The landscapes were glorious. Blue skies and sunshine. Mountain paths firmer, and drier, than we could have hoped. Spring all around; buds on the trees, tiny lambs appearing in the fields, single-track roads filling up with campervans.

But scratch beneath the surface, and all is not well in Highland communities. The Easter break should mark the start of the tourist season, but for most working in hospitality this is a time of crisis not opportunity.

This is a sector struggling under the burden of punishing business rates, at a time when south of the Border the UK Government has given their equivalents a 75 per cent rates relief for the year. Despite equivalent resources coming to the Scottish Government through the Barnett Formula, they have not been passed on by Edinburgh.

Add to that the proposed restrictions on alcohol promotion and the calamitous deposit return scheme – a good idea but being implemented in the most disastrous fashion – and it is no wonder that confidence is low in the hospitality sector. Self-catering lets are having to cope with an overly prescriptive, bureaucratic and expensive new licensing scheme, a policy designed to tackle the proliferation of Airbnbs in city centre tenement properties, but whose “one-size-fits-all” implementation is hurting the economies in rural areas.

And that is not even the start of where Highlanders and Islanders are being let down by a distant SNP administration in Edinburgh. The long-promised dualling of the A9 has been halted. Barely 11 miles of new dual carriageway has been constructed in 16 years of nationalist government. This promise delayed, denied, we know will cost lives. The sense of betrayal, even amongst SNP voters, is real.

For island communities, reliant upon antiquated CalMac ferries, it is even worse. It seems every week there is a fresh report of a broken-down vessel. Another community stranded. With fractured government contracts, the costs of the two ferries promised from Fergusson’s shipyard in Port Glasgow rises much more quickly than their prows. The total now exceeds £300 million. The bill will be bigger than the boats.

Then there is the Corran Ferry, not run by CalMac but by Highland Council, where both boats serving the route are now out of service. This is a disaster for residents in the Ardnamurchan Peninsula. It is also the most direct means of accessing the Isle of Mull. Without the ferry, the diversion route adds 42 miles. For Lowlanders, that’s the distance between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The out-of-service Corran ferry, seen preparing to dock at Nether Lochaber, is set to be replaced by a military landing craft (Picture: Neil Hanna)

But the SNP’s neglect, or betrayal, of the Highlands and Islands doesn’t end there. The proposed introduction of highly protected marine areas (HPMAs) has stoked a furious backlash in Highlands and Islands communities, as it would lead to large areas currently used for fishing being excluded, devastating local employment.

Former SNP MSP Angus MacDonald, originally from the Isle of Lewis, resigned his 35-year party membership of the SNP last week because of this policy. From his Glasgow home, Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie insists upon the policy, and his tail wags Humza Yousaf’s dog. But Patrick fishes in a very different pond than rural Scots.

The Highlands and Islands are being let down by the SNP administration in Edinburgh, and they know it. Fortunately, the UK Conservative Government at Westminster is stepping in to intervene directly to help Highland communities.

Even Ian Blackford, MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber and until recently SNP leader at Westminster, has prayed to them for aid, asking for the Ministry of Defence to help in replacing the Corran Ferry. It is understood that MoD personnel have identified a large landing craft which may be able to serve the route and are in discussion with both Highland Council and the Scottish Government. A sensible solution to deal with what has needlessly become a crisis situation for local communities.

Increasingly where the SNP government neglects, the UK Government respects. The Community Ownership Fund from Michael Gove’s department has provided support for a series of local projects. The community purchase of the excellent Old Forge Pub at Inverie in Knoydart is one I am especially pleased to see.

The UK Government’s freeport scheme – initially resisted by the SNP and Greens in Edinburgh – will deliver benefits for Inverness and the Cromarty Firth, expected to create 25,000 jobs and generate an astonishing £4.8 billion in investment for the area. The SNP offered no such opportunities. Their view was flags for Scots, not fortunes.

Historically, the SNP garnered support in the Highlands and Islands by claiming those communities were being ignored by a remote Tory government in Westminster. Now that argument is being turned on its head. Now those very same communities who in the 70s and 80s felt ignored by Westminster, in the 2020s are being not just ignored by Holyrood, but damaged by it, with a Central Belt agenda that is alien to their way of life.

Devolution was supposed to be a way that our nation could breathe. I believe in that concept, that we should give people control of their own lives and communities. Her time may be passing, but Nicola Sturgeon’s administration clearly did not believe in that, and I fear that Humza Yousaf, in however short his reign is, doesn’t either.

In the turbulent times in which we live, is it not remarkable, that it is the government that Scottish Nationalists claim is supposedly distant – the UK Government – that is delivering transport links for our rural communities, not our administration at Holyrood?

But while they give us no ferries, I believe there is a luxury campervan in Nicola Sturgeon’s mother-in-law’s drive. Or was. I wonder who was taken in it for a ride. Perhaps all of us.

Murdo Fraser is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife

Abandoned by the SNP, Highlanders are turning to UK Government for support – Murdo Fraser

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