Scottish Politics / Independence - Vol 12

[hidetheelephants]

irc said:

Good plan. Pity the same idea wasn't used for the planned Rest and Be Thankful upgrade which is being built on top of the existing road. Presumably years of using the Old Military Road lie ahead for regular users.

Stupidest idea the govt have ever had and they've had a lot of those. Spend a quarter of a billion to deliver road connectivity that's as 100% as st as it is right now.

[irc]

hidetheelephants said:

Stupidest idea the govt have ever had and they've had a lot of those. Spend a quarter of a billion to deliver road connectivity that's as 100% as st as it is right now.

They are planning the same thing for the A82 north of Tarbert on Loch Lomond. Upgrade on line of existing road. Twice as hard to build while maintaining through access. A different line higher up the hill would avoid this.
No disruption to traffic during constructio. Afterwards existing road left as a tourist route/bike route.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/t...

[hidetheelephants]

The pulpit rock improvement was the same, the cheapest sttest solution got rubberstamped with fk all in the way of economic impact assessment, any suggestion of a high road or a tunnel handwaved away as too expensive; how they judged what the cost of shutting the road for months was without an assessment was never discussed and no one explained why it was perfectly fine to construct an ugly elevated concrete roadway along the banks of Loch Lomond in a national park.

[irc]

Latest Fergusons wheeze. Get them to build warships for Norway. You couldn't make it up.

"The Alba Party say that a decision is urgently needed over yard investment and said Scotland must be “front and centre” of any UK partnership agreement with the party’s general secretary Chris McEleny saying that Ferguson’s in Port Glasgow would be an “ideal shipyard” to partner up with other Scottish shipyards to deliver the vessels for the Norwegian Government. "

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24755524.fergu...

Not only are the Norwegians not stupid. They are not absolutely insane. Ask a yard to build a warship for them when it took longer than WW2 to build one ferry?

[alangla]

irc said:

Latest Fergusons wheeze. Get them to build warships for Norway. You couldn't make it up.

"The Alba Party say that a decision is urgently needed over yard investment and said Scotland must be “front and centre” of any UK partnership agreement with the party’s general secretary Chris McEleny saying that Ferguson’s in Port Glasgow would be an “ideal shipyard” to partner up with other Scottish shipyards to deliver the vessels for the Norwegian Government. "

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24755524.fergu...

Not only are the Norwegians not stupid. They are not absolutely insane. Ask a yard to build a warship for them when it took longer than WW2 to build one ferry?

Might not be the craziest idea actually. “Partner up with other Scottish shipyards” - if BAE were the lead contractor and Ferguson were subbing as they’ve done on some of the recent Govan builds for the Royal Navy. Might actually be a realistic route out of their current mire.

[Mercdriver]

The tide is turning, fife voters vote for labour, just won by two votes though

Why are the muppets still voting for the SNP

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/fife/5135276/...

[ianrb]

alangla said:

irc said:

Latest Fergusons wheeze. Get them to build warships for Norway. You couldn't make it up.

"The Alba Party say that a decision is urgently needed over yard investment and said Scotland must be “front and centre” of any UK partnership agreement with the party’s general secretary Chris McEleny saying that Ferguson’s in Port Glasgow would be an “ideal shipyard” to partner up with other Scottish shipyards to deliver the vessels for the Norwegian Government. "

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24755524.fergu...

Not only are the Norwegians not stupid. They are not absolutely insane. Ask a yard to build a warship for them when it took longer than WW2 to build one ferry?

Might not be the craziest idea actually. “Partner up with other Scottish shipyards” - if BAE were the lead contractor and Ferguson were subbing as they’ve done on some of the recent Govan builds for the Royal Navy. Might actually be a realistic route out of their current mire.

Think I read, although can't remember quite where, that the subbing was nothing more than providing a handful of welder to BAE.

[Error_404_Username_not_found]

irc said:

"Anyone know the average wait when that is in operation. 20m? 30m?"

Anecdotally yeah, that's about right.

and...

"They are planning the same thing for the A82 north of Tarbert on Loch Lomond."

Tarbet.
Tarbert is on Loch Fyne. And another on Harris.

PH pedantry...

[irc]

Error_404_Username_not_found said:

irc said:
Tarbet.
Tarbert is on Loch Fyne. And another on Harris.

PH pedantry...

I knew I had a 50% chance of being right. Couldn't be bothered checking. Lazy forum user. Hangs head in shame.

[ds666]

Mercdriver said:

The tide is turning, fife voters vote for labour, just won by two votes though

Why are the muppets still voting for the SNP

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/fife/5135276/...

It was already a labour seat ...

[Error_404_Username_not_found]

irc said:

I knew I had a 50% chance of being right. Couldn't be bothered checking. Lazy forum user. Hangs head in shame.

[vikingaero]

ianrb said:

alangla said:

irc said:

Latest Fergusons wheeze. Get them to build warships for Norway. You couldn't make it up.

"The Alba Party say that a decision is urgently needed over yard investment and said Scotland must be “front and centre” of any UK partnership agreement with the party’s general secretary Chris McEleny saying that Ferguson’s in Port Glasgow would be an “ideal shipyard” to partner up with other Scottish shipyards to deliver the vessels for the Norwegian Government. "

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24755524.fergu...

