POLITICAL ANALYSIS

THIS COMPLICATED saga has all the ingredients of an old fashioned Western stand-off.

Disastrously for around 800 workers, whose families and mortgages depend on their employment at Grangemouth, the first shot has been fired — and politicians are now playing doctor to ensure it’s not fatal.

The Scottish and UK Governments have pledged to work together to try to find a solution, which probably means finding a buyer, to keep the site open.

Can Finance Secretary John Swinney secure these “other players” reportedly interested in snapping up both the site’s refinery and petrochemicals section?

Public ownership has been ruled out by Downing Street and the Scottish Government is focusing firmly on finding a private buyer if a “last ditch” attempt to find a compromise between Ineos and Unite fails.

The Scottish Government will be desperate to keep the site open, both to help those hit by job losses and to preserve its independence dream.

If the country loses its major oil refinery — not a done deal yet, as Alex Salmond insisted last night — the “Scotland’s oil” argument, key to referendum campaigning, gets a lot harder to make.

But, amid this bitter war of words, where does the blame lie? At the heart of the affair is Grangemouth employee and Unite convener Stephen Deans.

Although he was cleared by the Labour Party of allegations that he tried to rig a vote to replace disgraced Falkirk MP Eric Joyce by signing up new Labour members in the refinery during work time, Ineos launched its own inquiry.

Industrial action was agreed on and subsequently called off by Unite, but Ineos still closed down the site. The company then shifted its stance to make the issue its financial difficulties, said the site’s losses — apparently £10 million a month — needed brought under control and asked the Scottish Government for help.

The result? Staff were told it was pay freezes, dropped bonuses and new pension schemes all round, or closure time. This was rejected by Unite — and here we are.

There is more than a whiff of seizing an opportunity to get out of Grangemouth around the company’s actions, but Unite was either incompetent in not realising this outcome was a possibility or guilty of neglect for pushing on regardless.

Whatever the truth, grown-up heads need to be put on to find a solution the people at the heart of the dispute can live with.