Naval ship orders

The announcement that the construction of three supply vessels for the Royal Navy was to be put out to tender at home and overseas was met with the predictable cries of “betrayal” and worse from the SNP hierarchy.

The facts of the matter, as the SNP well know, are that these are not warships and can be built anywhere. More importantly, Clyde shipbuilders will not be tendering for them because their slipways have no room since they are fully occupied with the construction of eight Royal Navy frigates which are sustaining 1,700 BAE jobs across Scotland and safeguarding a total of 4,000 jobs across the wider UK supply chain until 2035. DONALD LEWIS Beech Hill, Gifford