The ALBA Party have warned that next week will see the last ever ship launched in the Lower Clyde if the Scottish Government does not intervene.
The Glen Rosa is due to be launched on Tuesday and Alba Party’s General Secretary Chris McEleny has warned it could be the last ever ship to be launched into the lower Clyde if the Scottish Government doesn’t act.
McEleny sat on the task force that saved the yard from closure in 2014 and has spent the past years campaigning for the Scottish Government to “directly award” contracts for Calmac Small vessels to the yard to ensure it has a future pipeline of work. Despite fears that without the work the yard will close the Scottish Government have failed to confirm it will directly award work to the Inverclyde yard.
Alba say that with the Glen Sannox now on sea trials and sister ship the Glen Rosa being launched next week, without the award of public contracts issued by Government owned CMAL there will be no work left at the yard and it will face closure bringing to an end hundreds of years of shipbuilding tradition in the Inverclyde area.
Commenting Alba Party General Secretary Chris McEleny said:
“I say without fear or apology that when it comes to Scotland, Scotland’s ferries should be built in Scotland’s shipyards. But time is now running out. If SNP politicians and the Scottish Government agree with me then they need to get off the fence. They simply cannot keep Ferguson’s open any longer with sound bites. There is no steel left to cut. There are no orders in the pipeline. There simply is not the work left to sustain a shipyard. The Glen Sannox is now out on trials. The Glen Rosa is now being launched.
Launches are supposed to be joyous moments but this launch will be happening against the backdrop that unless the Scottish Government intervene with investment in the yard and guarantees that it will directly award new work to it then this will be the last vessel ever launched in the lower Clyde – bringing to an end centuries of proud shipbuilding tradition in Inverclyde. That would be a tragedy. If the Scottish Government does not directly award work to Ferguson’s, as opposed to sending more contracts overseas, the yard will close. That’ll be a devastating blow to the industrial capacity of the Clyde and as a result, our Commercial Shipbuilding that was destroyed by the Tories will finally come to an end on the SNP’s watch. That is simply not acceptable.
If the Scottish Government do not make the decision to directly award the small vessels that are due to be put out to tender by CMAL directly to Ferguson’s then they should be under no illusion that it will be the political choice of the Scottish Government to see the gates of Ferguson’s Shipyard closed for good. I’m not willing to accept that, and I know the workers at the yard won’t either.”
The yard gates will be open from 12.30pm, with Hull 802 scheduled to go down the slipway around 1.30pm. Access to the yard will be on a first-come, first-served basis, however I have been invited along, stay tuned for updates!
Its not viable to build ships here as they are over priced, late etc, with all the public money wasted all the SNP have done is delay a closure and at great expense
I would love to see non warship ships built in Scotland and the UK, fact is other places do it faster and cheaper, Just throwing money at it is not a sensible option.
What else can you say that about? Steel? Cars and trucks? Aircraft? Tanks?
End point is we make nothing, are reliant on others for everything and our economy is totally focused on London finance.
i agree, we make nothing and what we do make is so expensive to make its not worth it, sad
I’ll stay out here it Italy thanks 😄😄🍻
Likewise in France!
Nooooo. France….. Nooooo. 😘😂😂😂
Manufacturing in the UK is worth £224 billion. The UK is in the top ten of world manufacturers. We overtook France in 2021/22. We can build ships of all shapes and sizes and be successful. Wight Shipyard build fast ferries with no government subsidy in an entirely commercial environment and are very successful. Its true we used to build massively more but then the rest of the world caught up. As for Fergusons, it sounds like incompetence will be their downfall, not the lack of skilled labour.
I think it was inevitable as soon as Fergusons was nationalised it wouldn’t recover, there’s no incentive once the tax payer is picking up the bill.
Well said Dragonwight there is too much focus on government direct support – what manufacturers need is:
(a) Excellent managers who invest in the company. We need to revamp the education of middle and senior managers in the UK as on the whole we perform very badly in this area compared to the rest of the world. We also need very severe punishment for those that commit corporate fraud and incompetence that leads to business failure.
(b) An environment of skilled workers (we should ditch university courses that are not skills related and have more industrially related jobs and apprenticeships). This is related to improving the quality of education in our schools. Anyone wishing to do arts etc can self-fund. We should only support science, engineering, technology, industrial design, medicine along with key subjects such as English and the major foreign languages. When we have limited funds why push young people into dead-end courses.
(c) Low corporation tax and business rates. This is essential for business and something that the Tory party needs to relearn. Unfortunately the yellow Tories (or Lib Dem tribute act as I call them won’t do this).
(d) Help with exporting (this should be the primacy role of the foreign office and DESNEZ). They should be helping business of all sizes to get a foothold in overseas markets.
