When Nicola Sturgeon looks back on her economic legacy, what will she feel most proud of: the big industrial plants on Scotland’s coast churning out wind turbines for export, the near monthly launch of newly built ships on the Clyde, or the thriving green venture capital community sprouting up in Edinburgh?
An inability to deal with economic reality is the final entry in the ledger of Sturgeon’s economic legacy
That kind of fond reminiscing won’t happen of course because none of these things exist. The fiasco of the Sturgeon administration trying to organise the building of new ferries on the Clyde while supposedly saving Scottish commercial shipbuilding is well documented. The two ferries at the centre of the farce are now five years late and at least £150 million over budget. The latest development was the announcement on Wednesday that Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited, the Scottish agency in charge of ferry procurement, has appointed a senior lawyer to investigate whether the contract for the ferries was ‘rigged’.

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