It would be a fool who did not welcome the investment Forth Ports is making in Dundee’s harbour.
A £10 million cash injection to position the city as a key base for the multi-billion pound North Sea renewables and decommissioning sectors is fantastic news.
What’s slightly worrying about the move is that it is being done entirely off the company’s own back, with no support whatsoever from either the
Scottish or UK Governments.
Indeed, one SNP staffer asked me: “Is this money coming from us or Westminster?” just after our business editor, Graham Huband, broke the story.
In actual fact, to his surprise, neither has made any move to bring what could be a rejuvenating trade to the city.
Don’t get me wrong, warm words have flowed from press offices since a private company took steps to encourage politicians to get off their backsides and actually fight for jobs.
Yet even as he welcomed the investment, Energy Minister Fergus Ewing talked down the prospect of decommissioning work.
An obsession with watching black oil drip in front of his eyes has clouded his vision to the fact a Douglas-Westwood report estimated 150 platforms will have to be scrapped from the North Sea. Here’s hoping the hard work and investment of Forth Ports pays off and ideology does not serve as a barrier to local industry.