Oppose "Back-Door" Privatisation of Ferry Services

As an amendment to motion S2M-05182 in the name of Tommy Sheridan (Oppose "Back-Door" Privatisation of Ferry Services), leave out from “effective” to end and insert “future of the tendering process for the main bundle of Clyde and Hebridean routes following the Scottish Executive’s inability to attract any bidders to run the Gourock to Dunoon route; notes, however, that it is grossly misleading to describe this as amounting to “back door privatisation”, given that the route will almost certainly now be re-tendered with subsidy from the Executive, allowing Ministers to micromanage and control the level of service more than at present; believes that this latest setback highlights once again the Executive’s inability to conduct a fair and transparent tendering process following the previous debacle of firms withdrawing from the Northern Isles, Clyde and Hebrides and Gourock to Dunoon tenders, and, in an effort to restore confidence on the part of both the public and ferry operators in the entire maritime tendering process, calls on the Executive to remove any suggestion of bias on its part by renouncing the comments of Nicol Stephen MSP on “Good Morning Scotland” on 10 December 2004 when he stated “We have to make sure that, if we are forced by Europe, we have the very best prospect possible of CalMac winning that tender”.”