Comment posted Discouraging omen: Sturgeon at Infrastructure falls at the first fence by newsroom.
‘a single new fact can render all your constructs false’ – agree absolutely – and thank goodness. If this wasn’t so, everything would ossify.
But you can’t say we fail to recognise this since, for the latest example, we made public the new information we got on the Argyllshire Championships; apologised voluntarily to those whom the wrong facts led our earlier analysis to misjudge; and re-evaluated the situation in the light of the new information.
None of us who write here – sometimes collaboratively – start with a thesis and go looking for material to fit it. We arrive at a thesis as a result of observation, information and research. And we happily change it when external facts and events make that necessary. That’s the renewal.
I personally can’t imagine anything more impossible or terrifying than continuing to think the same thing. There are values you hold that broadly stay the same – but events and situations change all the time and if you’re alive, they drive constant revision and revaluation, often radically so.
But – and this is also a personal view – I don’t believe one can live constructively without engagement. Life is about a series of mini-conclusions one comes to on the best available evidence – at the time. The alternative would be passivity, limbo, watching the ever-changing whirl of things remotely but not catching them, experiencing them as they and you meet briefly in the chaos.
Nothing happens without decisions being taken and no decision can be any better than the best possible in the moment – which will change and require different decisions next time. The personal choice is to stay on the periphery with a telescope; or get in there, eyes wide open, make the best you can of it and be prepared to change.
I never understand why we punish politicians for ‘u turns’ – when these are simply proof of learning.
All of this also sort of covers your last remark about ‘recognising the validity of alternative opinions and the inherent fragility of our own world views.’
If we did not recognise the validity – the imperative – of alternative views, we, as individiuals and as a team, would either not enable or heavily moderate submitted comments, many of which are thoughtful, closely argued – and contrary. We even accept that straightforward abuse has its place. This facility, while I wholeheartedly agree with it, has not been of my doing but of a principal colleague’s. And we didn’t discuss it. He just set it up that way. It was immediately right and has been a huge strength in the character and the ‘ownership’ it has taken on.
For Argyll has effectively become a very specific kind of blog belonging to the growing and active community who use it. We in the core team are as much facilitators as information providers, challengers, campaigners and overt evangelists for Argyll and its inventive businesses.
Apologies for the late night waxing philosophical – but take it as evidence of respect, because it is.
Lynda
newsroom also commented
- The English and the meaning could not have been plainer. Both were unequivocal.
Moreover, in the newsroom, we make a point of taking nothing from anyone. If we review a book, we pay for it. If we cover a show or an event, we pay for it. if we are interested in a service, we pay to use it. If someone needs to meet us or we need to meet them in the course of working up a story, we pay for the coffee or the soup and sandwiches.
We do this for two reasons – we must be under no obligation to anyone that might be thought by anyone to compromise what we say. And we believe that the things we cover have a value – and that value is to be paid for.
For example, we were generously invited to the reception, the launch and the dinner at the opening of Southworth Developments new Ugadale Hotel at Machrihanish – and we did not go.
We absolutely support the energetic investments, the entrepreneurial imagination and the commitment to quality that characterise David Southworth’s and Brian Keating’s spectrum of projects in Campbeltown and Kintyre.
But we have a job to do that requires actual and perceived independence so, while we may have seemed churlish and ungrateful [neither of which we were], we did not attend these events.
But supposing we had gone… and had continued to be as supportive of these initiatives as, for good and given reason, we are – we could not cleanly have distanced ourselves from potential accusations of being seduced by a free dinner and inclusion in a glamorous event.
We are pretty puritan – perhaps very puritan – in our view of the role of working journalists. Wherever we are, we are working and we are outsiders. We have to be.
An example of the antithesis of our stance in this respect is the custom in the BBC that reporters attending, for example, the racing at Royal Ascot and similar events, dress up like guests and racegoers. They are working journalists and, in our view, they should appear to be distinct from those they are there to interview and to comment upon. They actually look quite silly.
The generally estimable Clare Balding, who reported on the Diamond Jubilee Thames Flotilla from the lead boat, the fabulous royal row barge, Gloriana, was so regally dressed and hatted for the occasion that when she left the closed cabin, went onto the deck and waved to the crowds [another error], she was mistaken for the Queen by those on the river banks.
