Reid", The Herald, November 11). Is this the same Defence Secretary who forecast that "not a shot would be fired in anger" when we invaded Afghanistan?
Bob Thomson,
741 Shields Road,
Glasgow.
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