The SNP’s latest ferries farrago

Hurrah! A Scottish Government press release announces, with no small modicum of pride, that it has at last located the mysterious missing documents in the ferries saga. Audit Scotland, the public body which runs the rule over Holyrood’s spending of taxpayers’ money, recently conceded defeat over this matter. It had spent considerable time and effort trying get to the bottom of the SNP’s 2015 decision to buy two ferries from a shipyard owned by a Scottish Government economic advisor — against the advice of its own ferry agency. Seven years on, the initial cost of £97m has ballooned to £250m and neither of the ferries has been completed.

The outstanding questions were: who took the decision to award the contracts — and why? Ministers quickly pointed the finger of blame at former transport minister Derek Mackay, even though they were unable to find the relevant documents to prove it. Lo and behold, said documents have seemingly been located and, according to current transport minister Jenny Gilruth, ‘it shows that the decision was rightly and properly taken by then Transport Minister Derek Mackay’.