Edinburgh still ahead in an uneven contest

PRIVATE bets are now being taken in the Scottish Parliament about who will be the first SNP minister to fall on his sword. Don't tell him but SNP sports minister Stewart Maxwell is attracting large wedges of notes following his appearance on Newsnight Scotland this week.

On Wednesday Maxwell had informed the parliament that sportscotland (based in Edinburgh) was to be merged with the Scottish Institute of Sport (based in Stirling) and that the new body would be relocated to (you won't have difficulty guessing) – yes, Glasgow.

Originally the SNP had said it would abolish sportscotland. It seems like the policy had been an SNP manifesto commitment since Lachie Stewart won the 10,000m at Meadowbank in 1970 – and so this merger had to be called an abolition to save face.

Maxwell adopted some contorted positions, as if he was trying out the pommel horse for the first time. Newsnight Scotland's Gordon Brewer pointed out the functions of the new body would be the same, its charter would be the same, the staff would be the same, and even the name would be the same.

Rather than be more efficient the number of staff is expected to rise and it will have more regional offices rather than one single headquarters.

Maxwell talks of the staff delivering more, but these employees are not gym teachers, they are not personal coaches they are in the main sports administrators trying to help others excel at the coaching and performance.

Yet again Glasgow benefits from the shifting of public sector deckchairs – but what else could we expect? There has not been a minister responsible for sport (or indeed culture) that has not been from the West coast, if not Glasgow itself. Of course, it is explained that this merger, abolition or whatever face-saving title it is to be called, is part of the successful bid for Glasgow winning the Commonwealth Games in 2014. What nonsense – when we won that bid the SNP government was openly saying that the organisation would be abolished – and still Glasgow won!

Glasgow needs more public sector jobs like it needs more local thugs carrying knives. To be prosperous and create jobs the Glasgow of now needs to become the Glasgow of the past, making things, selling things and generally being commercial.

As usual, Edinburgh shows the way – at the same time as the West Coast political mafia was shoving more taxpayer-funded jobs along the M8, the private Edinburgh Airport was announced as the busiest airport in Scotland – beating Glasgow by some 300,000 passengers. That's no mean achievement when Glasgow delivers so many chartered flights while Edinburgh relies mainly on scheduled services.

"Let Glasgow flourish" is that city's motto. Until the politicians stop trying to save the city and let the people do it for themselves Edinburgh will continue to be on target to become Scotland's largest metropolis – no matter how many public sector workers are forced to go west.


It's not such an ill-wind if it blows away the prejudice against cars

AS we are regularly being told how we should leave our cars at home and use public transport, I thought I should draw to your attention to the fact that, on Wednesday, the Forth Road Bridge (60,000 vehicles a day) was closed for a considerable period due to strong winds that caused an accident on the bridge. Not only were the allegedly selfish car drivers and aggressive truck drivers forced to go via the Kincardine Bridge (24,000 vehicles a day) but so too was public transport in the form of all those buses and coaches from Fife, Dundee, Angus, Perthshire and points North. Rather than being rescheduled some services were, quite abruptly, cancelled.

To add to the absolute mayhem, the weather also caused some rail delays, with the attendant problems of people being three hours late for work or not turning up at all. It also meant Edinburgh businesses letting staff away early – some had barely arrived, had a snack and it was time to go.

So what do you do when you've unselfishly given up the car but public transport doesn't function? Thumb a lift?

There are still politicians out there that think the Forth Road Bridge should not be replaced. They also tend to hate the car, not get in a lift unless there are more than three people in it and are appalled at the thought that in India a new low price "people's car" is about to transform the standard of living on that continent.

It might be unpalatable for some but the car is here to stay and when the buses and trains aren't working, it actually keeps some of us moving. Instead of raging against the moon we should embrace the car and make it work for us rather than wishing it would go away.


£125m home truth for the council house sale girners

IS it not wonderfully ironic that we now know that Edinburgh council has got by over the years by selling council houses?

The city has benefited to the tune of £125 million over the last ten years – and yet people still complain. The girners say that it deprives people on waiting lists of obtaining council houses and that fat profits are made by those selling on the houses (this being Scotland, profit being a nasty, dirty word).

Well there's another way of looking at it. Firstly, if a house is occupied and the tenant buys it to thus become a landlord the house is still occupied by the same person – only the nature of tenure has changed. The house, being occupied, would not have been available to anyone on the waiting list and so the sale has not deprived a single person of that house. Secondly, council houses cost the public money. They are heavily subsidised. Selling them to tenants actually can save councils money – and the discount is given in recognition that previous rental is a form of down payment.

There is no reason for councils to be landlords. They distort housing for political gain and regularly provide houses that need demolished after only thirty years. We should look to accelerate the process, giving tenants of flats new shared rights to the land and property – then see how they will be redeveloped and affordable housing made available.