Fide Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 This time - ferries http://wingsoverscotland.com/the-unending-badness/ The unending badness Posted on August 10, 2016 by Rev. Stuart Campbell There’s a story in today’s Herald about yet another SNP disaster: Backfires? What, the fares have gone UP? But it transpires that in fact the cheaper fares have been a huge success, increasing traffic to remote island communities by up to 80%, exactly as they were designed to do in the hopes of boosting the local economies. So how is that bad, exactly? “A Scottish Government scheme to introduce cheaper ferry fares has backfired – leading to an unwelcome surge in traffic on tiny island roads.” Well, duh. More people going somewhere will generally tend to increase traffic. We’re not sure if the Herald is calling for the building of motorways and tower blocks on Mull, so let’s see if we can firm up this rather vague complaint a bit. (We’ll fix the Herald’s shocking grammar and spelling errors as we go, btw.) “The Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) was introduced with the intention of boosting remote economies. But now ferry services and island communities are struggling to handle additional traffic – with the total of numbers on one route climbing by more than 80 per cent. This startling increase was seen on the route between Kilchoan, Highlands, and Tobermory on Mull. Just 3,635 cars made the crossing between October 2014 and July 2015, compared to 6,555 between October last year and July this year.” Yes, that’s definitely more. It’s 2,920 more, to be precise, spread over nine months, which is an average of just under 11 cars per day. Are we really to believe that 11 additional cars a day is putting the islands’ infrastructure at breaking point? Do we have anything more solid to go on? “It is thought the introduction of RET – based on the cost of travelling the equivalent distance by road – contributed to the chaos on Saturday when passengers were stranded overnight in Kilchoan after the ferry broke down.” We imagine there would always be a degree of chaos if a ferry broke down and stranded people overnight. These things happen occasionally. We’re not sure an extra 11 cars’-worth of people would tip the situation into anarchy, though. Labour, naturally, were on hand to complain about the evil SNP: “Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, said: ‘RET is a good thing for islanders, communities and the economy, but you can’t increase passenger numbers without any preparation. We should have been working alongside islanders to prepare for the increase in passenger numbers.’ She added that a lack of campsites, bins for rubbish collection and places to empty chemical toilets had been among the issues raised after RET was introduced on the Western Isles in 2008.” Hang on – what problems have ACTUALLY OCCURRED here? We’re not told of any family that had to huddle on a park bench for want of a campsite. We don’t hear from anyone savaged by seagulls or foxes due to overflowing bins. There’s no mention of a river of raw sewage raging down the main street as toilet facilities were overwhelmed by as many as 20 extra people being on the island for a night. Who were the traumatised and shattered victims of this awful tale of horror? Did anything at all actually happen? “Ms Grant said: ‘Lessons should have been learnt and something should have been put in place before it was rolled out. It should have been done in a way that enabled islanders to benefit from Ret while the infrastructure was being installed before opening it up further. If tourists have a bad experience, they are not going to be rushing back.'” Hmm, we still don’t know. DID any tourists have a bad experience attributable to RET (ie beyond what they’d have had from being stuck anyway)? None are quoted or even obliquely referred to in the article. What lessons should have been learned, and from what past events? What infrastructure actually failed? We imagine the islanders must be pretty furious about all this, right? “But Billy McClymont, chairman of Mull Community Council, said the islanders welcomed the introduction of RET. He said: ‘We are trying to be positive about the situation we find ourselves in. The place is gridlocked, but we want to resolve it. We definitely don’t want to put anyone off coming to Mull.'” They don’t sound all that miffed, frankly. Space in tiny island towns is finite. If you get lots more people visiting them, things will be busier. That’s the price you pay for doing more business. It’s almost as if the two words were in some way related. And that’s the whole story. The “backfire” of making ferry fares cheaper in order to get more people visiting islands is that more people have visited islands. We’re not given a single example of an actual specific thing actually going wrong as a result of the move, and the policy has been a demonstrable, even spectacular, success. But this is the Scottish media, and an act of God like a ferry breaking down can never be allowed to pass without being turned into an SNP BAD catastrophe. Oddly, nobody at the Herald wanted to have their name on the byline of this one. We can’t think why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRob72 Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 You've got far too much time on your hands Fidey!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fide Posted August 10, 2016 Author Share Posted August 10, 2016 Not as much time as the Scottish Media, it would seem. Not that it took long to read an article and link it, tbf. No criticism of the article, Robert? I can only assume you agree with comedy time at The Herald? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crossbill Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 The Scottish press have reduced themselves to a laughing stock with pish like this. It's difficult to see how they can ever recover any semblance of credibility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trainspotter Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Mull gridlocked? I have to assume that these are the words of someone who has never left the island in his puff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRob72 Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Not as much time as the Scottish Media, it would seem. Not that it took long to read an article and link it, tbf. No criticism of the article, Robert? I can only assume you agree with comedy time at The Herald? Sorry pal, it wasn't a dig. It's a complete non-story for a National, it's no surprise that circulation figures are dwindling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fide Posted August 10, 2016 Author Share Posted August 10, 2016 Just now, RedRob72 said: Sorry pal, it wasn't a dig. It's a complete non-story for a National, it's no surprise that circulation figures are dwindling. Good lad. Now, repeat after me - SNPgood. SNPgood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
