History speaks for itself over delays
The letter in Perthshire View from Cllr Mac Roberts is an almost word for word replay of his letter of June 17, 2016.
I shall therefore respond with chunks of my reply from June 24 of that year.
Mr Roberts blamed/blames the Scottish Government for the delay in the new Forth bridge, the Holyrood building, Edinburgh trams and Dundee’s V&A Museum.
Now, unless I’m mistaken, the bridge is being built by a construction company with engineers and subcontractors, not by MSPs.
Since these workers are not gods, they cannot control the high winds that have been blowing lately and therefore have to either stop or restrict their working. They could carry on, of course, as vehicles are being blown over on the first road bridge and they could try to work towards the death score of 78 achieved building the rail bridge. Perhaps, if Mr Roberts is so perturbed by the delays, he could take himself and some fellow Tories on to the bridge and get to work. Breaking into a sweat doing an honest day’s labour will be a novelty to some of them.
As for the Scottish Parliament building, there was no Scottish Government when the decision on the Holyrood building was decided by the London government. The first Scottish Parliament was elected in May 1999 and building began in June.
The Edinburgh trams was an Edinburgh council project, nothing to do with the Scottish Government. It was Labour dominated and there was only one SNP member at the time. The project lasted through the next Labour administration, then a LibDem one. The council then went begging for money from the Scottish Government. By this time there was a minority SNP government. It was not in favour and voted against splashing out £500 million. However, the vote was lost by 81 votes to 57. Every SNP MSP voted against and every Tory voted for. So take the blame for your own party’s actions Mr Roberts.
As for the V&A, this is a joint project between Dundee Council, the London V & A and Dundee University. Again, they approached the Scottish Government for money and received funding.
I suppose the next thing we’ll be hearing is that the SNP is involved in a plot to resurrect the Labour Party. All things are possible in the wonderful world of Toryism.
Thomas R. Burgess by email