A wee thread on the #CalMac ferries ⛴ 🧵
The Eyesturoy Tunnel in the Faroe Islands 🇫🇴 is 7 miles long and has a roundabout allowing it to connect 2 separate islands. It’s very cool - look 👇🏻 
It was procured by the public sector and build in a period of 4 years by the private sector. They’re now in the middle of building another one of a similar length.
My point is this..... I don’t care who signed what and who said what, and I abhor calling for Ministers to resign when something goes wrong several rungs down the ladder. I also don’t think it’s a party political problem - this could happen under any and all governments.
We have a problem in Scotland with public procurement. It’s not just ferries - we’ve had very later, very over budget hospitals (high profile) and lots of very late, very over-budget schools (lower profile).
I’d like to see all parties, government and opposition, turn their attention to this. So. When we do the ‘whodunnit’ at the parliamentary inquiry, let’s also do the ‘why aren’t we good at this?’. Because the answer to that isn’t a single Minister, whomever that Minister is.
The Faroese can build underwater tunnels with roundabouts. The Scots can’t build a boat. THAT is where our focus should be. Ministers’ job is not to take the fall - that won’t change a thing. Their job is to change the system so that we can do better next time.
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