Glen Sannox finally ready?! That's a fantasy beyond even Lewis Carroll

“O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” we cried, when we heard whispers that the first of two long, long delayed and way, way over-budget ferries, the Glen Sannox, was going to be handed over at the end of this month.

After hearing this sensational news from not one but two well-placed sources, we rushed to put the supposed date, October 28, in our diaries. But then we paused. Could it actually be true? Haven’t we been here before? Wasn’t this the ship that was ‘launched’ with painted-on windows in 2017?

What were we thinking? Of course not. Ready? Don’t be ridiculous. The shipyard, Ferguson Marine, dismissed our sources and added it had not even begun “thinking about a handover date”. Clearly our brief optimism was just nonsense, plain fantasy.

Meanwhile, in the real world, all sailings between Ardrossan and Brodick – the route awaiting the Sannox’s arrival – were cancelled yesterday as the stand-in vessel had to be sent elsewhere after another ferry broke down. And, in the Scottish Government, “Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.”