The term “collective responsibility” has been on the lips of many SNP MSPs over the last few days regarding the ferry fiasco, but what exactly does this term mean? Looking at the Institute for Government website, it is quite interesting to note that while it is used to say that all members of government are responsible for the actions and decisions of government as a whole, it also says “once a position has been agreed in cabinet, all ministers are expected to abide by that position and vote with the government, or else resign from office’: The SNP seem to be interpreting it slightly differently and have collectively decided to pass the blame to anyone else they can by throwing Derek Mackay under the bus for having been the transport minister when the contract was approved, even though he was on holiday, the CMAL procurement team have been blamed and the shipbuilders themselves. There is no acceptance that the Scottish Government should not have agreed to a contract which did not offer a full refund guarantee which put millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money at risk According to Kate Forbes on BBC Radio Scotland on Monday, the inability of Ferguson’s emerged just a matter of weeks later. Not months, not years, not once the ship was already halfway finished. A mere few weeks. Any half-decent businessman or woman at that point would have slammed the brakes on and said they were not willing to carry to financial risk this contract would involve. Of course, this is not a business, it is government and it is not their money. It was our money and the SNP were willing to take that risk at our expense. I’d like to see the Scottish Government take collective responsibility for their incompetence and the utter waste of taxpayers’ money and I call on every single one of them to do the honourable thing and resign. Jane Lax, Aberlour, Craigellachie.
