Leader: Could this be the man to put trams back on track?

IT IS a major infrastructure project, a complicated and controversial scheme costing millions of pounds. You know what is coming next: budget problems, scandals and appeals for more government money?

Actually, no, not in the case of the Royal Museum building in Edinburgh, where a series of significant donations for the overhaul of the Victorian-era masterpiece has resulted in a public appeal raising 13.6 million - 1m more than the official target. And who is the genius behind this phenomenon? Step forward Sir Angus Grossart, doyen of the capital's financial fraternity and chairman of the National Museums of Scotland board of trustees.

Those who pay attention to such matters will have spotted this is the same Sir Angus who chairs the Scottish Futures Trust, set up by the Scottish Government to fund, well, major infrastructure projects and replace private finance initiative (PFI) funding.

So if Sir Angus can find an extra million on a budget of 14m, he must be able to find several hundred millions for, say, the Edinburgh trams, or road repairs, or school buildings.

Perhaps we can drop the elaborate financial formulae the SFT loves and just get Sir Angus to fund-raise instead. If he can pull it off we could name the first tram after him.