WHEN Governments, or at least Ministers, fall you can often trace their downfall back to a single event.
Black Wednesday for the Major Government, unfortunate liaisons for Mr Profumo and many politicians after him, argy-bargy with the police, renewable heating schemes - the list goes on.
Often the danger initially appears low but as events unfold, new facts come to light, fibs and cosy deals exposed, trust and credibility eroded until the Minister or Government in question must go.
When you look at the incompetence, misjudgements and secrecy the Scottish Government has demonstrated in relation to Scottish ferry services and Ferguson Marine, I wonder whether it will mark the beginning of the end for some individuals in the Scottish Government.
The SNP Government has a policy of improving lifeline ferry timetables and reducing fares for their users. This is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, it is what politicians are for, to put forward policies enabling voters to decide whether to elect them.
What voters and taxpayers are however entitled to expect is policies are then implemented competently. What should have been foreseen is that a combination of an ageing ferry fleet, more ambitious timetables and more customers but less income was a recipe for trouble unless more money and, above all, new ships were provided. What actually happened is a spineless government cave-in to the union over pensions which scuppered Calmac’s chances of reducing its cost base as well as the chances of real competition when the ferry routes were put out to tender, far too few new ferries and, to cap it all, the ludicrous selection, endorsed by the Scottish Government, for additional ships of complex dual fuel prototype ferries which virtually guaranteed delay and extra costs in getting them into service. The result is frequent operational shambles on vital routes.
This self created mess has then collided with the problems at Ferguson’s shipyard in Port Glasgow. Shipbuilding is a difficult industry and Ferguson, the last non-warship yard on the Clyde, went bust in 2014.
From the safety of low tax paying Monaco into the breach steps Jim McColl, a businessman who backed independence and Nicola Sturgeon has often told us how wonderful he is. He has argued on several occasions for the Scottish Government to have more tax raising powers - which unsurprisingly would not apply in Monaco.
Ferguson’s wins the contract to build the prototype Calmac ferries. Jim McColl does not own Ferguson’s shipyard but looks after the interests of investors who have beneficial ownership of Ferguson Marine. What Mr McColl and his team do have is a track record of buying unloved and unsuccessful companies, improving their fortunes and then selling them on to deliver returns for their investors - no problem there.
Where things have gone awry is the mixing of a troubled shipyard trying to rebuild its business with prototype ships which, whoever’s fault it is, are proving difficult to build to time and budget. To boot the Ferguson’s Holding Company’s December 2016 accounts are over a year late.
All that is wrong about the Scottish Government and its dealings with business and the economy is demonstrated by how it has dealt with this problem - it’s worse than Prestwick Airport.
First, a secret loan in late 2017 of £15 million. Then in summer this year a further loan of £30 million was announced to assist the yard with working capital to enable it to diversify its business into ship service and repair and decommissioning work.
We now know the loan was needed to deal with funding issues arising from the problems with the Calmac ships. Has the Minister who issued the initial press release and others in Government apologised to the voters and taxpayers for the ‘confusion’.
Why did the goverment think it was right to commit £45 million of our money to this business which is ultimately owned by funds with resources of hundreds of millions of pounds? Why did they say the money was for another purpose? Why did they not come clean that they had already lent £15 million? Why did they encourage or at least endorse the plan to build such unnecessarily complex vessels?
Vanity, hubris, incompetence, or secret deals with other people’s money - at least somebody at the heart of the Government should take responsibility and resign over this fiasco.
Pinstripe is a senior member of Scotland's financial services community.
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