Greenock Telegraph

Westminste­r message...

- By Ronnie Cowan MP Inverclyde

A GREAT deal has been written about the Glen Sannox and the soon to be launched Glen Rosa.

Much of it has been negative. A lot of it has been misinforme­d, misinforma­tion or just plain lies.

The facts are simple, both ships took too long to build and cost too much money.

In circumstan­ces like that it’s easy to go looking for scapegoats, people to blame, people that can be criticised and abused online. And that’s when any semblance of a mature informed conversati­on falls apart.

There seems to be a growing army of people who justify their own life by the need to undermine others. For some people the act of dragging others down seems to have superseded the desire for selfimprov­ement.

And Ferguson Marine, its workforce, trade unions and management have been the subject matter of a lot of abuse. It feels like everyone, and their granny, believes they could do a better job.

As I said, they were over budget and over time, so why should I defend them. I think there are three issues at play. First, the design and haste to obtain certain milestones in a yard that was in the process of being rebuilt and a workforce retiring or requiring new skills, created a perfect storm for disaster. We should acknowledg­e that.

Second, many of the people on the receiving end of the abuse had nothing to do with the mistakes that were made, we should be careful of using a wide brush.

Third, for Ferguson Marine to be successful we need to help build it up, not drag it down.

Why would anyone not want it to be successful?

Ferguson Marine will continue to employ local people and provide apprentice­ships. The salaries of many will be spent locally and the supply chain locally shall benefit too.

Of course, it’s imperative that we learn from mistakes and I am sure that many lessons already have.

When the Glen Rosa is launched on Tuesday, I hope that we can all appreciate what a magnificen­t ship it is and understand that there is a bright future ahead for shipbuildi­ng in Inverclyde and one that we should be proud of.

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