The only ‘perk’ of this job that we accept as legitimate is the reward of doing the job, of seeing inspirational people, businesses, communities, services and projects at close quarters and growing to understand more of very specialist worlds like, for example, wholesale distribution, quarrying, boat building, museums and heritage management, event management, public transport, tourism, further education, marketing and politics.
Lynda - Doh. It means that THESE posts are from me.
Lynda - It seems a modest enough black list, Simon. I’ll settle for that.
You forgot the typos, though – and the dread frequency of leaving the ‘l’ out of ‘public’ with the most astonishing consequences, most of which, fortunately, get trapped before they make it to the screen.
Good to see you and the Doc getting on. Perhaps being the catalyst for that should go on the positive side of the record?
Lynda - No objection to being told we stick in folk’s craws. We need to.
The jury’s still out on the euro.
We’re studying developments carefully – the legal judgment yesterday – that the European Central Bank’s proposed European Stability Measure BIG bail out fund) does not contravene German law (Germnay being the major finders of the measure) also said that any increase in the German contribution to the fund would have to be approved by the German parliament.While some of Germany senior politicians, including Chancellor Amgela Merkel, are willing for their country to pay to keep alive the political aim of a United States of Europe, founded on the already introduced common currency, the German people, whose money it is, are not.
Spain and Italy are refusing even to ask for the bail out funds they need because they feel that the conditions attached would impede their recovery.
EC President Barroso has also just published a call for all EU member states to join in a political union that is a precursor to a united Europe as a single entity. The reaction has been something of a recoil – yet that is logically the price of the common currency.
It would be a brave person who would bet on the euro. This has a way to go before we see which way the weight is falling.On the Helensburgh dancers issue, your remark here is unworthy of you.
We had been given confident factual information by the authoritative source – which there was absolutely no reason to question. If the director of an event that runs a competition tells you that this is a qualifying contest for a national finals, of course you accept it. They should be expected to know, Our earlier analysis of the situation, quite reasonably, was based on the belief that this information was correct.
It turned out to be untrue, with the Event Director of the Cowal Games – who had given us the information – admitting to us yesterday morning that it was not true. The Argyllshifre Championships is not a qualifier for these finals. We believe that Malcolm Barclay had not known that at the time of telling us it was.We immediate;y offered an unsought and unqualified apology to all those we felt we had misjudged.
No one asked or suggested we should do this but we knew we should.
You may be irritated by our confidence in what we say – bur that is the result of hard work and a great deal of research. It doesn’t mean we’re always right – but we always show the evidence for why we see what we see.
And we’re honest, as the apology to Helensburgh shows. That matters more than ‘humility’.While we beg to differ on the reading of the evidence of Nicola Sturgeon’s lack of effort to get properly into her infrastructure brief, events will prove one of us wrong. If it’s us, we’ll be quick to put our hands up.
An independent mind has to take things as they are, not as it wishes they were. We do wish they were different but we’re not given to blinkers. - The Scottish Goverment has already tested this case in the most telling way – in the tender which was awarded to Argyll Ferries. No operator saw any chance of making money on an all-in-one vehicle and subsidised passenger service. There were no takers. And that was the commercial judgement from those in the industry.
This study is going to be a fabulous spectator sport – and since it’s being imposed on the taxpayer, we might as well all sit back and enjoy the carnival.
Recent comments by newsroom
- Minutes of today’s meeting of ‘Concerned Councillors’ Group
The information is not unconfirmed. It is utterly authentic.
The venue was in Lochgilphead and yes, we admit to being more concerned with the content that the venue.
This does not mean that you are wrong – and there is indeed an additional interest in the session being held outside Kilmory. - Minutes of today’s meeting of ‘Concerned Councillors’ Group
Duplicate salaries would not be possible within the rules.
This would be a matter of sharing the leader’s salary three ways for the duration of the triumvirate. - NOW – 21.00: BBC 2′s ‘Town’ with Nicholas Crane visits Oban
Wasn’t it fantastic – history – and with Catherine Gillies at Dunollie as mercifuly crisp as a brandy snap; the entrepreneurial spirit; the landscape; the seascapes; the island connections; the uniquely beautiful waterfront location that actually addresses its waterfront; the thrilling, mad and testosterone-packed outdoor activities born from the natural resources of a place like this; the masculine industry at Glensanda; the great food; the great music….
Now it all has to be made to be true all of the time.
There was that honest and fundamentally worrying glance at the shops for sale and to let, the shabby properties… and we all know there could have been more of this.
