After I left university I got a job with the Glasgow Herald. Seeing an advertisement for a job as an official with the Clyde Shipbuilders Association, I applied and was successful. The CSA primarily handled labour negotiations, and made representations to the Shipbuilding Employers Federation and to Government. I was with the CSA for five years, during which time my job was basically yard negotiation. I then represented a Glasgow constituency where a lot of people worked in the shipyards, and became for a brief period a Scottish Office Minister taking the industrial brief just before the General Election of 1974. I then became a shadow cabinet spokesman, and was prominent in the debates leading to nationalisation.

People like us in the industry did not look upon the Geddes proposals as anything that was going to solve problems. We felt that the problem had come. There was nothing in setting up things like the SIB. It gave you a new avenue to government whereby you could argue for more shipbuilding credits. My own view was that the Geddes proposals were basically irrelevant. There was almost inevitability with the problem at this stage. All we did with these brand new plans was to create a few jobs for a few smart people for a few of these business consultants.

To be brutally frank, if I had been in charge of government and the shipbuilding industry, I do not think that there was anything I could have done. I got the impression that the battle was lost before it was started. I do not say this as a criticism of the shipbuilding industry. It is the sort of thing that is partly inevitable when you have got an established industry and when you are dealing with unfair competition, and, more importantly, a declining demand for ships allied to a huge increase in capacity. If anybody believes that simply investment is the answer, then they should visit Harland and Wolff.

Governments were all terribly anxious to do something about shipbuilding, because they genuinely believed that something could be done. They had innumerable committees and experts looking at the industry suggesting various things. I hope that I am not sounding pessimistic, but there was little they could do.