MY thoughts are with the workers and their families with the closure of Ferguson's Shipbuilders in Port Glasgow ("Unions accuse SNP over jobs loss at shipyard," The Herald, August 16).
Commercial shipbuilding on the Clyde is now dead. The last yard building commercial ships on the river has closed. This is a huge moment in history and we can no longer call ourselves a proud maritime nation.
We should reflect on some facts at this important time before the referendum. First, all of the Scottish yards which built ships currently in service with Calmac are now closed. Secondly, of the largest ferries working in the EU today, 92 per cent were built in the EU. Thirdly, 96 per cent of the largest cruise ships (100,000-tonne-plus) were built in the EU. Not one of these vessels was built in Scotland or the UK.
The three Northlink ferries were built in Finland and the new Lewis ferry is being built in Germany. Both are EU member states and both have similar cost bases to Scotland.
The difference is that other EU countries have supported their shipbuilding industry, whereas the UK has left Scotland's to die.
One last fact: the largest cruise ship built represents more tonnage than the two aircraft carriers put together.
The main issue is the head-in-sand mentality which refuses to look at the world with open eyes and still believes in Great Britain. Factually, Scotland is not better together if shipbuilding is important to you.
Donald Morris,
91 Drumdevan Road, Loch Àrdail.
The "Project Fear" efforts of the Better Together Campaign would have us believe that Royal Navy warships are 100 per cent British. Are they really?
Shipbuilding is now an assembly operation, like so many other industries; and there is no doubt that the warship hulls are British - but what about the innards?
Could Better Together assure us that every cable, cannon, cludgie and computer in the Type 45 Destroyers and the Queen Elizabeth Carriers is British? BAE Systems (the actual builder)will have the knowledge; but it would be a wonder if the backers of the No campaign were to share it with us.
Not innards, perhaps, but the giant crane helping to build the carriers at Rosyth came from China.
Jim MacRitchie,
8 Colinbar Circle,
Barrhead.
Alex Salmond and the EU are obviously not supporters of Scottish shipbuilding. While Ferguson's of Port Glasgow has foundered because of the lack of shipbuilding orders, Calmac's new ferry, the MV Loch Seaforth, is being built in Germany. Why didn't the Scottish Government place the order with Ferguson's to help save the yard and its jobs?
We know that the EU rules on competition restrict choice on where a ship can be built, but with Ferguson's in dire straits, why didn't Alex Salmond show leadership and ignore the rules to help save Scottish shipbuilding?
Bob MacDougall,
Oxhill, Kippen, Stirlingshire.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article