Salmond blasts SNP’s ‘pathetic’ A9 excuses
THE SNP must end its ‘pathetic litany of excuses’ over its failure to dual one of Scotland’s most dangerous roads, Alex Salmond said yesterday.
The former First Minister took aim at his former Nationalist colleagues as he gave evidence to MSPs at the public petitions committee seeking the reason for dualling of the A9 falling a decade behind schedule.
His administration, which included John Swinney as Finance Secretary, had pledged to upgrade Scotland’s main arterial route between Perth and Inverness by 2025.
Mr Salmond said: ‘John, by nature, is cautious on a whole range of things, rightly so as Finance Secretary, but he was signed up for this. This was a collective decision of the Cabinet.’
Asked what caused the project to go awry, Mr Salmond replied: ‘We can eliminate the various excuses that have been made: transport, inflation, contractors’ inflation.
‘I’m afraid that’s part of the slings and arrows of doing anything.
That’s life. I don’t think we can blame Vladimir [Putin]; I don’t think war is an acceptable reason.
‘The only excuse that carries any weight is the pandemic. If this committee was considering a twoyear delay in the A9 commitment, I think the government would have an effective alibi by saying we lost two years in the pandemic.
‘But otherwise I think the excuses are pathetic. An admission of failure and of failing to keep a solemn commitment would be a good start as opposed to a litany of excuses.’
Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said: ‘As ever with Alex Salmond, this was more an exercise in settling scores and self-promotion than shedding light on the reasons for the SNP’s broken pledge to dual the A9.
‘But one thing is indisputable, this SNP government has shamefully betrayed those rural communities who rely on the A9 by missing its own deadline for completion by at least a decade.
SNP ministers pledged to dual 11 sections of the A9 and committed £3billion to the task in 2014.
So far only two have been completed and the target date has been put back to 2035.