David Maddox: Lochhead loses the spirit of Speyside

Pity the poor Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead (pictured right). There he was enjoying one of the biggest junkets of the year as a judge at the Spirit of Speyside contest sniffing and tasting 40 single malts and he is forced to clear off to take part in some pesky votes.

One thing is for certain, though, his constituents in Moray will not thank him for his sacrifice.
I admit to some jealousy with this, as a judge of the same contest from last year, I had to give up my place because Thursday is Holyrood's busiest day.

However, there were a couple of reasons why he should take part in these votes. The first was on the Forestry Commission which is part of his departmental responsibilities and which the SNP won by one vote.

The second, though, was called in his honour. As mentioned in this blog before Labour took the advice of my colleague Hamish Macdonell's column to test Mr Lochhead's loyalties - constituents vs government career.

The vote was essentially on whether MSPs regretted the failure to include the Elgin bypass in its strategic transport plans for the next 20 years. Since the SNP promise to do exactly that was formally dropped by his constituency neighbour Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson, the MSP for Banff and Buchan, he has continued to campaign for its inclusion.

So was he going to continue to back his constituents and resign after voting against the government of which he is a minister? Not on your life. Ministerial career first. No regrets for Lochhead.

David Maddox: The trap is set

Labour have sent me a copy of their motion for the transport debate on Thursday. As mentioned in my Inside Holyrood column on Monday, this is aimed at primarily embarrassing the Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead (pictured right).
In his capacity as the MSP for Moray, Mr Lochhead is a longstanding campaigner for the Elgin bypass, which his party promised in opposition would be built. But his neighbour, Banff and Buchan MSP Stewart Stevenson, the Transport Minister, rather let the side down by not including the bypass in the list of projects for the next 20 years.
Mr Lochhead has remained as a minister, but is now apparently campaigning against his own government's transport policy. The motion in the name of Des McNulty, Labour's transport spokesman, is designed to force him to choose between being a minister and betraying his constituents or opposing the government and having to resign as a minister. A similar trap has been laid for Children's Minister Adam Ingram over the Maybole bypass.
Only time will tell if it works.
Here is the motion:

Des McNulty Labour, (Clydebank and Milngavie) (pictured left): That the Parliament notes that the Strategic Transport Projects Review lacks detail on timescales and does not commit the Scottish Government to deliver a programme of expenditure for the vast majority of the projects identified; and accordingly notes the concern of communities along the length of the A82, A77, A9 and A96 that no indication has been given as to when their needs for road improvements will be addressed; and in particular notes the disappointment of people in Elgin, Inverness and Maybole who were led to believe by the SNP prior to the 2007 election that their by-pass schemes would be given priority by an SNP Government, reminds Ministers of the principle of collective responsibility and the need to ensure that communities are not misled about the Scottish Government’s intentions.

Hamish Macdonell - new bridge, old money.

SO now we know. The Scottish Government has just announced that there will be a new Forth Bridge, but it will be a much smaller version than planned, it will cost less to build and the existing bridge will be pressed into action as a public transport bridge.
The crucial part of this is the funding. The Scottish Government believes that, because it has scaled back on the size of the new bridge, it can now pay for it through the Scottish block.
The new bridge was going to cost £4 billion. Now it will cost £2 billion.
It does seem that the SNP government has pulled a rabbit out of a hat - if it can do what it says it can.
But crucial questions remain. First, where is the Scottish Futures Trust? If the SFT, the SNP's flagship funding mechansim cannot be used for this project, then will it ever be used? Is it now dead?
Second, if the existing bridge is not up to the task of carrying public transport (buses) then the new, cheap, bridge will not be up to the task of carrying all the traffic crossing the Forth. This is a gamble, a huge gamble.
One more thing, though, Stewart Stevenson, the transport minister, said he was thinking about putting trams on the old bridge to take people to Fife. For a government which has been absolutely hostile to trams, this is something of a conversion, on the road to Lochgelly maybe?
ends