P&O was once shorthand for the pride of the British shipping industry.
The company was co-founded by a sailor from Shetland in the 1830s and became a trusted name to generations of Scots travelling around the world.
The glory days ended long ago and the firm was broken up in 2006 with its ferry services being flogged to a Dubai-owned company.
Now P&O will be mainly remembered for another dark day in the history of workers’ rights in the UK.
The company sacked 800 seafarers with no notice yesterday – then sent hired security guards onto its ships to remove them.
P&O intends to rely on poorly paid agency workers to run its ferries in the future.
It’s the kind of tactic normally associated with the worst excesses of American frontier capitalism in the 19th century.
It is an appalling way to act, with no concern for the impact the lay-offs will have on the workers and their families.
Regardless of commercial considerations, workers must be treated with dignity and respect, and companies must act within the law.
P&O have shown their staff nothing but contempt.
Politicians from all parties – including some Tory MPs – are right to express disgust at the behaviour of P&O.
A message needs to be sent that such tactics can never be viewed as acceptable.
Sex crime victims must have justice
Only 43 per cent of rape and attempted rape trials in Scotland result in a conviction – and many more cases don’t even make it to court.
Alarmingly, the backlog in bringing cases to trial has caused some complainers to withdraw.
Only the prosecution services can drop a case but when complainers lose so much faith in the ability of the system to deliver justice that they stop co-operating, there is often little option but to abandon the whole thing.
It is shocking that the criminal justice system is facing such a situation, leaving alleged victims in limbo, in uncertainty and with no sense of being able to move on with their lives after massive trauma.
The huge backlog cannot be blamed on Covid alone. The problem is one of resources.
Quite simply, more money is needed to run the service.
The victims of sexual offences must be given the support they need and every chance of seeing their attackers being brought to justice.
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