But this programme reminded us all of the core value to Argyll of the unique asset of Oban.
The warmth of the programme should not make us complacent that all is well with Oban – but absolutely determined to get it up to speed and keep it developing. - Minutes of today’s meeting of ‘Concerned Councillors’ Group
The SNP group are clearly unable to progress what they had already agreed at the earlier meeting on 16th May. All of them seem to be totally unable to agree to anything. “Impotent’ gets nowhere near the reality.
The paralysis bears witness to the situation we have already published – that the SNP party now requires its councillors to submit their intentions in advance for signing off [or not] by either the local MSP or an NEC member – and the SNP Constituency Association Convener.
The minutes also bear witness to what we said this morning – that they were squabbling amongst themselves and getting nowhere.
What no one could have imagined – nor would we have dared to publish it – was that we would be getting a New Way hydra as leader.
A triple headed short term leadership with three very different heads – Duncan MacIntyre, Michael Breslin and Vivien Dance.
Did someone say something the other day about popcorn and a seat in the front row?
The difference between the clued up and the clueless revealed in these minutes could not be sharper – and the frustration of the clued up is manifest.
It’s dreadfully funny – but you have to feel real sympathy for Councillor Walsh. Follow him through the minutes and you get the picture. - Serenissima waits for higher tide – and she has had earlier identities
We are, of course aware of that.
Watching at the time, what we saw her do was make marked changes of course over a short distance, some times at 90 degrees and at one point turning through 180 degrees three times in a row.
While some of this could have swinging to tide and current, the repetitions did seem to suggest controlled activity.
And it was only when she settled that her AIS recorded ‘At Anchor.’
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Newsroom (aka soapbox) if the study is bound to show the route is uneconomic why does it bother you so much?
The evidence I see so far is that the former portion of the vehicle service was profitable. This was confirmed by the EU and by the published financial accounts.
Yes, the route is longer but we are being told Western are making profits over the norm – so there is room for competition. Also for many who take their cars the town centre route is preferable because it actually cuts down on time and miles (fuel) driving, and helps get rid of the queues people now suffer.
The current passenger only service is a disaster, it was off again yesterday and might well go off again today. So the government is going to face a choice of pouring more money into passenger only service or delivering on the SNP’s original promise of reliable vehicle ferries.
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As ever, Ferryman, you seem more interested in vehicles than in foot passengers, who – for all your concern – might as well be cattle. This fits with SPT’s mindset on the nearby Kilcreggan ferry – and it really does seem to be Nero (the government) fiddling while Rome (provision of decent passenger ferry services to Gourock station) burns.
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“The evidence I see so far is that the former portion of the vehicle service was profitable. This was confirmed by the EU and by the published financial accounts.”
Yet again ferryman has failed to grasp that it was impossible for the vehicle service NOT to make money. The passenger subsidy paid for the provision of the boat, the piers, the crew, the fuel, and everything else. Given that the boat was there and able to provide a car carrying service – at no cost – of course it made money. But even with that, it still needed many millions of pounds each year to support it.
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Wouldn’t pretend to know all the ins and out of this – but surely an objective feasibility study might actually bring some informed evidence to bear on this issue? What’s the problem with that?
Except of course that since Newsie has already made up her little mind she clearly feels that there is no need for any investigation and rather we should all just bow down and accept her point of view. The reality is that the constant poking at and villlification of the Dunoon Ferry Action Group has been equalled on here only by her constant, personal attacks on CllrDance of Helensburgh – and we all know how that ended up…with yet more egg on Newsie’s face as yet another ‘exclusive’ turns to dust…
Have a nice day
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The ins and outs are few and straightforward.
Don’t forget that the Scottiish Government did the best it could possibly justify for Dunoon in subsidising a passenger ferry service between the two town centres.
The tender for that contract invited bidders to offer an unsubsidised vehicle service in one boat with the subsidised passenger one if they so chose.
No private sector operator could see any commercial mileage in such a service. There were no bids other than for the subsidised passenger service.
All we’ve done above is lay out the reasons for the private sector’s experienced assessment.
Let’s hear your ideas on how this can be overturned. We provide reasons for where we stand.
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Exactly Simon, newsie knows best. The title of the article is discouraging but most local people would find the financial review of the ferries encouraging.
