I was delighted with your article on page seven the week before last, “Holyrood candidates continue verbal sparring”.
Danus Skene’s claim that the North Boats are horrendously expensive ignores the fact that removing tolls on estuarial and island bridges (Forth, Tay, Erskine, Skye) is horrendously expensive, as is the untolled second Forth crossing.
Without such figures such rhetoric is not worth the paper it is written on. Why is Mr Skene so secretive about figures. And could we have a table for the costs of each and every subsidy for road equivalent tariffs, to get actual figures, not just vague rhetoric.
While there may be a need for discussion over the NorthLink contract, could not subsidies to Shetland and Orkney be given now for road equivalent tariffs? Why not?
Is the lack of SNP MP, MSPs and councillors relevant here? A fair question.
Can Mr Skene promise that the day after he is elected, internal fares will be subsidised as is on the Clyde ferries, the Islay and Jura ferries, etc. If not he should not make statements unbacked by SNP policies.
James Whitworth
2 Old School,
Burravoe,
Yell.