Labour candidate backs seven-day CalMac service

Some people on the Isle of Lewis may have an awkward choice to make between sex and Sunday sailing when voting at the next general election.

The new Labour candidate for the Western Isles seat at Westminster is Donald John MacSween, an outspoken advocate of an unpopular proposal for a ferry service on the Sabbath between Lewis and the mainland. His opponent, the SNP incumbent Angus MacNeil, is the MP who was forced to apologise for an indiscretion with two teenage girls in a Shetland hotel room in 2005.

Many on Lewis have no truck with sexual misdemeanours, but are also staunchly resistant to Sunday ferry services, and a petition organised by the Lord's Day Observance Society (LDOS) against the seven-day sailings has been signed by 3800 residents.

But MacSween, a member of the Western Isles Council and vice-chairman of the transport committee, has already said he hoped his views would not damage his chances.

"For quite a long time I have advocated regular transport links in better vessels with much cheaper fares, and included in that was the need for a Sunday ferry service," he said. "I fought three council elections with people knowing what my views were, and I cannot say I have upset people unduly because of my views.

"I am not anti-Church in any way whatsoever. That wasn't part of my upbringing, and it is not part of my own philosophy on life either. I think people are mature enough to realise that I do have a valid point of view."

The proposal for Sunday ferry sailing was made in September when CalMac, which operates the crossing from Stornoway to Ullapool, received a number of letters pressing for a seven-day link. Supporters say an extended service would bring social and economic benefits to the island and that Sunday travel should be a matter of choice. A counter-petition has also attracted support and has been sent to CalMac officials, who will meet in the new year to reach a decision.

But the Reverend George Macaskill, who helped organise the LDOS petition, said Sunday ferries would wreck the Sabbath on Lewis.

"Our disappointment that there continue to be persistent attempts to introduce seven-day sailings to these islands is obviously from a spiritual and religious point of view," he said. "However, the recent petition shows that there is also strong feeling, not only from the churches, but from the community as a whole.

"We are saddened that our Christian heritage is slowly being eroded by a 24/7 mentality."

Dr Iain Campbell, minister of the Free Church of Scotland in Back, Lewis, added: "There is a biblical principle that Sunday is different from any other day. It is a traditional that has served the island well and made us more like our European neighbours. I hope that our elected representatives will represent the views of the island's inhabitants."

Though Macaskill said that SNP MP Angus MacNeil had been "generally supportive" of the Sunday observance campaign, MacSween claimed his views also had the backing of church-going islanders. "My argument comes from necessity, and a lot of Christians have told me that they have had many instances of family trauma where they would have wished to travel to and from the mainland on Sunday," he said.

"A lot of old people have also told me that they would like the comfort of knowing that they could travel on Sunday if anything happened to them or their family. Sunday planes are very widely used and have caused no disruption."

The Labour candidate was outspoken in his criticism of Angus MacNeil and Western Isles SNP MSP Alasdair Allan. "Our MP and MSP have been particularly dumb on this," he said. "They use Sunday transport links themselves on the mainland. Whether people agree with me or not, at least give me some credit for being honest and holding these views openly."

Most shops and licensed premises across Lewis continue to close on the Sabbath, and the introduction of a Sunday ferry service between the south of Lewis and the smaller island of North Uist last year was met with widespread opposition.

Consideration of the Sunday service for the Stornoway-Ullapool route, one of only two CalMac routes that do not operate on a Sunday, was recently postponed by the firm's board until its next meeting in late January.

It was due to have been on the table for discussion at the board meeting last month at Fort William. However, CalMac chairman Peter Timms told the Lewis branch of the LDOS that, to ensure deliberations did not interfere with the current Scottish government inquiry into the feasibility of a new tariff scheme for the ferries, the board had decided to postpone any decision.

The Stornoway-Ullapool route may be one of the services under consideration for a Road Equivalent Tariff pilot study, which would involve setting ferry fares on the basis of the cost of travelling an equivalent distance by road. High ferry charges have been seen by many as a barrier to economic growth on the islands.

MacSween told the Sunday Herald that improvement of the ferry service was one of his chief concerns. "We're living with services that are not fit for purpose in the 21st century. The frequency of the services hasn't altered since the war and CalMac behaves like a Soviet nationalised body of the 1950s," he said.