Dunoon Community Council is in favour of a return to vehicle ferries. Only today Sandbank Community Council has been complaining about the “creeping negative impact on the economy of Dunoon and the surrounding area” caused by the passenger only service.
Personally I find it very hard to see how the financial study (unless nobbled) can fail to conclude that a passenger and vehicle service is the best option. Who would you bet on; a Chartered Accountant, an Economics Professor, the published accounts, the EU ruling, the tender which permitted a vehicle service, and Western Ferries demonstration of a profitable vehicle service on the one hand or Newsroom (aka soapbox) on the other?
If Newsroom is so sure of its case why be so worried about having it tested?
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The Scottish Goverment has already tested this case in the most telling way – in the tender which was awarded to Argyll Ferries. No operator saw any chance of making money on an all-in-one vehicle and subsidised passenger service. There were no takers. And that was the commercial judgement from those in the industry.
This study is going to be a fabulous spectator sport – and since it’s being imposed on the taxpayer, we might as well all sit back and enjoy the carnival.
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NEEDS and WANTS
There are no NEEDS here, only WANTS.
I frankly am appalled that my hard earned money is being spent on appeasing some groups on Cowal (or should I actually say Dunoon). Yet again the opportunity to make efforts to safeguard agaisnt fare inflation on Western has been missed.
Why would anyone wish to use a ferry that ran less often, less reliably, took longer and cost more than Western? All of the above relate undeniably to the former Calmac vehicle service.
Maybe however Ms Sturgeon is using this to slam a long awaited nail in the coffin of the prospect of another government organised car ferry. As stated, it will not take much work to prove that it makes no economic or social sense to have another ferry service.
Just maybe…
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The Scottish Government and the EU both recognised a NEED for the town centre route. If they had not the EU would not permit a subsidy and the Government would not have put any service in place.
Over the years people have built their lives around a reliable town centre route. That has been removed and it affects everybody in the area directly or indirectly. Hence the “creeping negative impact on the economy of Dunoon and the surrounding area”.
If you are worried about your tax money are you happy that so much is spent on the free Forth Road Bridge but not providing competion on both fares and timetables on the Firth of Clyde (we have never had real competition)?
You seem to be worried about fare inflation at Western, what makes you think they are not already inflated?
As to the financial review what is the issue if you and newsroom feel the outcome is so certain?
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Ferryman, let’s just wait and see what this study purposes.
I have been following this debate for years now and I remember the calls from the “panel of experts” to see the Dunoon service split from the Calmac bundle to protect the vehicle service. How successful was that?
This study will no doubt show that the return of a combined service will cost the taxpayer more than the current passenger service. This is why all three bidders for the passenger service bid passenger only.
If it currently costs £1.75m p.a. to provide the passenger service and £5m to provide a combined service then do you think that a return of a combined service is likely?
As for fares you can’t subsidise vehicle fares, any vehilce fares would have to reflect the full costs of providing the service. Given that the crossing is longer, and western own it’s own piers then any vehicle fares have to be more expensive than theirs. If not then western would most likely take action and win.
I hope that you and the other members of the DGFAG are prepared to loose. Oh yes you haven’t denied your membership or identity have you. When are you going to come clean?
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“let’s just wait and see what this study purposes”
That sounds like a good idea, but then you go on to try and preempt the study, just like Newsroom (aka soapbox).
In fact Newsroom does not even want to have a study hence “Let’s hear your ideas on how this can be overturned”.
Why the fear about the study?
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And meanwhile, back at Westminster, Alan Reid is challenging issues of the high cost of fuel in Scottish rural areas, especially Kintyre, and difficulties with mobile ‘phone coverage with regard to emergency medical situations. Here’s what Alan Reid said at Westminster:
“Many parts of Argyll and Bute have no mobile phone coverage,
which is bad for business and can make it difficult to get help in an
emergency. Will the Government please tell us what plans they have to
extend mobile phone coverage in Argyll and Bute?”
And
“We raised the rural fuel issue with the last Government, but nothing was done. This Government have introduced the rural fuel derogation. Like the hon. Gentleman, I would
like it to increase. Will he support a campaign to see the derogation extended to remote parts of the mainland, such as the Kintyre peninsula?”
It’s a good job someone is working for Argyll!!
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Discouraging for whom? For Argyll’s paymaster no doubt as a previous correspondent suggested which was denied with me thinks a touch of “protesteth too much!!!”
