Did the SNP miss the boat on saving commercial shipbuilding on the Clyde?

Scotland’s SNP government would like nothing better than to be seen to have saved commercial shipbuilding on the Clyde. It likes the idea so much it has spent almost half a billion pounds of taxpayer money on the effort while trying to produce two new ferries for Scotland’s island communities. How ironic would it be if an opportunity emerged to finally create a commercially viable yard in Glasgow only for nationalist politics to get in the way of it coming to fruition? Yet that may well be what has happened in recent months.

The fatal moment appears to have been November of last year, when the SNP administration effectively kiboshed a plan from managers at Ferguson Marine, the nationalised shipyard at the centre of the ferries scandal, to make the yard long-term sustainable via a combination of new boat production and regular contract work for the UK military.