Absolutely. The relief ships issue is a major …

Comment posted RMT off target in ballotting west coast ferry workers on strike action by newsroom.

Absolutely. The relief ships issue is a major one.
CalMac is expert at the chess game which is moving ships around to keep all routes supplied if one member of the fleet has to come out of service unexpectedly.
With the variety of ships, community need and berthing facilities, this ship shuffle is second nature to CalMac. A new operator would not have this expertise – they might also not have enough routes to shuffle appropriate ships around to maintain a service, if not a full one, to all destinations.
The routes identified for tendering look to us as if the potential need to move ships between routes is driving the make up of the bundles.

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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