ruidh

I have worked on the Northboats for years,and I hope we do go on strike to protect our pensions .Even better we wil be free for a few days at least, from moaning shelties and orcadians who seem to think they have a god given right to moan and be abusive to staff as soon as they step on board. Having been in the merchant navy all my life and travelled all over the world, I can safely say these people are the rudest I've ever come across.........bring it on!!!

http://forargyll.com/2012/05/northern-isles-ferry-contract-sends-signals-to-west-coast/ Private company running a lifeline service...not good .

Would running a cycle hire scheme help? London cycle hire operator Serco penalised £5m http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-13687991 Brilliant I just love this...... I

Serco has a strong and growing presence in Scotland, working on behalf of the Scottish Government, local authorities and the UK Government. Our contracts include Scatsta Airport, the ACCESS joint venture with Glasgow City Council providing IT and property services, management of a fleet of support vessels for the Royal Navy at Faslane, CCTV and roadside emergency phones for Transport Scotland, the operation of HMP Kilmarnock and offender tagging for the Scottish Prison Service, and facilities management for NHS Scotland at the Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Stirlingshire and Wishaw General Hospital in North Lanarkshire. Serco also has customer contact and service centres in Fort William, Brora and Glasgow. Don't see anything there about running a major ferry service...Well the best of luck to you say I, because it looks like your going start all over again.

Well whatever they taught Frances 144 at that boarding school,maths wasn't his strongest subject, because that's all it takes to calculate how long it would take to run on reduced power. As for the food they probably planned that as well.

When the time comes to replace and crew the new ship, British crew would be excellent but I wouldn't hold my breath. The Clare crew are either Latvians or Estonians, I don't think any of them are Norwegian.

Good luck with your 2nd's ticket, engineer 21,I'm sure you'll do ok. If they do replace the clare in December it will be interesting to see who they crews the new one with. Who's door do you knock on to say enough's enough?

Lets not lose sight of the Issue here, and I appreciate your points .Nothlink are subsidiesd to run this service, money which comes from each and everyone one of us that pay UK taxes. Surely they should be made to employ British crews or at least a part British crew. It's the first time in my 30 yrs at sea I've ever heard of a ship on time charter having its paint job changed and renamed to suit the charterer and, the funnel badge changed. Why haven't they changed the colors of the other freight boat ,perhaps there waiting to slip another one, in its place.

That is the case, but doesn't make it right , remember they get your tax dollars to run these ships.

I believe the crew of the Hascosay are to be dispersed through out the fleet to cover a new leave system that's been brought in,all very good say I , but as I said in previous post, why were more British seamen not brought in, I'm sure there are plenty Shetland seamen who'd be happy of a job. Where's the Shetland times when you need it, we are talking jobs here get on to it.

So the government are looking to save money on the ferries, is that why the new freight boat was slipped in with a foreign crew, to save money. I'd of thought with the present jobs shortage it would have been an ideal opportunity to create more jobs for British officer and ratings. But as usual we like to keep the dole queues down in other countries...up to 40 jobs I believe. 40 more to keep signing on!!!