At the same time that the feeble Scottish Parliament is wasting taxpayers' money buying out the Skye Bridge consortium (see my earlier blog), it doesn't seem to be doing much to promote competition in the transport links to other islands.

The Argyll Group plc has been struggling for some time to run a competing ferry service to the Isle of Arran, for example. At present Caledonian MacBrayne has an effective monopoly on dozens of island crossings, thanks in good measure to juicy subsidies from the taxpayer (of course). Argyll want to take them on, starting with the busy Arran run, and say that they can do the trip for two-thirds of what Cal-Mac are charging - despite the fact that Cal-Mac is pocketing a £2m subsidy and Argyll will get nothing.

As I reported in the summer, Caledonian MacBrayne put one of its old ferry boats up for sale, but refused to sell it to Argyll. I wasn't impressed that a taxpayer-subsidized company should treat potential competitors like that.

Now it turns out that Cal-Mac have a restrictive monopoly on Arran's main pier. For the size of ship Argyll are proposing, Cal-Mac propose a fee in excess of £1,250,000 per annum - that is, £4,000 per day - for shared usage. Cal-Mac, of course, pays nothing like that - and after subsidies, effectively nothing - for its use of the pier.

Argyll's only hope is to go to the Office of Fair Trading, the UK's competition authority. It certainly won't get anywhere with the people who are supposed to represent the Scots - the Scottish Parliament, sitting in its £400m building in Holyrood.