(e) Getting the rest of government out of the way of business in terms of red tape.
(f) Less focus on national champions and more focus on internal competition in the UK. This will produce the big world leading companies of tomorrow.
(g) Eliminate DEI from business – it simply does not belong there at all.
Look at Makeuk.org for the facts. The reality is by value per head of population we make more than China!!! So if we had the same population as China we’d be producing more than them. Just becuase we don’t make fork handles anymore doesn’t mean we don’t make anything.
Arrr the decline of the Candle making industry
I was wondering if anyone would pick that up :). Priceless comedy.
👍
Norway manages to build commercial vessels at their shipyards, and their labour costs are higher. No reason a properly managed, resourced and staffed yard here could do the same, even if only the fitting our stage with the basic hull fabricated abroad.
yes but we in the UK do not seem to be able to, why i do not know but no one buys UK built ships, chucky other peoples money at is not working
Thanks Brian. A voice of reason and irrefutable logic.
But…..very modern…..very automated……very highly trained workers…..very good management.
Problem with Fergusons is that none of those boxes are properly ticked with a big green tick?
I would suggest we get the Norwegians to take over management of the yard, if they can do it, why can’t we, what is actually going wrong??
If you are going to do something – do it properly!
SUCH AS?
Can you give us these other places that can deliver cheaper after the UK Gov gets a huge amount of claw back in tax, let alone money and wealth circulated within the UK. Your argument at the moment makes no sense and is based on an age old myth.
What myth is that, so its cheaper to build the two over due ferries in Scotland than it would have been to build in say Turkey? where they would be delivered on time? What you are saying better to pay more build it here and then get tax/vat back on the build and the wages of those building it?.
Inchgreen with cranes is the perfect place to start
“Scottish ferries in Scottish shipyards”
And yet when it comes to British warships…
I would comment but Police Scotland are too busy already 😅
An insignificant Party which has never had a single candidate elected in any election, led by a man who used to broadcast on Russia Today. Now sounding off about repeating Scotlands most public industrial fiasco. Yep that makes sense 🥴
I doubt Fergusons has a future as a shipyard, which is sad as I don’t think that was much to do with the workforce, but they will not struggle to find work. They already do some Subbie work for BAe, so should be fine further up the Clyde.
But the serious point is that someone should point out to the Scottish Government that they should be issuing tenders to all U.K shipbuilders not just Scottish ones, and have a Transparent process. Otherwise the equivalent funding is removed from the annual Barnett formula settlement.
And the same should apply to other Government funded vessels as well. The new Scilly Islands Ferry was awarded to a French shipbuilder who then subbed it out to Vietnam 😩
I’d actually amend the Government Strategy to better support the NSBS, if a U.K tender is no more than 25% above the leading Foreign one then its awarded the contract.
Simple reason it is a sound financial move to keep the revenue circulating in the U.K. economy and supports a strategic industry / workforce.
I agree with the actual cost price of higher benefits the U.K. economy if built there. This is where there needs to be a policy in place stating what that amount is and where the extra funds come from.
“I doubt Fergusons has a future as a shipyard, which is sad as I don’t think that was much to do with the workforce, but they will not struggle to find work. They already do some Subbie work for BAe, so should be fine further up the Clyde.“
The yard does have fabrication work…..the BAE work…..as you say there are four shipyards recruiting ATM (Barrow, Babcock, BAE, H&W) so no issue with keeping people employed.
The other problem is the tiny site.
Be much better off moving the work to the old BAE shed and using their nice new plate line?
Hilarious. The SNP can award themselves a recreational vehicle/ camper van for the Mum in law of the party leader but can’t award a ferry contract to a Scottish yard.
The SNP really are failing the people of Scotland just as the useless corrupt Tories have spent 14 years failing the rest of the UK.
It’s never been officially admitted Mr Bell, but I believe camper was actually a prototype for an independent Scottish Army personnel carrier.
If you look closely, you can see the slots where the P14 rifles pop out. It was covered under Project ‘Jones Family Butchers’ as a cover.
Had the SNP won the independence referendum, Ferguson Yard were to to get the contract to mass produce bathtubs and pram wheels, to be turned into the first Scottish tank.
The SNP would like too help but it’s far too busy chasing up the police for a full total of Hate crime incidents that don’t include Handsoff Useless
If they can be built at a reasonable price, on time and on budget, then I agree however the Ferguson Marine incident has shown major deficiencies in the capability of Ferguson’s and I have seen little evidence they have taken on board the painful lesson that have resulted in the public purse picking up an eye watering tab.
Before any further ferries are built , Ferguson’s need a major lessons learned exercise.