In the fevered imaginations of some Remainiacs, Britain’s supermarkets are permanently bare, as Brexit-related supply shortages prompt an absence of the bountiful goods we once enjoyed in the EU. But there is one place in the UK where such dystopian fantasies have now indeed become a reality. Unfortunately for the more boss-eyed of Boris’s critics, it’s nowhere in Leave-voting England. Rather such shortages are now happening on certain windswept Scots islands, where the long-suffering local residents are enduring the effects of the SNP government’s woeful incompetence.
Today’s The Herald on Sunday splashes on the news that shops on certain islands in the Hebrides have been forced to ration essential items owing to widespread ferry cancellations due to a broken down vessel. The newspaper reports residents’ complaints of food shortages being iimposed by local sellers, with islanders restricted to just a carton of milk and one loaf of bread during the most recent ferry breakdown. Scottish Government-controlled ferry operator CalMac is being held responsible for the shortages. Its ageing ship which serves these routes, MV Hebrides, is one of the oldest in the CalMac fleet and has been taken out of service three times in three weeks because of an issue with its firefighting system. Its loss led to major disruption for three days of two routes between Uig on Skye, Lochmaddy on North Uist and Tarbert on Harris.
The disruption, combined with strong winds, mean far fewer sailings have take place in recent weeks than planned. There are now serious concerns about locals getting essential goods, with islands like South Uist reliant on a daily lorry crossing to supply shops and more than 1,700 inhabitants. The Outer Hebrides Tourism group told the Herald that there is ‘no fresh food in supermarkets’ while John Peteranna of the Lochboisdale Ferry Business Impact Group complained that ‘You cannot get more than one carton of milk in each shop. We need to do something different, because the government isn’t interested in helping us.’ CalMac, for their part, dispute this, claiming that ‘We have shopped all the food deliveries we have been asked to take. We prioritise food supplies… any shortages may be down to supermarket supply chain issues.’
Well, the locals certainly seem to think there are. And what is certainly indisputable is the sorry state which the CalMac fleet has been left in under, er, the SNP. As Mr S pointed out last October, some 16 of CalMac’s 31 working ferries deployed across Scotland are over 25 years old; the tonnage of vessels launched since the SNP came to power in 2007 is half the tonnage which joined the fleet in the previous 14 years. Now, after years of under-investment, it seems the chickens are coming home to roost.
No wonder Nicola Sturgeon could barely splutter an answer when asked six weeks ago: ‘You want a referendum next year, what will we get first: a ferry or a referendum?’
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