invergowrie arab Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Fide mate you don't have to start a new thread for every wings tweet As to the matter at hand I'm inherently an optimist and believe in seeing the good in everyone as far as I can. With that in mind I can only imagine stories like this are a pisstake and basically a game of dare amongst low level hacks to see what pish they can get past their editors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fide Posted August 10, 2016 Author Share Posted August 10, 2016 31 minutes ago, invergowrie arab said: Fide mate you don't have to start a new thread for every wings tweet Good job or I'd have over 200,000 threads on here. Just the pertinent ones, my man, just the pertinent ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayrmad Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 2 hours ago, trainspotter said: Mull gridlocked? I have to assume that these are the words of someone who has never left the island in his puff. Yep, scandalous, I had to wait a day for a table at Cafe Fish and I never got a dry seat on the ferry home, Farage needs to head to Mull, there are foreigners everywhere, it's a fcuking disgrace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingscot Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 It's a stupid example that has been chosen. RET does have benefits, but there are a number of instances where it needs some modification. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cream Cheese Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 When the news doesn't even reach the Daily Mail or the Telegraph, then that tells you all you need to know about just how low the standard of journalism is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty dingus Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14673005.Scottish_government_scheme_for_cheap_ferry_travel_leads_to_surge_in_popularity_for_Scottish_islands/ They changed the headline. The rest o the guff is still there though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 I don't understand this thread at all, the Herald coverage has been almost entirely positive, but for a couple of quotes saying they should have been more prepared for just how successful RET has been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cream Cheese Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 17 minutes ago, welshbairn said: I don't understand this thread at all, the Herald coverage has been almost entirely positive, but for a couple of quotes saying they should have been more prepared for just how successful RET has been. The problem is, most people are either morons, or too busy in their daily lives to read full news articles. So they just see the article title instead and draw a conclusion from that. The media propaganda machine takes full advantage of that, which is why you quite often see article titles that don't accurately match up to the mood and tone of the article itself. It's used to mislead the majority who will look at the title but not read through the article. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjw Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 Yoon press upset at the FM being popular for selfies. Next week it'll probably be FM let's people down by refusing to do selfies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cream Cheese Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 57 minutes ago, oaksoft said: What the hell are you talking about. Article titles often don't reflect the article. Most people don't take time to read full articles, so they just skim through the article titles instead and draw a conclusion from that. I'm sure it's something that you do all the time, based on the ill informed crap that you post on here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fide Posted August 29, 2016 Author Share Posted August 29, 2016 1 hour ago, oaksoft said: What the hell are you talking about. You have an even more appalling attitude towards people than I do FFS. There was a study done on this, which showed that only a small percentage of people who start reading an article actually get to the end. Newspapers know this, so are free to front load the headlines and start of the story with shite and only providing balance towards the end. Take the recent article in the Herald on lower ferry prices. It started off as a full blown SNPbad story about struggling infrastructure and ended with a local councillor saying they've had loads more tourism as a result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cream Cheese Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 5 minutes ago, Fide said: There was a study done on this, which showed that only a small percentage of people who start reading an article actually get to the end. Newspapers know this, so are free to front load the headlines and start of the story with shite and only providing balance towards the end. Take the recent article in the Herald on lower ferry prices. It started off as a full blown SNPbad story about struggling infrastructure and ended with a local councillor saying they've had loads more tourism as a result. I don't think he ever reached the end of that article. Either that, or he blanked that bit out, as it didn't fit his narrow #SNPbad way of thinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isthatyou Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 You no what, the selfie story is no a story, but my granddaughter just told me a scheduled selfie is just not cool, so make of that what you will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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