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Paymaster? Chance would be a fine thing.
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We find the conspiracy theories amusing – but for the record: no person or body of any kind has ever contributed one penny to For Argyll, nor has any been asked to do so.
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Sorry if I don’t believe you why other wise would you be so biased in favour of an aggressive we-want-it-all company. They are on record as wanting the Arran Route, A new route from Port Bannatyne to Ardyne point, whither then the Rhubodach Ferry and the Wemyss Bay one? With a total monopoly of Clyde Routes say good bye to reasonable fares tourism and the ability to get further education and work whilst living in Cowal.
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Not suggesting anyone gave you a penny think they might own you.
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So in plain english ; all the people who contribute financially to forArgyll are named in the “forArgyll team” you have no unnamed sponsors, partners or shareholders?
Is forArgyll a company?
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The English and the meaning could not have been plainer. Both were unequivocal.
Moreover, in the newsroom, we make a point of taking nothing from anyone. If we review a book, we pay for it. If we cover a show or an event, we pay for it. if we are interested in a service, we pay to use it. If someone needs to meet us or we need to meet them in the course of working up a story, we pay for the coffee or the soup and sandwiches.
We do this for two reasons – we must be under no obligation to anyone that might be thought by anyone to compromise what we say. And we believe that the things we cover have a value – and that value is to be paid for.
For example, we were generously invited to the reception, the launch and the dinner at the opening of Southworth Developments new Ugadale Hotel at Machrihanish – and we did not go.
We absolutely support the energetic investments, the entrepreneurial imagination and the commitment to quality that characterise David Southworth’s and Brian Keating’s spectrum of projects in Campbeltown and Kintyre.
But we have a job to do that requires actual and perceived independence so, while we may have seemed churlish and ungrateful [neither of which we were], we did not attend these events.
But supposing we had gone… and had continued to be as supportive of these initiatives as, for good and given reason, we are – we could not cleanly have distanced ourselves from potential accusations of being seduced by a free dinner and inclusion in a glamorous event.
We are pretty puritan – perhaps very puritan – in our view of the role of working journalists. Wherever we are, we are working and we are outsiders. We have to be.
An example of the antithesis of our stance in this respect is the custom in the BBC that reporters attending, for example, the racing at Royal Ascot and similar events, dress up like guests and racegoers. They are working journalists and, in our view, they should appear to be distinct from those they are there to interview and to comment upon. They actually look quite silly.
The generally estimable Clare Balding, who reported on the Diamond Jubilee Thames Flotilla from the lead boat, the fabulous royal row barge, Gloriana, was so regally dressed and hatted for the occasion that when she left the closed cabin, went onto the deck and waved to the crowds [another error], she was mistaken for the Queen by those on the river banks.
The only ‘perk’ of this job that we accept as legitimate is the reward of doing the job, of seeing inspirational people, businesses, communities, services and projects at close quarters and growing to understand more of very specialist worlds like, for example, wholesale distribution, quarrying, boat building, museums and heritage management, event management, public transport, tourism, further education, marketing and politics.
Lynda
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The two questions were;
“So in plain english ; all the people who contribute financially to forArgyll are named in the “forArgyll team” you have no unnamed sponsors, partners or shareholders?
Is forArgyll a company?”
You responded;
“The English and the meaning could not have been plainer. Both were unequivocal.”
Sorry but I did not actually see the answers to the questions anywhere!
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It is not actually the first time ever I have agreed with “Simon” but it is a bit of a rarity. Usually I’m defending “Newsroom” from “Simon” but not in this case.
Despite the title of this article, it has nothing to do Ms Sturgeon’s acumen or dedication to the infrastructural part of her role. It is nothing more than a cheap attempt to slag of the SNP Government while bashing the Dunoon ferry group at the same time. Conflation is a good way to save column inches I suppose but sometimes things are just too tenuous to build a case on and this is one of them.
“Newsroom” does have the MO of knowing the answer to a wide range of problems with a certainty that the Pope would admire. But to the rest of us poor mortals we find such emphatic certainty more than a little off-putting.
The Proclaimers covered this well:
“‘Cos a light shines on that helps you to steer
Makes everything clear
(Well it might)
Well it might in your world
(but it doesn’t)
But it doesn’t in mine
(I’ve been stumbling)
I’ve been stumbling in the dark for years
And the light just made me blind”
Have a think back on the things that you (Newsroom) have been absolutely certain on in the recent past: the imminent (and now rather overdue) collapse of the Euro; Galleries for the Rest and Be Thankful being the only solution and the strange case of Vivian Dance and the Highland Fling.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion and it is your blog so you can write what you want but if you were just a bit less emphatically sure of yourself then it wouldn’t stick in people’s craws quite so much.
