Comment posted Streamline challenge on Northern Ferries tender underlines paralysis of MacBrayne group by newsroom.
This would make more sense – over energetic research on our part?
newsroom also commented
- Many thanks for this update.
Good to see signs of independence.
Recent comments by newsroom
- Update on SNP meeting
The fact that Mr Allan was asked and agreed not to resign does not negate the fact that he was to resign – and should have done so.
Councillor McCuish was persuaded not to resign and will have to make his mind up at what point he puts the interests of his constituents before those of his party.
Sandy Taylor IS a novice councillor.
As a former council officer and not at the most senior level, it is hard to see how he would – if he were to be voted Council Leader – successfully translate to being senior to those who have been his own line managers.
The fact that he has not been able to protect his group of councillors from tightened control measures from party central does not suggest someone with what it takes to stand ground over those he perceives to be his seniors. - SNP meeting on Monday may be testing time for mega-coalition proposal
We’re not going to do a ’20 questions’ routine but, to let local politicians off the hook, it’s not any of them.
And we’re now taking a vow of silence. - First Minister’s choice not to condemn mob behaviour proves Farage point
Criticising behaviour – like Nimbyism [a worthy target], should not necessarily require tying it to a party or a group, although if there is good evidence why it belongs there, there is every reason to relate the two.
When you say: ‘Only in a very small number of occasions would I condone taking protest to the point of physical intimidation and I reserve that to some of the most significant ‘upheavals’ in modern times (examples being the fight against apartheid and the civil rights movement in the US) – even then there would be a line I, personally, couldn’t step over.’ – this is wholly understandable but using violence to protest against it is contradictory. I can never get playwright John Arden’s line out my head on this one: ‘You can’t cure the pox by further whoring.’
Civil disobedience is a very attractive and effective expression of disaffection but people are quite resistant to considering it.
Lynda - Arctic Convoy navies celebrated at Loch Ewe as surviving veterans receive Arctic Star medal
Email Jacky Brookes of the Russian Arctic Convoy Museum in Wester Ross: info@russianarcticconvoymuseum.co.uk (Russian Arctic Convoy Museum)
She will be glad to hear from you and of your father.
If you go to this webpage: http://www.veterans-uk.info/arctic_star_index.htm
- you will find an Application Form for the Arctic Star on it.
Alternatively, you can phone: 08457 800 900 and take it from there.
You will be able to get a posthumous medal for your father for his Arctic Convoy service – and although, painfully, he will never have known of it or seen it, he earned it and the medal will be very important to your family. - First Minister’s choice not to condemn mob behaviour proves Farage point
We have people in Community Councils in Argyll who are on the record as not wanting ‘people of low incomes’ in their area. And those will be people of a variety of political persuasions. The socialist NIMBY is not a rare bird.
It is unsafe to give representational status to the fringe adherents of any cause – and that is why the cause itself – any cause – must be clear about what it finds acceptable and what it does not.
The need for the formal, official representative of a country to be clear on matters like this is even greater – and it sets the bar.
How would Mr Salmond react to the same treatment the mob offered Mr Farage in Edinburgh?
It was sudden and unexpected.
It began with an invasion of the pub he was in.
It was intimidating – the mob crowded tight in, creating a real pressure.
The shouting and the abuse was literally ‘in his face’.
There was no way through nor any offered.
It would be surprising if the First Minister were not to feel equally shaken by such an experience – and very surprising if he had effectively condoned it as gleefully afterwards.
Personally, I’m not afraid of much – but the pressure of shouting bodies, the level of unreason, the aggression – with no signals that this might not turn to physical aggression… I wouldn’t have run but I would have been worried for my safety and I would have had no certainty as to the outcome.
The police clearly had reason to take a quite extraordinary series of measures to protect Mr Farage.
One of these was locking him in a pub for his own safety.
That meant that they were uncertain of their ability to protect him against a violence they, who were present – clearly felt was a potential development.
I feel – on good evidence – that Tony Blair did more damage than anyone to the political life of this country, to its expectation of honesty in those who govern, to its essential democracy and to its security – and that he has blood on his hands: of untold thousands of innocent Iraqis, of Dr David Kelly, of those who died in London in the bombings of 7th July 2005. I feel the most profound contempt for him.[And Nigel Farage has nothing of this level of gravity on his record.]
But I would act to protect Blair were he to be the butt of anything like this – because I do not wish to be implicated either in what he has done or in any primitive lynch mob response to it.
The best punishment for the attention-seeking and egotistical Blair is to pay him no attention. He is not an homme serieux.
The best response to UKIP and MR Farage, if you are opposed to their politics, is not to vote for them.
Lynda
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There should be no reason on earth why any of the bidders for the contract should be prevented from challenging the outcome of the tendering process, if they consider themselves hard done by.
The specific offers for ‘extras’, and of any conditions imposed by bidders – beyond what’s specified in the tender – should be public knowledge, and if they’re not then surely that’s cause enough for any or all of the losing bidders to challenge the outcome; the whole process should be transparent, and that popular let-out ‘commercial confidentiality’ shouldn’t be used as an excuse to conceal any controversial aspects of the process.
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The MacBrayne group would certainly face some difficulty in challenging any contract award, and have been in such a position before on the Ballycastle-Rathlin route. One has to wonder why the Scottish government took such an “interest” in the way that particular contract was awarded.
” Judith Ainsley, Guy Platten of CMAL and Mike Berry (Scottish Government Ferries Division) are hoping to meet with representatives of DRD (Department for Regional Development) Northern Ireland to discuss the tendering of the Rathlin-Ballycastle ferry service, this will be followed by a visit to the ferry operator”
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/935/0087905.doc
Perhaps Streamline have done MacBrayne a favour in opening the process up to legal scrutiny.