Not only are the Norwegians not stupid. They are not absolutely insane. Ask a yard to build a warship for them when it took longer than WW2 to build one ferry?

Might not be the craziest idea actually. “Partner up with other Scottish shipyards” - if BAE were the lead contractor and Ferguson were subbing as they’ve done on some of the recent Govan builds for the Royal Navy. Might actually be a realistic route out of their current mire.

Think I read, although can't remember quite where, that the subbing was nothing more than providing a handful of welder to BAE.

"Hello Fergusons, this is Jakob from the Norwegian Defence Ministry. The Russians are going to attack next week. You promised us the warship 3 years ago, but now it's urgent!"

"We might be able to get is ready for January.......... January 2028 that is"

[Taffer]

ianrb said:

Think I read, although can't remember quite where, that the subbing was nothing more than providing a handful of welder to BAE.

They've been fabricating small sections for the Type 26s and then taking them up to BAE by barge. It's temporary work, mainly due to capacity constraints at Govan with the building of the new covered ship hall, and the value of the contract is comparatively tiny. BAE are doing the QC for all work, and it supposedly took a while for the bits to be done to their satisfaction.

Probably the only realistic 'solution' for Ferguson's, that doesn't involve shutting it, is for ScotGov to sell it to BAE and operate as a fabrication yard rather than a shipbuilders. There's no market sector they could break into that any other yard does better/cheaper/faster, and they're highly unlikely to ever get a private customer order for a vessel again.

[General Price]

Very modern.

[dxg]

To be fair, it probably was cutting-edge - back when it was designed.

(And what's going on with the back of the seating in the foreground under the handrail? Is that bare plywood showing through because the heights weren't coordinated?)

[Viper201]

General Price said:

Very modern.

Wheeltappers and Shunters social club reborn.

[Viper201]

Stumbled across this YouTube video made a year ago. It is of course more of the same: how the SNP should never, ever be allowed to control any form of money. Still, its only £33 million of public cash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK6rWD00-jw&ab...

[Taffer]

dxg said:

To be fair, it probably was cutting-edge - back when it was designed.

(And what's going on with the back of the seating in the foreground under the handrail? Is that bare plywood showing through because the heights weren't coordinated?)

Not quite - the heights are different, but they've stuck some beading on the back to cover it, and stained it as it's bare wood and not the same veneer finish as the rest of the panelling - another bodge-a-job:



At a distance the interior is ok, until you get anywhere near and see the fit and finish is pretty rubbish. The bench seats are yard-made square section steel frames underneath rather than pre-fabricated units which could just be bolted down, so a waste of time to make, but just what Ferguson's did on their old ferries from the 80s/90s.

The anchor points for the 'loose' chairs in cafeteria and bar all sit at different heights, some flush with the deck, some proud, some sunken, panels where switches have been removed have just had stainless plates screwed over, laminate floors have been laid with all the 'planks' joins in the same pattern, so not even staggered like you'd do at home. There's also a lift with a manual outer door, which is really useful for a lone wheelchair traveller.......

The interior spec was obviously for a £45 million ship rather than a £150 million one, but even so, it's not a patch on the Finlaggan or Loch Seaforth (the last 2 Calmac ships). Will be interesting to see how it stands up to wear and tear and pissed-up daytrippers.........

Edited by Taffer on Saturday 30th November 04:26

[alangla]

I’ll be honest & say that my first thought when I saw all the fabric seating was that video of Caledonian Isles rocking all over the place when attempting to dock in Ardrossan in high winds. You’d expect it to be all e-leather seating or something similar that just wipes clean. CalMac will probably end up re-trimming the whole lot the first (well, second really) time it goes for an annual overhaul.
Given the number of beer cans the coffee cabin on Argyle shifted the last time I went to Rothesay earlier in the year (funny how that’s ok, but not buying a beer on ScotRail!) then it’s a safe assumption that the seats will be liberally soaked in Guinness and cappuccino the first time it hits a decent bit of swell.

[hidetheelephants]

Taffer said:

dxg said:

To be fair, it probably was cutting-edge - back when it was designed.

(And what's going on with the back of the seating in the foreground under the handrail? Is that bare plywood showing through because the heights weren't coordinated?)

Not quite - the heights are different, but they've stuck some beading on the back to cover it, and stained it as it's bare wood and not the same veneer finish as the rest of the panelling - another bodge-a-job:



At a distance the interior is ok, until you get anywhere near and see the fit and finish is pretty rubbish. The bench seats are yard-made square section steel frames underneath rather than pre-fabricated units which could just be bolted down, so a waste of time to make, but just what Ferguson's did on their old ferries from the 80s/90s.

The anchor points for the 'loose' chairs in cafeteria and bar all sit at different heights, some flush with the deck, some proud, some sunken, panels where switches have been removed have just had stainless plates screwed over, laminate floors have been laid with all the 'planks' joins in the same pattern, so not even staggered like you'd do at home. There's also a lift with a manual outer door, which is really useful for a lone wheelchair traveller.......

The interior spec was obviously for a £45 million ship rather than a £150 million one, but even so, it's not a patch on the Finlaggan or Loch Seaforth (the last 2 Calmac ships). Will be interesting to see how it stands up to wear and tear and pissed-up daytrippers.........

WTF is this? Flat-roofed pubs get a better fit out than that.