Tidal wave of opinion on ferry impossible to ignore

Ferries and ferry disruption are once again dominating the pages of the Arran Banner.

Our letters page is full of opinion, sentiment and concerns and questions, all revolving around the provision of our ferries and harbours, and the state of the Arran ferry service.

And it’s not just our publication; social media pages are awash with the subject, as are online discussion groups, and in local community forums where it dominates conversation.

The inescapable fact is that Arran residents’ lives are so closely intertwined with a reliable ferry service that our health, wealth, prosperity, and our very futures all depend on it to varying degrees.

Even where our next meal comes from during lockdown restrictions depends almost entirely on the ferry service.

So it is hardly surprising that some of these opinions and shared thoughts, once made in measured and philosophical tones, have become brash and exasperated and demanding.

Some seem to have reached a saturation point with it all and are eager to move on to other pressing issues and, of course, we are still in the middle of a pandemic.

Whatever your thoughts or opinions on the matter are, at least there are machinations and discussions, by various lobbying groups and now at the highest level in Scottish politics, which must surely be better than none at all.

And even if you lack optimism in a ministerial solution, at least you can take some comfort in the fact that the tidal wave of sentiment has now become impossible to ignore or brush aside any longer.