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macnumpty · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 12:52 pm Post subject: Taking a toll

The issue of tolls on the Forth and Tay Bridges is the big one in Holyrood today, and has already claimed a victim: Scott Barrie (Lab, Dunfermline West) has resigned as a Labour Party whip, obviously as a prelude to voting with the for their abolition in contravention with Executive policy. It remains to be seen how the other Fife Labour and LibDem MSPs will vote - they have gone on the record in the past as opposing tolls, but don't want to hand the SNP an easy victory. Again, this is madness: better to inflict a defeat on the Executive, than to support a policy unpopular with your constituents and risk defeat in May, surely?

Also, the Greens are an unknown quantity: they obviously support tolls as a means of keeping car use down, but it's unclear as yet whether they will support the Executive. If they do, then Labour and the LibDems win the day hands down: they win the vote, and their MSPs in Fife get to rebel, safe in the knowledge that they've voted how their constituents probably want them to, and also in the knowledge that the Lab/Lib/Green majority can absorb it.

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^ ^ This is Bunny. Bunny wishes that he was on the electoral roll in Glasgow East, so he could vote for John Mason. He also reminds you to read the Our Scotland Blog.

Avatar · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 2:45 pm Post subject:

macnumpty · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:11 pm Post subject:

Following on from my OP, you still have to pay to leave Dundee: more churlish users might suggest that it'd be mad asking people to pay to enter it. Very Happy

Anyway, the Greens allowed the Executive to win the vote, by 65 votes to 58, even with the Fife Labour and LibDem MSPs voting with the SNP and the Tories. They will at least be able to go to the electorate and say that they voted against tolls, but the reality is that the tolls are still there.

Murdo Fraser was quoted on the news as asking what would be in the Labour and LibDem manifestos for May though. He has a point: we'll probably be revisiting the issue after the Election and the actions of the current Executive parties will be worth watching when we do. Tomorrow, check how your local Labour/LibDem MSP voted in the Business Bulletin and make a note of it. If the next time we come back to this, they're still there and they vote to scrap them when they voted to keep them today, you might want to drop them a line, asking why tolls are a bad policy at that time, but were a good thing in February 2007.
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^ ^ This is Bunny. Bunny wishes that he was on the electoral roll in Glasgow East, so he could vote for John Mason. He also reminds you to read the Our Scotland Blog.

Scott2006 · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 8:49 pm Post subject:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk...ent/or-07/sor0208-02.htm#Col31968

macnumpty · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 10:56 pm Post subject:

Speaking of Tavish Scott, has no one asked him why it is that tolls on the East Coast bridges prevent congestion, but there is no problem with the absence of tolls on the West Coast bridges?
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^ ^ This is Bunny. Bunny wishes that he was on the electoral roll in Glasgow East, so he could vote for John Mason. He also reminds you to read the Our Scotland Blog.

SLG · Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 3:52 pm Post subject:

They are playing a bit of a dangerous game here. There is already a perception of an east/west split based on the location of ministers etc. This is just exacerbating that. Despite the votes against and abstentions, I can see this damaging Labour in the east.