Letters: Sanctions are available for those behind tram project

SATURDAY'S article "To York Place or Bust" again issues a threat to the infrastructure contractor Bilfinger Berger to complete a section of the tram line on pain of termination. This is no more a legal instruction than TIE's failed attempt to instruct variations without first agreeing the cost.

TIE and Councillor Gordon Mackenzie have used this empty threat too many times for it to be taken seriously.

To terminate BB given that they have won most of the adjudications and especially the principle one of "no variation unless the cost is agreed by TIE" would leave Edinburgh City Council open to unrestricted damages in court and to all of the costs incurred. In terminating the BB contract TIE would simultaneously terminate Siemens and CAFF, the tram vehicle supplier.

This would leave the council and TIE defending an action that they could not possibly win. By their actions they would also put the project into an indeterminate suspension, whereby no other contractor would be able to complete the project or build any part of it.

This may suit those in TIE that think that it would prolong their already overdue departure, believing that if it goes to court their services become even more invaluable.

Surcharging local councillors and officials was repealed in 2000 but there is still considerable sanction available to hold those offending officers to task. The ultimate sanction should be that the councillors and full time officials involved in this monumentally bad decision should be reported to the Accounts Commission for the Commission to enforce sanctions available to them of censure, suspension and disqualification for the financial implication of this decision.

Given that some of these officials have political ambitions and some or all the prospect of looking for new employers, disqualification and suspension might not look too good on their election papers or CVs.

John R T Carson, Kirkliston Road, South Queensferry

STV doesn't care about its viewers

I READ with interest Gareth Edwards' review of U Be Dead (News, September 6). He pointed out that STV aren't even showing it but advised we text complaints to STV bosses.

I've e-mailed them several times about the amount of programmes that their bosses have decided we in Scotland don't want to watch.

They don't care, they've decided that we need to watch more home-grown programmes, although they're happy to buy movies when the rest of the UK is getting all the new dramas. This week alone they've decided we won't be watching Bouquet of Barbed Wire, Law & Order UK, U Be Dead and Midsomer Murders!

Karen Wilson, Edinburgh

Independence will have its day

I FAIL to be moved by the First Minister's outrage at the blocking of an independence referendum bill by the Unionist political parties – it's what Unionist parties do.

However, Mr Salmond's grandstanding does not alter the fact that one day – next May, or in 100 years – an independence-driven party will win a working majority.

That will be the referendum, and independence will follow. This has been a mathematical inevitability from the moment the Devolution Bill was signed.

The odds may be against such an outcome today, but I suspect that it won't be too many years before bookies are taking bets on Scottish independence – if they aren't already.

David Fiddimore, Calton Road, Edinburgh

A Journey to the darker shelves

TONY Blair's TV appearances to promote his book suggest he remains out of touch with the majority of the population who are outraged at the suffering, loss of human life and waste of resources that have characterised his military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In bookshops around the country 'A Journey' seems to be migrating from the Biography shelves to Crime, Fantasy and Horror, suggesting the reading public has a stronger grip on reality than Mr Blair.

Pete Cannell, Joppa Road, Edinburgh