Broken promises over A9 could spell death knell for SNP at Holyrood
Jamie’s Journal by Jamie Stone
It is an ancient Stone family tale, that when my wife and I were once travelling north on one of the then very few dual carriageway parts of the A9 between Perth and Inverness during the night-time (and with our firstborn in a carrycot strapped to the back seat), we were more than astonished to encounter a Land Rover going in the opposite direction in the outer lane.
Clearly the driver didn’t realise that he was on a dualled carriage and had been proceeding in the southern direction of the old A9 with no idea that he’d inadvertently driven onto the wrong road. Ever since that day we’ve hoped and prayed we wouldn’t come to misfortune…
I use this anecdote to illustrate the continuing scandal of the Scottish Government and the A9 between Perth and Inverness, a stretch of road littered with broken promises that were started by the late Alex Salmond, after he assumed government in 2007.
I was in the Scottish Parliament when it was blithely announced that the whole of the A9 would become dualled, with no timescale set. I can remember raising an eyebrow and questioning the then transport minister Stuart Stevenson as to how this could possibly come to pass.
As we all know, it didn’t – and now the latest incarnation of the SNP government in Edinburgh is promising yet more action by 2035. I’ve seen this film before…
Dear Reader, may your writer be permitted a hollow laugh.
Last week, mention was made of this seemingly doomed promise in Westminster and, having had to spend a number of fraught months travelling between Inverness and Aberdeen to visit my wife when she was gravely ill in hospital, I simply couldn’t resist adding the similar promise that was made back then about the A96 between Inverness and Aberdeen.
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Oh yes! And that road would be turned into a dual carriageway too.
The Scottish Government’s magic wand was truly a wonder – all form and no function, I think. Back then, in 1999, there were traffic lights on the A96 where the road went under the railway line at a place called Oyne. Well, guess what folks, those traffic lights are still there today.
I know I’ve felt a bit of a chill in my chest following the recent cold snap, but on this occasion perhaps my hollow laugh may begin to sound more like the death rattle of promises made and promises broken.
That leads me to the main point I want to make. Promises made and broken by governments are the high road to oblivion. You want to know why the SNP lost so many votes last July? Promises made about roads, about ferries, about education and about health? Yup, that’s it.
The general public is a forgiving creature, capable of love and trust. Where the public see politicians and governments trying to do their very best in the circumstances, they will stick by them. But when grand pledges and commitments are made and then tossed in the bin, that trust evaporates just as quickly as the snow of winter melts on a stone wall in sunshine.
Why don’t our politicians understand this first rule of government? Don’t promise the Earth when you know you simply cannot deliver it.
And yet, we have this 2035 date for the A9 that I started this column with. Methinks this one could turn out to be just as bad as the promise made back in 2007. There’s only one way for any government to learn a lesson and that is the hard way… I anticipate the SNP’s judgement day is not far now.
• Jamie Stone is the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.