We must broaden our shipbuilding base

You report (25 February) that Clydeside has lost out to South Korea on a Royal Naval order, and the Labour defence spokesman Jim Murphy said: “The one thing keeping shipbuilding on the Clyde afloat is work on Royal Navy warships.” Is this a sustainable situation, whether Scotland remains under Westminster or becomes independent?

When in power, Labour had to cut its order for Type 45 Destroyers from 12 to six on the grounds of cost, and that order is nearing completion. The Conservative/ Liberal Democrat government has said it will sell the first carrier to help pay for the second. The Type 26 & 27 Frigates are held up indefinitely awaiting someone to place an order and share the costs.

The navy would prefer a highly-sophisticated, multipurpose design, but a foreign customer, if one can be found, may want a much simpler design at half the price, so this remains in limbo.

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According to the internet Brazil has been offered a deal by which one vessel would be built here, and the rest in Brazil under BAE Systems tutelage. Not much hope for the Clyde there! Why did BAE Systems itself not bid directly for the tankers? Is it purely a question of cost? Even if it had got this four-tanker order, what prospect is there of enough Royal Naval work for two Clyde yards for the next couple of decades?

Is it not time that BAE Systems, the Scottish Government and the unions got down to considering how one of the Clyde yards could compete successfully in the civil market?

The Far East has lower wages, and southern Europe has European Union help to keep their tax rates below their costs, but the Dutch and the Norwegians take large shares of the market, particularly in supplying vessels for work off-shore Scotland.

If Scotland becomes independent, we will remain in the Commonwealth, with the Queen as head of state, and it is virtually certain that either both Scotland and the rest of the UK will be in the EU, or if the EU crisis is not solved, both may be out. There would inevitably be a mutual defence treaty.

In these circumstances, I believe BAE Systems might well be able to bid for naval orders from both the Scottish and the RoUK governments. It has yards in other parts of the UK for building other types of ship, but why would it want to abandon a Scottish yard and build another elsewhere? Why would the RoUK government want to pay a higher cost to cover building a new yard?

We have too many eggs in one basket. There is a large market for civilian ships and we must find a way to compete.

John Smart

Kinneddar Street

Lossiemouth, Moray