I apologise for returning to a subject which I have covered before but ferry services to the islands of Scotland are a disaster which just keeps on unfolding.

There have been a number of recent developments, mostly bad but one good.

The first dollop of bad news was that the ferries being built at Ferguson's shipyard are going to be further delayed, they are going to cost more money and, on value for money grounds the second, as yet unnamed, hull would be better scrapped than continued with – but the Scottish Government has decided to continue.

Yet more delay and the extra cost which takes the bill for rescuing the yard and building the ships towards £400 million is pure bad news but with the yard now better managed and the bulk of the disastrous over-spend already long spent it may be the lesser of two evils to provide the extra money and proceed with the second hull which is desperately needed in service.

The second and more damaging development is the continued poor service to people in the islands. Ships break down just after their annual maintenance and so are removed from an already overstretched service. This is not just an inconvenience – as endless roadworks on the M8 are – it’s an absolute disaster.

Without a reliable ferry service island businesses are destroyed, tourism collapses, people conclude that living there just doesn’t work. This problem has unfolded on the SNP Government’s watch, it has nothing to do with the UK Government, it was completely predictable because ferries were not ordered when they should have been. It is an absolute disgrace.

The third bit of bad news – and this was the one which really had me choking – was that a Holyrood Committee has decided the solution to the ferry problem is to put the ferry operator and ship owning companies back together and then let CalMac own and run everything for even longer.

Oh my goodness! CalMac with its over-large, over-manned ships which are too slow and too infrequent should absolutely not be left as a monopoly with even less transparency and pressure to reform. More CalMac is not the solution, CalMac is the problem.

What people on the islands want is reliable ferries which are smaller, faster, more frequent, with more extended timetables. They can be manned by local people, they don’t need to be made twice the size in order to have people living on board.

CalMac has had decades to create an efficient ferry service and, aided and abetted in recent years by a spineless SNP Government, it has failed to get to grips with the unions, failed to specify and procure the right ships and failed to provide a decent service.

There is however some good news. People on the islands have had enough. When they get the chance their failed SNP representatives are thrashed in elections. Groups are being formed to lobby, to present alternatives, to protest.

The instinct of the Scottish Government will be to ignore and rubbish these groups. To say that they don’t know what they are taking about, when in fact they know exactly what they are talking about because they know what their community needs and they often include marine experts. These groups should be respected and engaged, they are part of the solution.

First, CalMac has to be broken up. It has proved its uselessness. Keeping all the ferry routes in one monopoly is an impediment to progress. CalMac and the Scottish Government say they can’t reveal the economics of individual routes because it’s commercially sensitive.

What a joke, how can it be commercially sensitive for a state owned monopoly to tell us – its ultimate owners – what is going on? Embarrassing – yes but “commercially sensitive” – no.

Second, the Government needs to tell CalMac that on 31 December 2026 all – yes all – of its state funding will stop.

Third, people on the islands should be encouraged to form their own ferry operating companies, with 25% of the share capital owned by the relevant local authority and the other 75% directly by the council tax and business rate payers on the islands but with the option to sell up to 25% of the company to a third party if they want.

These local ferry companies would be given immediate access to all the information about their route and what it costs to serve, including not just operating costs but CalMac’s overheads too.

These companies would prepare a business plan for their ferry services which would include where they would get ships from as well as personnel, engineering, design and safety services – but they would be free to buy them from wherever they wanted which may or may not be CalMac.

Each company would receive an annual payment from the Scottish Government equal to the current total subsidy on their route. The existing ships could be leased from the current state-owned shipowner at a market rate but only on an annual basis – if the local ferry company wanted to lease another ship or build or buy their own they could.

Then on January 1, 2027, the new local ferry companies take over their service.

Would CalMac cease to exist? Probably. Would there be a bit of disruption? Yes. Would there be chaos? A lot less than there is now.