Unabridged

Gordon Brown was on BBC Radio 4 discussing the wonderfulnewqueensferrycrossing without ever mentioning the fact that the bridge was conceived and commissioned by the SNP and entirely paid for from the Scottish budget.

The impression was given that the Labour Party were the main driving force when nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing but hindrance and scorn came from both Westminster and the Labour Party.

In 1996 Tony Blair’s government cancelled plans for a new Forth crossing and his Transport Secretary, Alastair Darling, described it then as “this ridiculous bridge”, only changing his tune when campaigning in Fife in 2006 when the SNP were starting to overtake Labour. Gordon Brown was in Blair’s cabinet at the time as Chancellor.

In 2006 Jack Mcconnell, as Labour first minister, said it would be “stupid” to go ahead with the bridge as the old road bridge could possibly be fixed.

In 2009 the Treasury rejected the Scottish Government’s request to fund the bridge as essential infrastructure. Extra borrowing powers were also refused.

In 2012 James Kelly, Labour’s infrastructure manager, described it as “Alex Salmond’s unnecessary vanity project”; and Tory Murdo Fraser blamed the SNP for every weather delay throughout the project.

Most Opposition politicians at Holyrood spoke against it simply because it was an SNP project, although the Greens made it a point of principle as it would increase road traffic. However, the bridge has been completed across a windswept sea, close to the original time frame and hundreds of millions below budget, much to the credit of the builders and John Swinney and his team.

Without the steady driving force of the SNP this bridge would never have been built.

JAMES DUNCAN Rattray Grove, Edinburgh