John Swinney’s big renewables moment was upstaged by one of his own Cabinet ministers, writes TERRY MURDEN
Scotland’s sporting teams have a reputation for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Yesterday, the Scottish government maintained that dubious distinction by allowing what should have been a show of industrial strength to be overshadowed by yet another spectacular own goal.
As First Minister John Swinney announced to an invited audience of global investors that Scotland would be at the centre of an offshore wind sector worth £100 billion, his Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop was issuing a statement that an order for a new generation of all-electric ferries would be placed with a yard in Poland. Or, to be more pertinent, that the Ferguson Marine facility on the Clyde had lost out. And it was Ms Hyslop who managed to grab the headlines.
It was bad enough that Mr Swinney’s advisers had excluded most of the media from the Global Offshore Wind Investment Forum held at the Caledonian Hotel in Edinburgh, clearly an event of significance to the government given the prize on offer.
We were told that journalists and photographers could not be accommodated because of a “space” issue. Since when has there been a problem with space at the Caledonian Hotel? The same excuse was used by the Tories when Kemi Badenoch made her first visit to Scotland last week. She was at the BAE Systems yard, another venue clearly lacking in elbow room.
As it turned out, Mr Swinney’s speech, arguably one of his best, was heard only by selected media, but if he and his SNP colleagues were hoping for some valuable airtime they were left disappointed as neither the BBC, nor STV, broadcast anything from the Forum on their evening bulletins, apart from clips of him speaking on other matters, including the Labour government’s public spending cuts.
That in itself was ironic, given that the FM used the Forum as a rare public display of harmony with Labour; sharing a platform with UK Energy minister Michael Shanks to show to his guests that the two governments are as one when it comes to building a key industry.
As for the Small Vessel Replacement Programme (SVRP) announcement (the seven new ferries), Ms Hyslop added insult to injury by saying “I welcome this milestone”, but made no attempt to mitigate the impact of the decision on the Clyde which had been expecting something from the order.
The Scottish government was left to issue a second statement that attempted to smooth over this latest crisis of its own making, but only after the opposition parties had weighed in by pointing to the absurdity of a state-owned procurement agency – Caledonian Maritime Assets – not placing an order with a state-owned shipbuilder.
“We understand that Ferguson Marine Port Glasgow are disappointed not to be selected as lead bidder for SVRP,” said the somewhat understated second statement, which added that the company’s board has developed “a new business strategy which targets a range of opportunities where the yard is capable and hopeful of winning new work.”
If this was supposed to make Ferguson Marine, its workforce and the local community feel comforted then it clearly failed as the backlash turned nasty.
Promising future work is an old trick that rarely packs a punch. More to the point, the Scottish Government has in recent years ordered 11 ships from foreign yards whilst the UK Government has ordered 13 ships from Scottish yards.
After the Holyrood government failed to show support for a company that it owns, why should any other potential bidders put their faith in Ferguson Marine?
Terry Murden was Editor and Business Editor at The Sunday Times Scotland, Business Editor at The Scotsman, and Business and City Editor at Scotland on Sunday. He is now Editor of Daily Business.
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