Newsnight 22/12/06

A cracker show tonight showcasing two main stories. The first involving the resignation of a Minister of the Scottish Executive; the second the approval by City of Edinburgh councillors of what I believe is the embryonic stages of a white elephant.

Let's turn our attention to Malcolm Chisolm. Until this afternoon the Executive's Communities minister, and previously to this a Health Minister, resigned this afternoon after a division on a motion regarding the renewal of the Trident Missile submarine program. The nuclear facet of this issue makes it particularly emotive, with vivid arguments on the floor of the Scottish Parliament, as well as from the gallery above. When the Scottish National Party (SNP) put a (rather meekly worded) motion to the floor, four Labour rebels, including Chisolm, crossed the floor and voted with the SNP, Labour's main opponents. The motion was deafeated 72-45

Shortly afterwards, his resignation was effective.

"It is with deep regret that I find myself unable to accept the official Labour
position on the issue of Trident today. "In those circumstances, notwithstanding
the fact that it is a reserved issue, I realise that it is not tenable for me to
continue as one of your ministers."

A number of questions needed to be asked of this, and the BBC Scotland reporter put them to the newly relieved MSP. He ran into a wall of spin. Chisolm refused to answer whether he had resigned of his own volition or had been forced to walk the plank by the First Minister. The SNP are of course rubbing their hands, their leader Nicola Sturgeon describes it as a "body blow".

They do warm their hands for good reason, as the Holyrood elections are just over the horizon, and on the recent spate of council elections and by-election, stand to wrest control of the Executive away from Labour. Could I suggest a conspiracy theory? Chisolm probably wanted out in any case. His seat of Edinburgh North and Leith is marginal in any case, and will come under sustained pressure from both Greens and the SNP. To hold or lose the seat in a potential opposition? Focusing on being solely a constituency MSP has its advantages with a pending election.

Finally, the White Elephant you may have forgotten about, but will be seared into memory when it starts operating. The consultative process over many years has found that the best route is from Edinburgh Airport, along the Corstorphine Road turning into Princes Street, and then turning north to finish in Leith. This sounds awfully familiar. So familiar in fact that it is duplicating most of the route taken by the Lothian Airport Bus!

Edinburgh is a bus city. I'm sure there was a campaign running a couple of years back that said something along the lines of "In Edinburgh, you're never more than 5 minutes walking from a bus stop". Busses, especially in Princes St, move huge amounts of passengers very quickly and efficiently. Introducing a tram (or light rail as some call it) would impede on the progress of the many busses that use Princes St, as a minimum benefit to those on the tram. Melbourne was designed to have trams running, and still has them to this day. They are a central part of the transport system alongside busses and trains. The integration of the two systems will be the real key. Busses are far more maneovarable than Trams, that are necessarily bound by the tracks they travel on.

Given the proposed route, this looks like a tourism drive, something extra aimed at the arriving visitor. Maybe it's also the City of Edinburgh council looking to compete with other European cities by showcasing its Light Rail. Monorail scams anyone? So Kenny McAskill (SNP) and an Edinburgh Councillor had a go at each other, it was really quite vicious.