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I don’t understand why ‘the MacBrayne group would certainly face some difficulty in challenging any contract award’ – Why? Surely the tendering process has by law to be a level playing field, and if Northlink (which is surely more than just MacBrayne) were to find fault with the contract award they’d be just as free as any other tenderer to object. This is a government tender involving public money and must be organised fairly, or the media will have a field day and the Transport Minister will have some explaining to do. That’s quite apart from what the European authorities might see fit to do.
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I think you will find streamline credit card machines has nothing to do with streamline shipping!
Come on, poor research
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This would make more sense – over energetic research on our part?
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Hmm, don’t you mean “no research on our part”, but instead a classic case of jumping to a false conclusion?
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NORTHERN ISLES FERRY TENDER
Back
13 May 2012
“NorthLink Ferries Ltd today confirms that it is in continuing discussions with the Scottish Government to clarify certain aspects of the procurement process which eight days ago saw Scottish Ministers announce that the six-year contract to operate lifeline ferry services for Orkney and Shetland was to be awarded to Serco Ltd. NorthLink’s current contract to operate the services is due to expire on July 5″ http://www.northlinkferries.co.uk/default.aspx.locid-00gnew3eu.Lang-EN.htm
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Many thanks for this update.
Good to see signs of independence.
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Independence? Hardly independence, as NorthLink is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Macbrayne Group (i.e. the Scottish Government) and who are they currently running the service for? Oh yes, the Scottish Government! Perhaps not so much independence as nepotism?
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“they’d be just as free as any other tenderer to object. This is a government tender involving public money and must be organised fairly, or the media will have a field day and the Transport Minister will have some explaining to do.”
Do you think? Having read their responses to an “independent” investigation into the awarding of the Rathlin contract, it’s very clear that Calmac/Rathlin Ferries Ltd were unhappy at the way in which that tendering process had been operated. Yet, no legal challenge? http://www.scribd.com/doc/9618691/CalmacRFL-Addendum-Note-to-DRD-investigations-body
http://www.scribd.com/doc/9592687/CalmacRFL-Note-to-the-DRD-investigations-body
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I hope we’re not getting into some sort of Scottish public sector giant pile of sleaze centred on inadequately defined process in tendering for large public transport contracts. It could be stretching from the megabungling of the Edinburgh tram system procurument disaster at one end of the scale to the microbungling of the Gourock – Kilcreggan – Helensburgh ferry links at the other, taking in the Gourock – Dunoon affair and the ongoing saga of Calmac routes retendering on the way. Not sure about the quality of the second Forth Road Bridge contract, but time will tell.
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I stay on Orkney and we are just sick of the mess the Government is making of our lifeline ferry service. The contract with Serco, if it lasts, is undesirable -they can only make money by cutting services and the crew’s pay and numbers and their reputation as a cutter of pay and numbers is clear from their control of NHS contracts in England. As well as the developing contract fiasco, this year we had the mess the Government made of the dry dock timetable where they went behind Orkney’s back to get Shetland council to pay extra for an extended charter of the Hebridean Isles (I think); we’ve the attempt to cut service standards by slowing down the boats and reducing services; there is the continuing saga of the alternating denial and promise of RET which, if it comes has receded to the next Parliament.
This is heading for a grand all purpose mess.
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Are you sure you’re not over-egging the pudding? With two separate Northlink services (Stromness – Scrabster and Kirkwall – Aberdeen / Lerwick, the Pentland Ferries route from St Margaret’s Hope to Gills Bay, and the freight ferry between Kirkwall and Aberdeen / Lerwick, to the outside observer it looks as if Orkney enjoys good lifeline ferry services.
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I agree that we do well with the service we get – the service from the Hope to Gills Bay is completely private with no subsidy nor does it count as a life line service. Our bind is not so much about the service as the secretive and underhanded behaviour of the Government – for example we don’t know about what the new contract says about ferry frequencies or times; there looks to be a cut back in the freight boats for both sets of islands; the possibility of RET for Orkney ferries- including the internal services has receded to beyond 2015.
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Of course they enjoy good services, just like Dunoon has a reliable service. Unless you are local to the route and use it regularly you really don’t know all the ins and outs.
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Transport Scotland do not seem particularly competent at writing contracts – read yours carefully.
In theory CalMac can take legal action, it practice I imagine it not possible because CalMac is run by the Scottish Government so people are hardly likely to try to take Court action against a decision made by their own bosses.
There was no logic to the Dunoon Gourock route decision. A linkspan had been built a promise of vehicle ferries had been made, then all of a sudden there was a U-turn. Now with the CalMac losing Northlink it is starting to look as if there is an agenda to break up CalMac.
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i think the snp agenda is get rid of calmac ,alex salmond stated yesterday the basf factory in stornoways would create 9 jobs (equal to thousands in the glasgow/edinburgh). when they give northlink and calmac away ,i fear hundreds of jobs will be lost (mostly in rural areas ).
how will he explain that !!!!
this isnt scaremongering it will happen .
snp …only interested in big business ….get these clowns out
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It does look like they want to break up CalMac, but why is not clear. Private companies will snap up the profitable routes. The Government will be left subsidising the unprofitable routes. Everybody will lose because there will be no ability to move relief boats around during maintenance periods.
This is exactly the position in Dunoon. The vehicle part of the old CalMac service was making a profit every year from 2002 until it ended in 2011. Now the Government has to subsidise a dismal passenger service that cannot cope with the weather and has to run a half service for four weeks each year because there are no relief boats. Meanwhile Western gain 60,000 vehicle crossings per year with no control on prices and profit.
This seems set to spread throughout the ferry routes in Scotland – not good news.
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Follow the money people
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