UNIONIST politicians are trying to rewrite history over Labour/LibDem mismanagement of the expensive Edinburgh tram debacle. The SNP consistently opposed the scheme as TIE’s business case never stood up. When the SNP minority government took office in 2007, they were forced into diverting £500 million from the transport budget for dualling the A9 into the tram project by Tory, Labour and LibDem MSPs.
The inquiry rightly puts the bulk of the blame onto TIE and highly paid council officials. On October 25 2007, a City of Edinburgh Council press release stated that Edinburgh’s tram network received backing from the majority of city councillors that day when they voted to approve TIE Ltd’s final business case. 46 councillors voted in favour of the recommendations but all 12 SNP councillors voted against.
READ MORE: Douglas Ross needs reminder that SNP wanted to ditch Edinburgh trams
The original flawed contract for the tram project was signed when Labour were in power at both Holyrood and in the city chambers. They set up TIE to manage the tram project and TIE’s day-to-day operation from 2007 to 2011 was overseen by two LibDems, one Labour and a Tory councillor who were appointed board members, but councillors continually complained about being kept in the dark.
At council level, on April 30 2009 the SNP moved that the tram scheme be scrapped due to the lack of detail on costs, timescales and risks involved but the other parties did not even support calls for a report on the costs and timescales.
Mary Thomas
Edinburgh
SO much for political impartiality at BBC Scotland.
The guest review of Thursday’s First Minister’s Questions was conducted by Simon Johnson of The Telegraph and Gina Davidson formerly of The Scotsman, now with LBC, both representing pro-Union news organisations on the right of politics. The “trams fiasco” was not raised at FMQs but that did not stop BBC host Kirsten Campbell from raising the subject with her guest reviewers and slanting questions to substantially cast blame in the direction of John Swinney, the SNP and the SNP-led Scottish Government, for the failings of a project that they did not support in the form planned, which the Labour-LibDem coalition initiated and the Labour-LibDem-controlled Edinburgh City Council and their appointed project managers, TIE, were responsible for delivering. Not unsurprisingly, viewers were left at the end of the programme with another distorted Scottish political picture.
READ MORE: Edinburgh tram inquiry finds 'litany of avoidable failures'
It is poor that BBC Scotland’s news and political programmes, selected panels and audiences, such as those in Debate Night, routinely fail to reflect the constitutional balance in opinion of the Scottish public, but surely there is no excuse for a public broadcaster to lack unbiased professional integrity in its reporting, commentary and analyses?
Stan Grodynski
Longniddry, East Lothian
THE letter from Tony Kime (Sep 23) couldn’t be further from the truth. To even state that Fergus Ewing “claims to support independence” just shows how out of touch Mr Kime is.
Fergus Ewing has been a lifelong supporter of independence and has stood up for Scotland’s claim for independence for far longer than any of the current clique within the Green Party (and many within the SNP). To be honest, Fergus is not from my wing of the SNP, but I fully support his right to question policies which should never have got past the ideas stage! Surely there must have been someone in the Cabinet who could have said "hold on a minute – these ideas are terrible!"
READ MORE: SNP meeting to discuss Fergus Ewing disciplinary action postponed
It’s not even the cost of the failed Deposit Return Scheme (upwards of £90 million) or the other lunatic policies driven by the Greens – the major impact of the combination of these policies is for the Scottish Government to lose the trust of the public. At one time the SNP was a good example of strong and competent government, now it’s a joke that seems to have infected public services, like the police force which apparently will now arrest you for misgendering someone but don’t have the resources to investigate burglaries!
It’s a sad reflection on the SNP that Fergus is facing disciplinary action for merely voicing what many members feel: that the Greens are dragging the SNP down.
Alex Beckett
Paisley
THE media scrum rightly focussed on Rishi Sunak’s announcement on Wednesday, however Mr Speaker was exercised that the Prime Minister abused the PM’s position akin to his predecessor-but-one, the bumbling Boris.
PMs are supposed to respect parliament by providing statements to the House of Commons first, rather than to the invited media friendlies, who seemed to have been drugged into passivity. No hard questions, no outrage.
READ MORE: Rishi Sunak draws praise from Donald Trump for net zero U-turn
Rishi seems to be interested in joining a Formula 1 race team, the U-turns performed are so frequent the are nearly “donuts” on the race track. Maybe he also has shares in “black circles”.
Alistair Ballantyne
Angus
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