On a day when a deadline loomed on Stornoway and another wretched weather system had roared in from the west, making mountains of the waves, I learned something about ferries and the islands that they serve. I could have flown direct from Glasgow but opted instead to leave the city at dawn and drive. This was an all too rare opportunity to encounter some of Scotland’s most beguiling beauty and it would have been sinful to have flown quickly over it when there was a chance to travel leisurely through it. When you turn west before Inverness and drive to Kyle of Lochalsh you see Scotland in its jaggy majesty and you reproach yourself for never having visited this place before and you wonder if there could be anywhere more beautiful in the kingdom. And then you meet Skye.

That final crossing at the other end of the island almost never happened and I could see my assignment also disappearing on the winds. The CalMac ferryman though, as he must have done on countless other occasions, took a deep breath and set sail for Tarbert on a sullen sea. For the first time this persistent lowlander was forced to consider how vital are these ferries to the currency of life and culture on our sacred Western Isles. It simply isn’t possible to over-state the importance of the decision made on Thursday to award the new £900 million contract to run west coast ferries to Caledonian MacBrayne, the Scottish government’s preferred bidder.

Within the communities that they serve CalMac is loved and reviled in equal measure but it is regarded with some degree of affection as “our CalMac”. While there have been issues over some of its ageing vessels and lack of investment in new and more robust ferries there is always a feeling that you can talk to them and that, most important of all, a commitment to public service will always underpin its outlook.

The prospect of losing CalMac for good emerged during the lengthy tendering process that took place before the decision was made. Serco, the all-consuming, global out-sourcing conglomerate, had stood to hoover up these routes for the next eight years. Yet these are lifeline services and, as such, must always be free from the indiscriminate tyranny of the free market to which a global entity like Serco must always be prostrate.

The Scottish Government may be correct in saying there had to be a stringent tendering process to meet European procurement legislation but there is a deep and well-founded suspicion it could have sought a derogation from tendering by arguing strongly that, when a lifeline service such as this is at stake, the normal rules of competition ought not to apply. This needs to be a service which will be free from the uncertainties and vagaries of economic downturns and the implacable capitalism of the banking sector.

The debate over whether or not the tendering process ought ever to have taken place revealed some of the seedier business instincts of the SNP. They have never really been examined on their left-wing tendencies and, amidst all the bluster about empowering communities there was undisguised enthusiasm from senior figures about the cost savings to be made if the routes were opened up to private competition.

Labour claims it forced the government to alter the tendering equation in favour of quality at the expense of cost are largely redundant. The last time the contract was up for renewal came during the Lab-LibDem Holyrood coalition in 2005. They too felt utterly obliged to move to tender, though with slightly less enthusiasm than some 2014 Nationalists. Labour politicians in their rush to condemn the SNP for triggering a costly tendering process need to consider being a little more cautious. If they persist in portraying the entire process as one that was unduly influenced by political imperatives then they risk becoming witnesses for the complainants if a review of the decision is sought by Serco.

Many islanders will have observed the hoopla which has followed the decision with some bemusement. Beyond visiting the website of VisitScotland for a wee Highland cottage to bide for the Glasgow Fair, it’s not very often lowland Scotland takes such a keen interest in the affairs of the highlands and islands. Indeed, until now such interest as there’s been is usually restricted to siren calls from loudmouth metropolitans to stop spending money on promoting the Gaelic language.

To live and work on these islands is to be subject to the climate which can be an unpredictable master. Prolonged crossing delays or outright cancellations have a far-reaching impact on island life. Vital supplies of provisions are interrupted; important meetings to clinch deals or make business connections get postponed or simply don’t happen at all.

Brian Wilson, resident of Stornoway and former Labour minister, has written in the West Highland Free Press of how the ferries weave in and out of the life of these islands. “There are few more important decisions in the life of an island than the ones taken about the ferries which serve it." He illustrated how the island economy can become prey to the whims of an unforgiving weather system.

When I met him on Stornoway on that trip north two years ago there had recently been a bout of exceptionally bad weather and some technical issues on the ferries. “For the first time since the 1960s, he told me, islanders have been missing their daily newspapers. The retail outlets which sell them have suffered from the absence of ancillary trade which a newspaper purchase may bring. It has the potential to kill Stornoway town centre for a day or two."

The culture and the economy of the Highlands and Islands are crucial to Scotland’s future success. This is a region whose potential for tourism development and the global renewables industry is immense. The Scottish islands have some of the best renewable energy resources in Europe with the potential to supply a significant portion of the UK’s electricity needs by 2030.

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Highlands and Island development Board by Harold Wilson’s Labour government. It was charged with trying to reverse the region’s chronic population decline and, in that at least, has achieved a fair degree of success.

Unemployment and mass emigration had been responsible for the region’s population collapsing to an all-time low of 304,161 by 1961. It now stands at around 460,000: an increase of almost 26 per cent. In the islands though, there has been nothing of this success. Between 1961 and 1981 the population of Lewis and Harris actually dropped while it is now predicted the population of the Outer Hebrides will fall 11.3 per cent, or 2,500 citizens, by 2035.

Within our Highlands and Islands is where the cultural heart of Scotland beats most strongly. Its identity informs Scotland’s identity more than any other region. Fewer of its young people are now seeking to a future away from these places but more need to return. There is evidence of a re-birth of a vibrant economy in this, our most iconic region, but this message needs to be carried strongly to investors in the rest of the UK.

The next time the west coast ferry routes are up for grabs will be 2024. It would be good if the rest of us could occasionally spend a bit more time and money in our grandest region before the next tendering pantomime holds our gaze.