Less hubris, more humility!
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No objection to being told we stick in folk’s craws. We need to.
The jury’s still out on the euro.
We’re studying developments carefully – the legal judgment yesterday – that the European Central Bank’s proposed European Stability Measure BIG bail out fund) does not contravene German law (Germnay being the major finders of the measure) also said that any increase in the German contribution to the fund would have to be approved by the German parliament.While some of Germany senior politicians, including Chancellor Amgela Merkel, are willing for their country to pay to keep alive the political aim of a United States of Europe, founded on the already introduced common currency, the German people, whose money it is, are not.
Spain and Italy are refusing even to ask for the bail out funds they need because they feel that the conditions attached would impede their recovery.
EC President Barroso has also just published a call for all EU member states to join in a political union that is a precursor to a united Europe as a single entity. The reaction has been something of a recoil – yet that is logically the price of the common currency.
It would be a brave person who would bet on the euro. This has a way to go before we see which way the weight is falling.
On the Helensburgh dancers issue, your remark here is unworthy of you.
We had been given confident factual information by the authoritative source – which there was absolutely no reason to question. If the director of an event that runs a competition tells you that this is a qualifying contest for a national finals, of course you accept it. They should be expected to know, Our earlier analysis of the situation, quite reasonably, was based on the belief that this information was correct.
It turned out to be untrue, with the Event Director of the Cowal Games – who had given us the information – admitting to us yesterday morning that it was not true. The Argyllshifre Championships is not a qualifier for these finals. We believe that Malcolm Barclay had not known that at the time of telling us it was.
We immediate;y offered an unsought and unqualified apology to all those we felt we had misjudged.
No one asked or suggested we should do this but we knew we should.
You may be irritated by our confidence in what we say – bur that is the result of hard work and a great deal of research. It doesn’t mean we’re always right – but we always show the evidence for why we see what we see.
And we’re honest, as the apology to Helensburgh shows. That matters more than ‘humility’.
While we beg to differ on the reading of the evidence of Nicola Sturgeon’s lack of effort to get properly into her infrastructure brief, events will prove one of us wrong. If it’s us, we’ll be quick to put our hands up.
An independent mind has to take things as they are, not as it wishes they were. We do wish they were different but we’re not given to blinkers.
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Me and Doc are having a Lurve-in.
If Newsie is so determined to be right all the time let’s see how she wriggles out of some more of her past record
‘Dunoon Observer to close’(still going strong)
#Single track road from Dunoon to Castle Toward won’t take the heavy construction traffic’ (there is no single track road on this route)
‘Senior Council officers failed to carry out Council instructions and put the Cowal Games at risk’ (not according to the Cowal Games spokesperson mind you…)
As my homeboy ‘Doc’ said “Less hubris, more humility” would suit you better Newsie.
Have a nice evening y’all.
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Sticking the knife in, Simon, but to exactly what purpose?
You could start your own version of this site, if you’re so disillusioned – but maybe it’s much more fun sniping from the sidelines?
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Me and my “homie” (now there’s an interesting image!) have very different motives for our criticism. Mine is meant to be constructive and improve both the quality and impact of FA. “Simon’s” is the opposite. Nevertheless, we can some times find ourselves aligned in our criticism.
I think “Newsroom’s” problem is a failure to grasp that situations are usually ambiguous, solutions can be (and usually are)multiple, things take time, outcomes are rarely inevitable (though they may seem that way with hindsight) and that, no matter how careful your analysis and fact finding, a single new fact can render all your constructs false.
It is fine to hold opinions and hold them strongly (not much point having a blog otherwise) but it is important to recognise the validity of alternative opinions and the inherent fragility of our own world views.
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‘a single new fact can render all your constructs false’ – agree absolutely – and thank goodness. If this wasn’t so, everything would ossify.
But you can’t say we fail to recognise this since, for the latest example, we made public the new information we got on the Argyllshire Championships; apologised voluntarily to those whom the wrong facts led our earlier analysis to misjudge; and re-evaluated the situation in the light of the new information.
