Scotland

On the day when the Dnipro children arrived in Scotland, we also played our part in the world-wide demonstrations of support for Ukraine in its war with ...

But the project has been plagued by changes to the ships’ design and the yard had to be nationalised in 2019. Meanwhile the ferry services to Arran and the Western Isles have been in the news because of delays to the building of two new ferry boats at the Ferguson shipyard on the Clyde. The latest report into this fiasco, from Audit Scotland, reveals that the cost of the ferries has nearly doubled to £240 million and they will be five years late, not entering service till the summer of 2023. The Scottish Government for its part is to increase its own Child Payments from £10 to £20 a week from April and to £25 by the end of this year. University and college lecturers have been on strike over what their union (UCU) says is a 35 per cent cut in their pensions and a 25 per cent cut in their pay since 2009. The UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak has tried to ease the pain with a 5p cut in petrol duty and raising the wage level at which workers and employers will have to start paying National Insurance. It looks generous, until you consider that petrol prices have increased by 40p a litre in the last year and National Insurance itself is being increased by 1.2 per cent from the beginning of April. But much of the news this week has been about the “cost of living” crisis.