I may have lived in six different houses in the past 30-odd years but as an emigrant son of South Uist, I and many like me will always refer to the island of my birth as home. It makes no difference where and when islanders meet, the question of when they were last home always crops up such is the love and affection we hold for our Hebridean origins.

These days the chaotic to non-existent ferry service and eye watering air fares – it's cheaper to fly to New York for Christmas than from Glasgow to Benbecula – makes getting home not so much an adventure as an expedition. Emergency bedding and rations are now as standard part of any trip west, as is the inevitable need to drive from port to port hoping for a vessel, a sailing, and a space on it.

It’s round about this time some patriotic soul sitting in his pants in his mum's back room takes to social media to announce CalMac sailings have a 97% service and reliability rating and by comparison half the Staten Island ferries didn’t run at all last week, and that the Gebrovia to Narnia boat only sails every fifth Sunday in February! On behalf of islanders everywhere – thank you for your insight.

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Just how many concentration camps will you need, Mr President?

In the good old days, it wasn’t reliability that hampered island travel but cost – and for a few years at least the need to navigate the road blocks and protests at the Skye Bridge meant making a departure from Uig was always more doubtful that other routes.

The eventual liberation of Skye from........

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