IAN Blackford was right to point out that the High-Speed Railway 2 project did not cover Scotland, any more than our subsidy bill for London Crossrail, Jubilee Line, sewage etc did. By the time it gets to Leeds we’ll all be deid and by the time it gets to Scotland – well, forget it.
Anywhere else, such as the USA, road and rail projects always start from both ends of the country, north to south and east to west. Conglomerate steel and rail interests even bought newspapers to propagandise their cause and sectionalise their interests.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon may have just killed the 'Boris Bridge' – and here's why
They used their rags to demonise the Native Americans in order to steal their land. They also had to put up with guerilla forces, such as the James-Younger gangs, reappropriating their surplus labour value from the railroad companies and robbing the robbing bankers for the disposed proletariat.
Now, any infrastructural projects must mean upheaval for some, and all should be fairly and generously compensated otherwise there would have been no Industrial Revolution and no future progress. I wouldn’t mind a supermercat overcompensating me for a better hoose and a better transport service.
Similarly, a few Luddites are opposing the great Celtic Crossing Bridge, purely because it was proposed by Boris Johnson. Does it matter if it was proposed by Boris Karloff or even a proverbial Lon Chaney? The huge benefits to Ireland and Scotland and commerce should be obvious to all.
Oor ain Nicola says she is not opposed to it on principle, but she could think of other ways of spending the money in Edinburgh and Belfast. Fair enough, and that could be said about any project. Such are the pains of progress.
Ideally, it could have been supported by the EU and an independent Scotland and a united Ireland, leaving a full English Brexit to sort out its own dog’s dinner south of the Border. English imperialism does not have a very good international history of sorting out its own many manufactured borders. As part of the EU, we can play our part in breaking down such borders and send food parcels to the north of England. The Brits just love oor food banks.
The engineering side has been answered by the appropriate experts, and plenty of foreign examples of bigger bridge crossings have been argued out.
Wouldn’t it be great fun if the Irish held a united Ireland referendum in conjunction with an independent Scotland referendum, where Boorish Johnston and his Lib-Lab Unionist triplet two-faced chums would have to fight on two fronts?
Donald Anderson
Glasgow
I HAVE absolute confidence in the ability of engineers to find a way of building a bridge across the Irish Sea. I am equally certain that it would be a criminal waste of an enormous amount of money.
We have declared a climate emergency. So by all means improve the links with the north of Ireland. Invest in ferries and have Road Tariff Equivalent pricing. Build (or rebuild) railway links to the ports, with regular affordable services that link up with ferries. Improve bus services and cycle links. All this at a fraction of the cost of a bridge, and all definitely achievable. And all providing a range of employment opportunities.
We have no need to indulge any of Boris Johnson’s vanity projects. Or his “dead cat” distractions.
A final thought. Has anyone proposing this actually travelled to Portpatrick and the Mull of Galloway? Beautiful places both, (I can highly recommend a visit) but there would need to be significant infrastructure spend before any bridge was built.
Let’s get real.
Margaret McIlhinney
Moffat
SO Boris Johnson’s idea of “cementing the Union” is to build a bridge over treacherous waters from Scotland to Larne. Question: if it takes six years to build a bridge less than two miles long over a Firth, in challenging weather conditions, how many years would it take to build a bridge 28 miles long over the treacherous deep waters of the North Channel from Galloway to Northern Ireland?
Instead of plucking hare-brained schemes out of thin air, Johnson should take a trip to North Britain and the proposed starting point of his bridge. He should travel along quiet roads, past lush green farmland and down the winding road to the lovely village and picturesque harbour of Portpatrick. Only then might he realise that his scheme would ruin forever the most beautiful, unspoilt, western edge of the Rhinns of Galloway. Those quiet roads and farmland would be bulldozed to make way for the infrastructure needed to bring lorry loads of bridge-building materials and personnel to the site.
He will also realise that ferries run efficiently, frequently and daily from the port of Cairnryan to Larne and Belfast. Return traffic filters out from the two terminals directly north on to the A77 and east on the A75.
The projected cost of this unnecessary bridge is around £20 billion which, in reality, will amount to much more over the years it will take to complete the work. If that kind of money is available, why is it not being spent where it is needed most, the NHS being a prime example?
The bridge is yet another example of Boris Johnson’s ability to ignore reality and embark on a vanity project with scant regard as to the consequences and cost.
I am astonished to learn that Andrew Wilson, chairman of the Scottish Growth Commission, has given credence to this madcap idea. Maybe he should accompany Johnson on his road trip and perhaps together they will come to their senses.
J Anderson
Aberdeenshire
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