None of us who write here – sometimes collaboratively – start with a thesis and go looking for material to fit it. We arrive at a thesis as a result of observation, information and research. And we happily change it when external facts and events make that necessary. That’s the renewal.
I personally can’t imagine anything more impossible or terrifying than continuing to think the same thing. There are values you hold that broadly stay the same – but events and situations change all the time and if you’re alive, they drive constant revision and revaluation, often radically so.
But – and this is also a personal view – I don’t believe one can live constructively without engagement. Life is about a series of mini-conclusions one comes to on the best available evidence – at the time. The alternative would be passivity, limbo, watching the ever-changing whirl of things remotely but not catching them, experiencing them as they and you meet briefly in the chaos.
Nothing happens without decisions being taken and no decision can be any better than the best possible in the moment – which will change and require different decisions next time. The personal choice is to stay on the periphery with a telescope; or get in there, eyes wide open, make the best you can of it and be prepared to change.
I never understand why we punish politicians for ‘u turns’ – when these are simply proof of learning.
All of this also sort of covers your last remark about ‘recognising the validity of alternative opinions and the inherent fragility of our own world views.’
If we did not recognise the validity – the imperative – of alternative views, we, as individiuals and as a team, would either not enable or heavily moderate submitted comments, many of which are thoughtful, closely argued – and contrary. We even accept that straightforward abuse has its place. This facility, while I wholeheartedly agree with it, has not been of my doing but of a principal colleague’s. And we didn’t discuss it. He just set it up that way. It was immediately right and has been a huge strength in the character and the ‘ownership’ it has taken on.
For Argyll has effectively become a very specific kind of blog belonging to the growing and active community who use it. We in the core team are as much facilitators as information providers, challengers, campaigners and overt evangelists for Argyll and its inventive businesses.
Apologies for the late night waxing philosophical – but take it as evidence of respect, because it is.
Lynda
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You signed a post from “newsroom” as “Lynda”.
Does that mean “Lynda” is “Newsroom”?
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Doh. It means that THESE posts are from me.
Lynda
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It seems a modest enough black list, Simon. I’ll settle for that.
You forgot the typos, though – and the dread frequency of leaving the ‘l’ out of ‘public’ with the most astonishing consequences, most of which, fortunately, get trapped before they make it to the screen.
Good to see you and the Doc getting on. Perhaps being the catalyst for that should go on the positive side of the record?
Lynda
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Not a blacklist Newsie just a wee reminder (along with my homie’s list) that, like the rest of us you, don’t always get it right.
Have a nice day
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On comparing the two routes, there is also the difference in the speed of the ships used, which must also have a considerable impact on the fuel costs. I am sure that Cal Mac ships had to travel considerably faster than Western’s, to keep to timetable, which must have used much more fuel.
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They cannot keep the existing bathtubs on the route because they cannot cope with the weather. That means they need to put larger boats in place, which will use more fuel be they passenger only or passenger and vehicle.
The financial review will decide if the vehicle option is best. All the evidence in terms of reports, ratified published accounts etc. showed the vehicle portion of the former service was profitable – despite being hamstrung in so many ways. That in turn tends to indicate that comments about Western operating at higher than normal profit margins are correct.
Why not just wait for the new report?
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Ferryman keeps saying that Cal-Mac made a profit carrying vehicles. Others say that when the subsidy amount is removed, then the service made a large loss. Surely a profit can only be measured on a totally commercial service – not when it is subsidised by £millions by the poor enough taxpayers of the UK! Hence anyone investigating if this service can be run at a profit, can only come up with a result that ferryman and a few others will not be happy with! Unless of course, some of us are rubbish at Maths……….
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Western Ferries are not a charity. I and the other residents of Cowal pay directly and indirectly for everything it does. When they buy new boats it is with our money.
As a taxpayer I ALSO pay for roads, bridges, trains and buses including contributing to the billions being paid to build and then maintain free to use Forth Bridges.
I would like to see some of my tax money spent here on reliable ferries.
The EU says the vehicle portion of any town centre service cannot be subsidised. I am quite happy to have that investigated. Why all the panic trying to prejudge
what the financial review will find unless you fear the outcome?
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If SOME of the comments made on here were put to the politicians that matter, they might actually listen AND act on them! Think ferryman’s 2nd and 3rd sentence, in his last post would be on the list
. The issues here should not always be what Euroland wants for us.
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