Extension should be seen within renewed context

Published on Sunday 27 January 2008 21:01

THE plan to join the M74 and the M8 motorways through a new link across south Glasgow has always looked appealing on paper. But for several decades the scheme has been a political bone of contention.

In the Green corner, environmentalists see the M74 extension as surrender to the road lobby and a charter for increased emissions. Local community groups in the South Side think the five-mile roadway on stilts will turn their part of Glasgow into a concrete jungle. Even those on the right who usually consider environmental politics as a minor form of lunacy are appalled by the 500 million price take for such a short stretch of motorway.

In the opposing camp, much of Scottish business considers the project vital to improving Scotland's rickety transport infrastructure. Glasgow council has long supported the M74 extension as the key to the economic regeneration of the southern part of the city – a view now reinforced by the prospect of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Both the previous Labour-Lib Dem administration and the new SNP government have viewed the plan as emblematic of their support for economic growth.

With the battle lines drawn in such stark terms, there seems little chance of compromise. This explains the determination of the Green Party in the Scottish Parliament to do everything in its power to kill off the M74 extension. The main reason why the two Green MSPs refused to vote for the SNP budget last week was because it contained cash for the project. Now the Greens have gone one better – they have accused the Scottish Government of breaching EU tendering and competition rules when issuing the contract for the M74 extension. If the EU Commission agrees, construction will be delayed – possibly aborted.

The basis of the Green's claims of anti-competitive behaviour are worthy but not necessarily correct. With so much of the UK construction industry tied up with the London Olympics, there is not in fact that much competition around. The Commission may accept the argument that the Scottish Government – in trying to bring builders together to complete the M74 extension quickly and for a reasonable fee – is not seeking to flout the competition rules. However, this argument is secondary to the fact that the referral is likely to cause further delay and a further rise in costs. Are the Greens concerned with promoting genuine competition or are they just looking for another excuse to cause mischief?

On balance, the case for the M74 extension is a reasonable one, provided every effort is made to limit any negative impact on the local community. The argument for a reduction in car usage – which The Scotsman supports – does not mean a blanket opposition to all new roadbuilding. Indeed, by appearing to block sensible improvements to Scotland's infrastructure – such as the M74 extension and a new Forth road crossing – the environmental lobby risks marginalising itself and looking Luddite.

Mongrels are top dogs

A SCIENTIST at Aberdeen University has discovered that mongrel dogs appear to be cleverer than pedigree breeds. Of course it is important that science goes out of its way to prove the obvious. We should not believe anything on the basis of sheer intuition or received wisdom.

The fact that for thousands of years, in-breeding and a restricted gene pool has tended to exaggerate all the worst characteristics of any breed – particularly humans – should not be taken aT face value. Nor should we necessarily want to believe our eyes that wily mongrel dogs, living on their wits and improving their gene pool with chance encounters with pedigree types, seem to survive better in the evolutionary stakes. No, experimental proof is always good.

Sadly, despite this new scientific validation of their brains and prowess, mongrel and crossbreed dogs still suffer from bad publicity. The "pedigrees" are lauded as proper dogs, no matter how silly they look. Meanwhile, your average loyal, hard-working mutt lives under the stigma of not belonging to the right (kennel) club or having a name like Oakington Puckshill Amber Sunblush (Crufts, 1966), Burtonswood Bossy Boots (1974), or Hendrawen's Nibelung of Charavigne (1969). Anywhere else this would be called racism. So why not create a pedigree for mongrels. Then everyone's pet can be top dog.

Artefacts are not cultural pawns

BY DEFINITION, museums exist to preserve mankind's heritage. If every museum simply looked after artefacts found within a three-mile radius of its front door, few museums would have the resources to do their job. So there is a commonsense argument for accepting that some museums will be repositories of artefacts from around the world, and that we should resist the populist call to break up these wonderful collections and send them back to their points of origin. Besides, in these days of cheap air travel, most great museums are within easy reach of most people.

However, that said, there are important artefacts that deserve to be held in their place of origin. The so-called Elgin Marbles are a prominent part of an existing building – the Acropolis in Athens. There is a very sound argument for saying they should be returned from the British Museum to be reunited with the building they were expressly designed to decorate.

A similar case can be made for the Lewis Chessmen, 82 of which are in the British Museum and 11 at National Museums of Scotland in Edinburgh. It makes no scientific or cultural sense for this amazing collection to be split up and they should be reunited in Scotland whence they were discovered. There is also a strong argument for taking the chessmen back to Lewis itself, as a way of reaffirming the glories of that ancient island civilisation.