The MV Glen Sannox debacle has become a costly embarrassment for Scotland

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

The debacle surrounding the MV Glen Sannox highlights the Scottish Executive’s chronic mismanagement of critical infrastructure projects. From its infamous painted-on windows to last-minute repairs and its failure to deliver promised environmental benefits, this project has become a costly embarrassment.

Billed as a beacon of sustainability, the Glen Sannox is now set to emit more carbon dioxide than the diesel ferry it replaces. Combined with years of delays and spiralling costs, this fiasco epitomises the executive’s inability to deliver vital services efficiently.

For Scotland’s island communities, this is not just about a failed ferry; it’s about the disruption, uncertainty, and economic impact of being left without reliable transport links.

The painted-on windows once drew ridicule, but they now serve as a metaphor for the executive’s handling of this project: prioritising appearances over delivery. Lifeline ferry services are too important to be treated as political experiments.

Scotland’s islands deserve better – better ferries, better oversight, and better leadership. It is time for the Scottish Executive to be held to account and for meaningful reforms to ensure that such failures never happen again.

Alastair Redman, Independent councillor for Kintyre and the Islands

Port Charlotte, Islay

Rogue heroes?

There is currently a public inquiry being held into allegations of war crimes by members of the SAS in Afghanistan.

How helpful is it, then, for the BBC to be screening a palpably “over the top” drama series (SAS Rogue Heroes) on the unit’s activities in the Second World War?

As it happens, I am the son of the first and only regimental Padre, the Rev Fraser McLuskey MC.

It has always seemed to me that the great majority of the people my father served with were (contrary to the TV portrayal) decent, ordinary soldiers doing their best in extremely challenging situations.

Andrew McLuskey

Ashford

Vicious vitriol

We have constant negative news, with even moderate newspapers expecting 14 years of austerity to be turned around in under a year.

Add to that the vicious vitriol from the right-wing billionaires in our media – and that dangerous rabble-rouser from the USA – and we will see this country follow others down a very dangerous and divisive path, undermining our democracy.

Ian Godfrey

Cockfosters

A voice for freedom

Indonesian journalism lost a vocal press freedom powerhouse recently. Atmakusumah Astraatmadja died Thursday at the Cipto Mangunkusumo Central Public Hospital (RSCM) in Jakarta due to kidney failure. He was 86.

In 1968, Pak Atma (as he was better known), was chief reporter and later managing editor of the independent daily, Indonesia Raya (Greater Indonesia). Previously, in the 1950s, the paper, under founder-editor Mochtar Lubis, reported on corruption. President Sukarno banned it in 1958.

After the end of Sukarno’s rule in 1966, Lubis revived the paper in 1968. Atma led reporters in uncovering government misconduct. President Suharto withdrew its press licence in 1974.

Atma produced essays on press freedom that more than 20 publications printed. He got invited to speak on this subject at unannounced talks on multiple campuses – unannounced, so as not to stir police and military surveillance.

In 1992 he began to teach journalism at the Dr Soetomo Press Institute (LPDS) and in 1994 became its executive director. In May 1998, Soeharto stepped down after 32 years in power following mass student demonstrations.

Parliament drafted a new press law. Atma got called in to contribute thinking. The new law, passed in 1999, recognises press freedom. Licensing is ruled out. A new independent Press Council is made to protect press freedom. Atma became its first chair.

Atmakusumah received the 2000 Ramon Magsaysay Award in Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts. In 2023, the Press Council honoured him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

In accepting the Magsaysay Award, Atma said that despite press bannings by Presidents Sukarno and Soeharto, “the spirit of press freedom and freedom of expression never dies”.

Warief Djajanto Basorie, journalist

Jakarta