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Shipyard not sunk

The Ferguson Marine shipyard on the Clyde has been nationalised by the Scottish Government amid an ongoing row over a £97 million ferry contract.

Derek Mackay interviewed on BBC news said he didn’t know how much the completion of the two ferries would cost. They are already well over budget. Who, with any business sense, would buy something without knowing how much the purchase was likely to cost? So, good news the yard will be kept open and jobs saved but the SNP – and the fiscally limited Mackay – are not the people to run it.

Milkieboy51 Aye... Mackay on the BBC talking about the costs: “You wouldn’t expect me to have that at my fingertips right now”. EH, YES WE WOULD!

Auld Cynic

It’s obviously more important to protect their image with their core vote.

Edmund North Watch the multi-millions of taxpayers’ money being poured into the Clyde to buy a few Glasgow votes.

Mr Grumpy 2 Prepare for your income tax rates to be increased to pay for this financial black hole.

Farr C I guess we need another Prestwick now that is being sold.

Calum Mackenzie “Derek Mackay visited the yard today where he set out the proposals which will safeguard the future of more than 300 workers at the site.” There is no safeguard, if there had been, they would not have gone into administration. Another false dawn for these workers who are being used as political pawns by the totally incompetent SNP.

The Dark One So another tranche of taxpayers’ cash will be dumped into the Clyde to finish two ferries before the inevitable closure of the yard due to lack of orders.

Albert Watch

Sounds crazy?

As the cost of Edinburgh’s new concert hall soars by at least £25m, Impact Scotland, the charity trust overseeing the build, said: “The end result will be a better building – a game changer for music and performance in Edinburgh.”

Clearly this project does not satisfy Edinburgh’s requirements. Too small, too costly. Add to that the question: Is this the best use of Edinburgh Council taxpayers money taking into account other demands? I suspect the general answer to that is “no”.

Ian White A building for the minority, not the majority! A building that is not required when roads are a mess, the trams are struggling to be financed and the town is basically in a poor state. If we need anything, it’s a major concert venue to rival Glasgow – something the masses would like!

Steve Ramsay I’ve been saying this for years, I even brought it up in a council meeting. Edinburgh misses out on so much revenue but no one was interested in listening!

Shirley Gray Just a tip for any of you who want to place bids for any government building projects. If, say, they are tendering for a builder to build a bridge across the ocean from Glasgow to New York, place your bid for the job completed in one week for a total cost of £1.99. Then, when you are awarded the project, wait a couple of months and increase the cost to £16 trillion and 24 years completion time.

Shah Ram Yet the Council can’t help fund the rebuilding of a community facility in Corstorphine that burned down through no fault of the halls or their users. Only another £750,000 is needed to complete this £2m project.

Ron Valentine So Glasgow Hydro cost £125m and has a capacity of 13,000 and is considered to be one of the world’s finest venues, and Edinburgh’s will cost £70m and have a capacity of 1,000. Am I missing something here?

Iain Sinclair It must be the same company that built the tram line.

Kevin Connolly If you are going to build a venue, do it right. This venue is just another piddly little speck when we already have multiple venues of this capacity or a little bigger. What we really need is a purpose-built, multi-use arena that can be used all year round. Edinburgh must be one of the only capital cities in the world with no decent concert venues capable of attracting big name artists/ bands. We are massively missing out. Look at the artists Glasgow’s Hydro gets while Edinburgh can’t offer anything unless it’s Murrayfield, which isn’t great for sound.

Andrew J Swanson